Day 58: Auckland, NZ

Auckland skyline

We arrived in New Zealand a day early due to Typhoon Alfred spinning off the coast of north Australia. Sailing into Auckland, the seas were eerily calm. The calm before the storm perhaps? The port was right in the middle of the downtown area.

Even though a lot of Kiwis warned us about the rise in crime in Auckland, we found it to be a very clean city, somewhat reminiscent of Vancouver, BC. Jessica was feeling the return of the crud, so I convinced her to down some Mucinex and go shoe shopping.

Before that though, we took a city tour and stopped at the Museum of Auckland, but they only gave us 45 minutes, which was not even close to enough time to see all of the exhibits. Our driver/tour guide was Scottish who had emigrated young to New Zealand and was interesting. He said that the Chinese came and brought their parents to watch the kids while they worked, and the would sign up for the national pension without paying into it, which has caused a lot of strain on the system. I’m surprised because the Kiwis seem to do so much right that it’s hard to believe that they screwed that up.

Here are a few images from the museum. I’m sure we could have learned a lot more given a half day.

We met a lot of students working at the shops, and it was interesting speaking to them. First impressions of New Zealand are exceptional!