Enjoying Auckland!

We started our epic trip to the South Pacific by flying from home to Auckland, New Zealand via Los Angeles. Long flight? Yes! We made the best of it and tried to look forward to the end of the flight rather than the 13+ hours in the middle :)

We were greeted upon arrival with weather that made us think of...home. Cool and damp with a little wind. Just like Seattle when we left! Our arrival at the airport was uneventful (even with the lingering anxiety that we may have missed something that needed to be declared) and we quickly found an Uber to our hotel on the waterfront.

We decided to walk around a bit to try to address jet lag and found some cool places to explore during the upcoming rainy days. A cyclone was headed our way and we knew the weather wouldn't be very pleasant before our ship's departure. Little did we know, the cyclone would change almost everything about the first half of our cruise's itinerary.

The Ferry Building anchors the Auckland waterfront.

Truth!

It was not that warm, they are just adventurous!

The Sky Tower dominates the Auckland skyline and serves as a good navigation beacon anywhere in the city.

Our friends, Ken & Karlene, arrived a later and we were eager to meet up with them. It was a wet, windy day and we spent some time exploring the New Zealand Maritime Museum that was right next to our hotel. The museum has a large range of maritime displays covering the history of the south Pacific area. The most notable display is probably the NZL-32 (Black Magic), the revolutionary sloop that famously won the 1995 America's Cup for New Zealand.

Black Magic - inside the New Zealand Maritime Museum.

Our third day n New Zealand was spent exploring Hobbiton - the iconic setting where portions of the Hobbit and Lord Of the Rings movies was filmed. The area was restored to its original condition following the LOTR filming. The current area was used for The Hobbit and the property owners decided to maintain it as a tourist attraction. We had a great time and the cloudy, rainy weather actually made it more enjoyable!

Let's explore Hobbiton!

Hobbiton.

Inside one of the Hobbiton houses. Most of the houses were actually just a door and front of the house for movie purposes. There were only a few that had an inside area.

A cloudy day kind of adds to the mood.

This should look familiar to avid Hobbit movie fans :)

Our final full day in Auckland was spent enjoying Waiheke Island and its many wineries. We caught a ferry over in the morning and used the hop on/hop off bus ot get around. Wine tasting started before lunch and continued throughout the day! This was the best weather day of the trip so far and a wonderful day to spend exploring the island.