We arrived in Auckland Saturday (Oct 20) around 5:30 AM after a 14 hr 50 min flight leaving Houston Thursday at night, traveling all night and arriving Saturday in the dark after crossing the International Date Line. A LONG flight.

Trying ward off the time difference, we walked all day seeing sights in Auckland. We started at the Auckland Domain, 0.5 sq mile urban park developed in one of the 14 volcanic craters in the Auckland area. Extremely well done including two arboretums, one temperate, one tropical, and some very pleasant walking trails. We then took in the Auckland Art Museum - smallish, modest collection including some Maori art. After 8 hours of roaming and dinner we retired for the evening to let our bodies recuperate.

Monday was a bit of a slow down and recuperate day. After a late start, we opted for the local hop on-hop off bus to get a better feel for Auckland. We got off at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, which was built in 1929 to commemorate the end of WWI. The Cenotaph facade at one end is reminiscent of the Greek buildings NZ sailors and soldiers could see from their ships off the coast of Greece. The museum houses a number of collections but most impressive was the main floor exhibit featuring Maori cultural artifacts. Very impressive. Equally impressive, but somewhat sobering was the field of crosses commemorating the 18,000+ NZ soldiers that died in WWI. Considering NZ has a population of 4.5 million today, that was a massive loss a hundred years ago. Our other stop was the 328 m Sky Tower, the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere. It offered impressive overviews of Auckland, home to 1.4 million people. A relaxing day.

One interesting factoid on New Zealand is that today, Monday, is New Zealand’s Labor Day. In the US businesses welcome to opportunity to run a sale on a holiday. In NZ, many businesses close for the holiday and those that stay open, especially restaurants, add a 15% holiday surcharge to the bill.

Tuesday, we participated in an afternoon walking tour of downtown Auckland that also featured samplings of NZ cheese, ice cream, chocolate and scones. The history of the area was also described.

NZ sits on the Pacific rim and contains 50 dormant volcanoes, 14 of which are in the Auckland area. The Maori started migrating to NZ around 1300 from Polynesia and established a thriving community. In the late 1700’s Europeans began to frequent the island and set up settlements. After a number of skirmishes, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Queen of England and 50 Maori chiefs. Coexistence has been pretty much the norm ever since. NZ is very much an egalitarian society with no caste system, and little, but some, distinctions based on wealth. New Zealanders are proud of their integrated society and have high regard for the 1840 treaty. Today Maori is recognized as an official second language and is widely seen in public signage. It is a required subject in public schooling. NZ was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote in 1892. There is a state-supported health system and a liberal welfare system. The Auckland waterfront is actually built on reclaimed land and extends back several blocks into the city. A very nice city.