Auckland, New Zealand to Singapore

Today was a travel day. We left our hotel in Auckland about 7 am. Our flight left Auckland at 10:30. We flew on Air New Zealand. It was a ten hour flight. We had absolutely wonderful food and service. In fact it might well have been the best flight I have ever had.

Our Air New Zealand Plane

There is a four hour time change between Auckland and Singapore so it’s midnight in Auckland now and only 8 P.M here in Singapore. We are trying to stay up for hopefully a couple more hours

Here we are over Queensland.

It’s very hazy here in Singapore but it looks like a beautiful city.

The view from our room.

Pauanui to Auckland

Today is our last full day in New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly to Singapore. It rained almost all night last night, but we woke up to clearing skies this morning. After a great breakfast at the Grand Mercure Puka Park Resort we checked out and drove to the Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Center. We walked through the bird sanctuary and saw thousands of of fascinating birds. Some of the migrating birds here migrate all the way from Siberia and Alaska.

We saw thousands of birds
It was a beautiful day and a nice place to walk
What we call a blind they call a hide. Here’s Duke checking out the birds from the hide.

Tonight we are in Auckland. We plan to leave for the airport about 7 tomorrow morning.

Our hotel in Auckland is very near the water so we went out for a walk.

Pauanui, Day 2

This morning we went for a walk on the beach near here.

Our hotel, the Grand Mercure Puka Park Resort is on the hill in the background. You can’t see it because of all the vegetation.

We had a very relaxing day reading and taking it easy. This afternoon we went back to the beach and recorded our car review video. I’ll publish it in the next few days.

Last night we had a very good dinner at Mina Restaurant here where we are staying. So tonight we ate there again. It is nice not to have to drive anywhere.

We had sticky toffee pudding for desert.

Tomorrow we drive to Auckland and Saturday we fly to Singapore.

Taupō to Pauanui

This morning before we left Hilltop Whakaipo Estate, Peter showed us around their farm. He raises sheep, deer, and cows for the meat. He also harvests his own hay for when the grass in the pastures isn’t enough.

As a kid Duke raised sheep, so he and Peter were able to compare how it was done in the 1960s in Iowa and how it is done in New Zealand now
Feeding the deer
This is their oldest male deer. He is 8.

About 10 am we packed up and headed north. We stopped a couple of times to stretch. About 2 we arrived in Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula.

One of our rest stops was near the area where Captain Cook first landed in 1769.

Țaupō, Day 2

This morning we hiked to Huka Falls. Round trip the hike was about 3 miles. It was a wonderful hike. We saw interesting birds and vegetation.

Huka Falls
The rapids leading to the falls
On the trail

For dinner we ate at a restaurant overlooking the lake, called Waterside, in Taupō,. We started with prawns and mussels and then shared an order of fish and chips. It was all very good.

Taupō, where we ate tonight and last night is about a 20 minute drive from Hilltop Whakaipo Estate where we are staying.

Prawns
Mussels