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 We arrived in Auckland after a pleasant flight from Fiji. Fast
tailwinds got us there ahead of schedule, a new experience for us on this trip. We made it through customs and immigration and avoided any quarantine problems (see our report on the last
night in Fiji). After renting our car, we took off for our first accommodations - the Hotel du Vin, which was located 40 minutes to the south of Auckland.
 This was our first experience driving on the left side of the road
(not the "wrong side" you American isolationists) but it was not too bad a problem as the initial part of the drive was on divided lane expressways. The main challenge was to remember which
way to go through roundabouts and to sort out the right way to make turns. As the roads got narrower, it became a little more challenging which made us happy that we had not had some of the
free liquor on the plane. The real excitement came later in the trip when we found that part of the local custom was to turn 2 lane roads into 3 lane ones for passing with the slow vehicle on
your side moving onto the shoulder and the oncoming cars doing the same thing to permit passing. It involves a lot of faith and a strong stomach when the parties are going at each other
at 100 km per hour or more! We found out later that there is a high accident rate, which is understandable.
 The Hotel du Vin is a pleasant resort attached to the de
Redcliffe vineyards which is a medium sized winery serving the mid priced market. It has a well-known restaurant attached to it and appeared to serve the weekend escape crowd from Auckland
as well as corporate retreat clients.  The rooms were very large
and well appointed and a welcome contrast to Fiji. We spent the afternoon settling in and were pleased to be invited to a wine tasting held that evening by the General Manager. We enjoyed
the wines and he gave us a good introduction to the wine business in New Zealand. It was also a pleasant diversion to the fact that it had started to rain heavily! We had a pleasant dinner at the
restaurant and were grateful that each room came with a large umbrella since it was a decent walk to the main building.
 We woke up the next morning to bright sunshine, which was
welcome since that was the one day we had reserved for a visit to Auckland. We drove back to the city and parked under the Skytower, the observation tower that dominates the Auckland
skyline as you can see from our photos of the city. We went off to explore the city starting with the Victorian market, which has lots of local crafts. Once again Arnie indulged himself and we
also got a few things for family and ourselves. From there we walked to the waterfront.
The waterfront was still decorated for the America's Cup yacht races, which had ended three weeks before our arrival with the Kiwi's beating the Yanks again.  We were reminded of this several times when the locals heard our accents (although we think they have the accents!). It seems
that winning yacht races, losing rugby games, and counting sheep are the main preoccupations in New Zealand. Anyhow, the harbor area was interesting and we got to see some really expensive
boats. You know, the type whose annual maintenance costs are more than most people earn in a lifetime.
 We also saw the Antarctic Explorer ship run by the Cousteau
Society. It seems to be based there but it is registered in London according to the lettering on the boat. I guess the New Zealanders are still upset about the French commandos sinking
the Greenpeace ship in their harbor and the unannounced nuclear tests up north so it would not be wise for the Cousteaus to admit
that they're French. Anyhow, enough international politics, back to our explorations of Auckland.
  Arnie flirted with a waitress and got us a good table overlooking the harbor for lunch. He is very helpful that
way. After lunch we explored the area more and he examined some of the Maori statues in the America's cup area. Since this is a family oriented web page we will only
show the distant photos but Arnie was very interested in the anatomically correct statues. (Ed. Note: no, Larry was trying to corrupt the bear. Again.) Perhaps we can open a
pay per view section here and start to make some money off of this endeavor!
 We went back up the hill to visit the tower and were upset to find
that they had just closed it unannounced. Since the thing anchors a 24 per day casino and it is normally open day and night, we were upset to find that we could
not go up the tower and view the city on this bright sunny day, a rarity for us, as we would soon find. However, Arnie did get a chance to do his King Kong act on a
smaller version of the tower and that was probably more fun anyhow.
We drove back down to the Hotel du Vin as the rains started again and had a pleasant dinner even though we were served by a waiter who had flunked out of the
"how to provide minimal service to your customers" school. (Ed. Note: as an example, our wine glasses were empty. The six bimbos at the next table were
playing a combination game of musical chairs and "how many bimbos can fit in the Ladies Room?" The waiter enjoyed helping them with their chairs. After ten
minutes with empty wine glasses (we timed him) he watched Gisèle pick up and move the wine bucket and stand to a spot where we could serve ourselves. Then he went over and helped another bimbo with her chair.)
We got packed and started our driving tour of the North Island. Did we mention it was raining?
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