Back to civilization?? Auckland, New Zealand

Beautiful skyline & Sky Tower in Auckland, NZ

Ok, it is apparent that LeRoy has been having too much fun living this journey rather than blogging about it.  It is true.  I am currently sitting at our desk, looking out at an ocean that is churning rather lively, trying to figure out how to tell you about how great this trip is.  How we have come across the Pacific ocean visiting little island paradise after little island paradise; now coming into Auckland where we experience a little culture shock since it is more of what I would call westernized civilization.  Yet even here, the ancient Maori people's influences reach deep into the culture.  In fact, it is the culture here.  New Zealand is a fairly new country with most of its history only reaching back to the early 1800's.  There were people here before that but not in great numbers.

Maori board the Amsterdam!

Auckland is a large, beautiful, clean city.   It has a beautiful skyline anchored with the Sky Tower. It has about 1.8 million people living here and is New Zealand's largest city.   New Zealand has about 4.5 million folks so you can see that Auckland is a major hub.  It is located on the north part of the upper island.  Boats are everywhere.  All different types.  Our tour driver said that he thought about one in fifteen people have a boat.  That amounts to about 300,000 boats when you do the math.

Home of America's Cup 2021

Anyway, after a night of the worst seas we had yet encountered, with crossswinds of about 55 knots, we go to bed, having to lash ourselves to the mattresses to keep from being thrown out of our staterooms, out over the rails and into the feisty seas.  The next morning, we come into port, we wake up and the sun comes out.  It offers us perfect weather, as if to say, get up, go see something new and fun....so we did.

Today's tour takes us thru the city on a bus, over the big bay bridge over to Devonport and the North Shore area.   Wow and wow!

Quaint, charming, welcoming, expensive...all good adjectives to describe it. This is definitely a destination area and not a resort type area.   The beaches here are big, wide and very clean and beautiful.   Surfers have plenty to keep them busy here too.   Several big surfing tournaments call New Zealand home.  Outer islands, shoals, reefs and atolls, make sailing a challenge here but these people obviously have some salt water in their veins as they do an amazing job of navigating around each other.   Ferries take you around and over and thru the bays and waterways here like we would drive ourselves around in our cars.  Auckland is undergoing tremendous growth and with that growth comes the normal infra-structure growing pains that we all know and love.

Vialula and I are part of a smaller group here.   It is made up of about 230 folks who used the same travel agency.   It is called Cruise Specialists, and they are out of Seattle.   Now, this is not a commercial for them but please check them out should you be interested.  Anyway, this agency has three hosts which travel with us on the boat and this particular tour was hosted by two of them.   I only mention this to introduce you to two of the hosts.   Steve and Wendy.  I will leave their last names off to protect the innocent.   Anyway, they are avid geo-cacher's.  Maybe some of you have heard of this or have known someone who did this.    I will try to explain this hobby but I guess the easiest way to call it an adult scavenger hunting quest.   Now don't go reading anything into the word "adult".   What I mean is that it is more suited for older folks, but any age enjoys it.  It is a fairly new hobby, about 15 years old, I think.  It has it's own registry, apps, rules, etc. 

1.  Finding first Geocache     2.  the clue, "spewing fish"     3. statue didn't tell all!       

Basically, people "hide" small containers of different types all around the world.   Geo-cache folks go around the world and "find" these hidden caches and enter their names and dates on the logs inside the containers.  They log their finds onto the websites and apps, etc to verify their finds.   Steve and Wendy currently have over 10,000 finds.   Me and Vialula now have 2.  Now you may ask how do you find these little hidden treasures.   Good question.   Can you say G.P.S.?  Hand held GPS devices, or smart phones lead you along the ways but you have to fine the cache once you are close.   Some are easy finds, and some are downright diabolically fiendishly hidden with math problems or riddles or even just another clue to keep the search going.   On our particular search with them, we only found two of the four we were looking for.    There are currently over 3 million caches hidden around worldwide so it isn't going away.   It is only getting bigger.  Like anything else,  the search and the hiding of said caches has it set of rules so that everyone is on the same playing field.  For example, no cache can be within 528 feet of another cache.  Another rule is that whoever hides a cache must be the one to keep it up and take care of it.   There are more, so look into it.   LeRoy and Vialula figure it will be something they can get into once the boat gets home and they get into their land yacht to see some of the good ole USA.   Now, I have explained this fun thing very basically.   If it sounds at all interesting to you then look into it on your own.   One thing I almost guarantee is that there is a cache within 5 miles of anyone who might be reading this blog.   It would be a good way to start.   Just look around your own area and start learning how to locate them.

Well, enough for now.  Be it known that Vialula and I both loved Auckland and Tauraunga, which Vi will talk about in our next post.  Until then, y'all take care and take of each other.  Talk to you all soon.

LeRoy