Daryl left for home.
I stayed.
I flew off for four more days in Auckland. Back home I had decided it would be wise for me to find a hotel that was centrally located in Auckland. What I selected indeed met that criterion; it was also the essence of luxury. I booked a room in the Hilton Hotel, which juts out into the Auckland harbor. My balcony faced the picturesque boat harbor; the view was spectacular. I could watch the brilliant lights of the skyline at night, and in the daylight I could count endless numbers of boats passing almost at my feet on their way out of the harbor. This view alone incited me to take three great harbor tours.
Auckland is called the City of Sails for good reason. Each day I spent a half day taking different harbor tours. I could easily plan last-minute excursions since I could just run down to the end of the dock and hop a boat. The Fuller Harbor Cruise Company transported me all over the Auckland harbor-- under the bridge where the bungy jumpers jump off a ramp into open air, past the marinas where eye-popping million-dollar America’s Cup yachts are now moored, and out beyond the many tiny islands that dot the harbor.
When I wasn’t on a boat, I wandered along the walks, parks, gardens and sidewalk cafes fringing the harbor. I revisited the impressive Auckland Museum where four years before I had learned about Maori life from the splendid artifacts and exhibits displayed there. I found the free city bus and circled the downtown sector several times. I sat in the nearby plaza watching the world go by while I ate my picnic lunch. Squeezing in another ferryboat ride, on the final day I rode over to Devonport. I enjoyed my last afternoon in New Zealand wandering through quaint boutiques and second-hand bookstores on the picturesque island.
My four days of leisure and luxury ended, I was ready to take the dreaded 20- hour trip home—Auckland to San Francisco to D.C.
My most vivid memories of New Zealand center on winding two-lane roads, snow-capped mountains, solitary windswept beaches, and primeval rain forests. But most of all I recall the simplicity and kindness of New Zealand people. This visit was like going back to a kinder, dare I say gentler time in America. I hope to some day recapture that time by returning to the Land of the Long White Cloud.
