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 Wow! Around 5:30 this morning, I woke up to this, the beautifully lit Auckland skyline viewed from the water as we pulled into the Auckland Harbor Harbour, but it's often referred to as Auckland Harbour |
 The time for us to leave the ship was 8:00. (Times were assigned so chaos was avoided when departing passengers picked up their luggage that was organized and staged on the pier), so we grabbed a quick final breakfast in the Horizon Bistro, then went back to our room to wait. A final picture or two from our balcony, then... |
 ...around 8:00, we left the Royal Princess for the last time, got down to the pier, picked up our luggage, and, along with hundreds of other fellow passengers, left the terminal to congregate outside and await our transportation. Now the cruise was truly over. But, being that our flight wasn't until 7:45 this evening, we had, thanks to Teresa, something planned to fill the day. |
 Teresa arranged a private tour for today to fill in the hours between leaving the ship and the time we wanted to be at the airport. The driver had some plans for us, so we just went with it, with our first stop... |
 ...here, at the Arataki Visitor Center, the gateway to the Arataki, Waitākere Ranges Regional Park, where this 36' (11m) kauri regions of New Zealand's North Island |
 Looking to the south from in front of the Visitor Center, the view was spectacular, especially with the great clouds we had today! This was set up for picture taking, though I think the message on it was more important than trying to create a cool photo op. |
 Steve and Teresa went into the center first; we followed shortly after. On the main floor in the main room, we immediately ran into these. In the back of the room, we saw this common brown kiwi and its egg. It's apparently endangered as its population steadily declining. (Entrance to the center is free, but, of course, donations to support the various natural and environmental concerns of the park are gladly accepted.) |
 From the second floor we could see this, but we didn't stay up there too long. We were headed... |
 ...into the forest for a short hike. When entering or exiting the forest, we had to clean our shoes as our guide demonstrated for us to prevent "kauri dieback in which parts are killed, either by pathogens, parasites or conditions like acid rain or drought |
 So into the forest we went for just a short hike due to time constraints (and the fact that it was uphill and pretty difficult for me). At one point, I took this picture before turning around and heading back to the bus and our waiting guide. |
 What's this? Our guide had supplied us each with a bottle of water and a bag of chips, and was now asking us if we wanted to stop somewhere and eat and then proceed on to visit a museum, or skip lunch and the museum and go climb a volcano. We opted for the volcano. (Mei-O had the feeling our guide was hungry, but we all really wanted to climb a volcano!) Next Top |
