This year we celebrated New Year’s Eve in Auckland at the iconic Sky Tower, in the rain. The 328 meter high tower lighting kept changing colors during the hour preceding midnight. Then there was the 10-second countdown. When we reached 2024, the cold fireworks emerged from the tower with a 5 minute spectacle of fireworks (yes, 5 minutes… a whole lot less than we were expecting…). There is a New Zealand law that says you can only buy fireworks between November 2-5 each year. Possibly as a result, there were very few neighborhoods shooting off rockets. Our taxi driver mentioned that New Zealanders are not much into fireworks, but there are many private parties at the local bars.
We had dinner at the Sky Tower restaurant on top of this tower, which revolves every 45 minutes. Our waiter told us there are 53 volcanos and landmarks you can spot while dining, as the restaurant turns.
Earlier on our trip, we also spent several days in Napier, where Burt tried to catch up on his photo editing. Unfortunately, the internet at the hotel was so poor that he was not able to do any blog work. Regardless, we really enjoyed exploring the Art Deco capital of New Zealand, the Port of Napier, and the local aquarium. We especially enjoyed eating at the many fine restaurants in West Quay area and seeing the colorful sunset there.
On our last day in Auckland, we visited the 40-acre Auckland Zoo, which houses some 130 species, many of which are which are only found in New Zealand. They are separated by regions. This is definitely one of the better zoo environments we have seen for displaying captive animals. The animal cages were mostly expansive for the animals. The animals seemed to really thrive, with a successful breeding program for endangered wildlife. The non-profit organization goal is to connect people with wildlife conservation science, in a way that will keep wildlife species from extinction.
The animals at the Auckland Zoo are quite diverse. We even got a chance to see the elusive Kiwi Bird, the national bird of New Zealand. We now understand why they are so hard to see in the wild. Even in captivity, the birds are kept in near total darkness, since they are nocturnal. The kiwi is a unique flightless bird endemic to New Zealand that lost its ability to fly as it evolved. It is interesting that New Zealanders call themselves Kiwis.
Even little penguins are on display (middle left). The Kea bird, another endangered species, was also displayed (left bottom), as well as the Takahẽ (right bottom).
As we have mentioned before, we enjoy going on walking tours of a city whenever we can, to learn about a city from a local. We started at the Ferry Building at the entrance of Queen’s Wharf (upper left), modeled after the Ferry Building in San Francisco. We then walked past a monument celebrating New Zealand as the first country to grant women the right to vote (lower left), past the free Auckland Art Gallery, Albert’s Park, and finished the 2-hour walk near the Auckland University crawling beneath the Pobutakawa tree (lower right). This tree is a New Zealand icon with a deep spiritual meaning for Mãori mythology. Darcy, our guide from the Auckland Free Walking Tours (top-middle and middle addressing his tour group), had a booming voice plus great story-telling ability, and was able to keep a group of 40 tourists together, after his mate called in sick on New Year’s Eve.
Enroute along the walking tour, we saw the iconic Sky Tower (left and right) witnessing the wild free-fall jump down the side of the tower, parks, boats in the harbor (bottom-center and right) and learned about the history of the city.
Auckland also has quite a bit of street art. There is even a virtual street art guide to help you find the various murals and statues in the city.
Next, we will be flying back to Hawaii. We will only be home for 2 days, then off again. This time to the Big Island (confusingly also called Hawaii) for our nephew’s wedding reception.