Auckland 19th March - 23rd March

Sooooo, I got a taxi at 3.30am to the airport, lovely, mmmm, but you’re jealous of that. Here they have these weird taxi receipts from work so I just gave them one of those and they printed off a receipt then work pay for it and I don’t have to dish out any cash, ace eh! Melbourne airport at that time in the morning was dead. Has visa worry where bloomin’ smile’s fraud department put a hold on my cards…had to call them up to tell them to unblock – annoying as I’d already written to them to say I’m away in Australia for four months…grr…luckily was sorted by Auckland side…so I could actually catch a taxi/pay for my hotel, that sort of thing. Once arriving in Auckland I got nabbed by a Beagle, twice, because my breakfast that early in the morning had consisted of some strawberries, a tangerine and a yoghurt…but one of the strawberries had fallen to the bottom of the bag uneaten…so cool…dogs that are there to sniff out fruit instead of drugs, much cuter! Though I was a bit scared I guess for being caught, for fruit, not for drugs obviously…but no fines luckily. I'd feel quite hardcore to get caught for fruit though...Got the airport shuttle other end over to the Langham in Auckland. Cost me $60 NZ dollars which ain’t bad: http://auckland.langhamhotels.co.nz/en/

Went for a wander and to see Ponsonby road, which was meant to be one of the ‘cool’ parts of Auckland…decided that Auckland overall just ain’t that cool, so yep, I guess it is. Big long streets with lots of very expensive clothing designery type shops and fancy restaurants. Kinda nice, but small pockets of niceness and then massive busy road to walk along inbetween. Walked a lot, but then caught the citylink bus (big green bus that goes in a circle one way and the other way around the city). I got on it on the longer route round to get back to the hotel, but it meant I got to see a bit more of the city and noticed Parnell and Haymarket as places I wish I’d gone to in the place of Ponsonby road. When I got back to the hotel, took advantage of the lovely outdoor pool (bit chilly out until you were in the water mind!) and Jacuzzi, steam room, sauna etc, luuuurrvly. Then booked myself in to the Barolo restaurant, table for one, got dressed up and it was lush velvet cosy seating, so settled down to write my diary whilst waiting for food to arrive. Had Sage crusted rack of lamb, ratatouille and thyme and garlic potatoes with Pinot Noir, Camshorn 2007, Waipara followed by a poached pear with chocolate mouse/cake and mannuka honey ice cream. Lovely…also topped off by a guy in the lift saying my outfit was lovely, really elegant…ACE!

On the Saturday I overslept a little, damnit! They put those mental blinds down so I didn’t realise it was sunny daylight outside, so had to rush to go and get my Rangitoto Island explorer tour…(http://www.fullers.co.nz/ or http://www.rangitoto.org/) - so shoulda gone for the wine tour…) it was all rather daft…took the ferry over, which was fun, then went on a tractor carting a load of us up closer to the summit of the 600 year old extinct volcano. Impressive views… but the Island apparently has lots of rare wildlife which I might have liked the opportunity to see…but I think the great big hunk of a tractor and trailer probably scared any of it away, or rolled over it…lots and LOTS of volcanic rock…and I know I was silly to assume I’d be staring down in to the bubbling lava pit…but well, the bird's nest and tree growing in the crater amongst all the other foliage was a bit disappointing. So yep, do the wine tour if you go…or walk it rather than do the explorer tour to increase the chance of interesting wildlife sightings! After this I headed back to the hotel, via some shops on the main high street and got dressed to go out and watch a play called ‘That Face’ which was pretty good.

Sunday, a restful sort of day, a bit of wandering the shops and a walk over to Parnell, quite a long walk from town centre up the various random hilly inclines, very hilly place it is, I tried to capture this in photos, but it was difficile to show it. In the afternoon I had a pedicure at the hotel where the Brit (of course) who was doing the pedicure slagged off Auckland to me, was inclined to agree with her on it mostly.

Monday and Tuesday were work days, we received traditional Moari welcomes at the beginning of the meetings and in several of the addresses for the beginnings of talks which was cool. The evening we had cool dancing too (in the Fale Pasifika venue (www.nzwood.co.nz/story/use/case_studies/wood_use_in_new_zealand), my boss also encouraged some dancing which was fun…there was also beautiful shell pieces on the tables which all us ladies got busy with making patterns with and popping in our handbags…and I declared it at customs with no problems.