Day 30 – 32 April 29 2025 – May 1 2025 – Auckland

Leave a Comment / New Zealand / By Howard Lasser

Auckland is our last stop in New Zealand. I am putting the three days here into one post to try to catch up.

Day 30 - April 29, 2025

Our guide for the day, Donna, was of Māori heritage and gave us a lot of background on the history of the people in this area. According to Māori legend, the North Island was pulled from the sea by Maui. They first set foot in New Zealand in the 1300’s here in the bay near where Auckland now stands. When the English came to New Zealand in the early 19^th century, they pushed the tribes further inland.

Our first stop was at a monument to Michael Joseph Savage, first Labor Prime Minister. The monument was on grounds belonging to the Māori. They agreed to have it here because he had advanced the interests of the Māori people while in office.

We headed to the Museum for a performance and explanation of Māori customs. Afterwords we toured the museum where they had a life size model of the Moa, a bird that was hunted to extinction 600 years ago.

We then walked through the Winter Garden where there were some beautiful flowers in bloom.

After a brief stop for lunch, we headed to the top of Mt. Edna for some views of the city.

Our next stop took us to a nature reserve outside the city for some fantastic views of the bay. Then we hiked down a path to a waterfall in the woods. Then back to our hotel.

Day 31 - April 30, 2025

This morning, we met our guide, Phil Parker, for a food and wine tour. We met Phil six years ago when we were last in Auckland. He had taken us on a wine tour then. His motto was “diving people to drink since 2006”.

We started of at a little café for some coffee, then to a Sri Lanken café for a pastry. Our next stop was a specialty food store where we decided since we were having lunch out we would not want too much for diner, so we got some cheeses and some Sorano ham and pate and crackers to have as supper.

Then off to a winery for some very good wines. Soljans Estate is founded by a Croation family. We started with sparkling wine and then moved onto some of their whites and finished with a port. We heard in the back some load bangs like a gun going off. We checked it out and they were discouraging and corking the sparkling wine. It was fascinating to watch.

Then we were off to Kumeu River for some more wine. Here they specialize in their Chardenay.

Day 32 - May 1, 2025 - Art ahd Heritage

Today was an art and heritage tour. We started at the Art Museum for a private tour before the museum opened. Our guide took us through to see works by modern New Zealand artists and their interpretations of Māori themes. We also toured the portrait gallery where there were portraits of historic Māori leaders.

Our next stop was an historic home restored to its former grandeur and currently used as a gallery and sculpture garden.

Next was lunch at a Tala, a Samoan restaurant where we were the only patrons there and they served us an eight-course tasting menu.

We walked around this artsy neighborhood and then headed back downtown for a brief walk around the area of our hotel. We are not far from the waterfront. This filled with new and high end shopping was redeveloped not long ago.

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