Awright Auckland

Flight from Sydney to Auckland was just under three hours, good service by Qantas as always, and NZ didn't feel all that different, except for temperature - from 25 to 15C. The people here are also friendly and relaxed. The air, water and weather in Auckland was much like Sydney - a bit more wind and clouds. We had two days there, stayed at a charming hotel, they'll cheerfully carry the suitcases to the fourth floor and back down when you leave, good things since there's no elevator. Clean small rooms, no AC which was ok now in springtime, really happy about the shower. Very good food - fries, burger, more fried food, salad, was what I had - at the hotel restaurant, my BBQ sauce evaporated.

Second day we got a bus tour of the city. Lots of shore, islands, bridges. Lovely. Heard lots about the prices in Auckland - try 6 million NOK and up for a 3-bedroom place. Yes in the surburbs too, and 40% capital requirement. Also the NZ medium wage is maybe 80% of Norway. This all according to our tour guide. Prices for food and so on are about the same as home, we've noticed ourselves. Norway isn't so expensive after all! Auckland is expected to go from 1.5 to 2 million people during the next 10 years. Experienced builders are much in need there, cranes and construction all over the place, and frantic work on subway system and airport train connection. Lots of small hills!

Then onto the ferry for a wine tasting tour of Waiheke Island, three boutique vineyards. http://www.mudbrick.co.nz/  http://cablebay.nz/ http://www.tewhau.co.nz/
Stunning views and nice wines, you will probably not find these outside of NZ since they are small vinyards. All we tasted was good, I'm getting to like Shiraz more every time. The very best was a blend of other things: at Te Whau we were privileged to taste 2014 The Point, then 2013 of the same. If I'd been going straight home I'd bought some of the 2013, it was 85 NZD but worth it! We were told all vineyards of Waiheke made great wines in 2013, but not so good in 2011 - Te Whau only produced something they named Petit Point :)

Mudbrick showed us the vines and gave us three different wines, Cable Bay some cellars and four, Te Whau compared years. Very nicely set up by http://www.intercity.co.nz/

Mudbrick view

Cable Bay

The Point

Te Whau view

Mudbrick guide

Next day we picked up our rental car and with shaking nerves made our way out on the "wrong" side of the road. The Toyota from Avis is a lovely car, GPS works well, and we made our way to next stop with no worse than a slight scare or two. More on this next time:

Games: Looks very much like 9th division again for Wordfeud. My focus is not working - signing out of the league for now.