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January 2025 (Part 04)

New Zealand Trip - Day Three: Aukland

Adventures By Disney - Day Two: Auklandish

A jam-packed and busy first day featuring culture, adventure, new friends, and the one-of-a-kind experiences that led us to embark on our fourth trip now with ABD.

After breakfast at the hotel, we started the morning with a cooking class and lunch at the Main Course Cooking School, across from Victoria Park and only a couple blocks from the hotel.  The main chef, an ex-pat from California, showed us how to make a lamb dish with several sides.  We were divided into three stations, each making part of the group meal.  We each prepared our individual pavlova from prepared meringue.

Glad Tiffany took a bunch of pictures of everyone.

Had to record the ingredients to the standard and iconic Kiwi dip.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. had a couple quick minutes then regrouped on the wharf.  It was a beautiful day, so we might as well stop for pictures.

 We then walked along the pier to take a sail through Waitemata Harbor, the ocean-front for the "City of Sails" on one of the New Zealand boats used in an America's Cup campaign.  They had two boats used by New Zealand as training boats for the 2003 defense in Aukland.  Apparently, the boat we were on had been bought from the German syndicate where it was used for the competition in Valencia, Spain, and was rechristened as NZL-68.  The only real modifications they made were to add a motor and install rails to help keep people in the boat.  The mast and boom were original carbon fiber, as were the helm wheels.  Glad it was a bigger boat to hold all of our group.

We were soon underway with skipper Luke and crew.

Time to raise the sails.  They quickly asked for volunteers, with Andy and several of the men near the front helping out.

They eventually asked who wanted to take the helm, yep, Steve was up quickly and having a ball.  For a huge boat, it had a surprisingly agile helm and really wanted to head up. (really disappointed that the GoPro video Steve thought he captured was done with the wrong settings and didn't actually capture a video ... uggh).

This was just amazing, especially for Steve.  The only real complaint was that once they got people to help with the grinders for the winches to help tack the boat, they never really swapped out people, so some who might have helped didn't get a good chance.  Steve and Andy wound up helping for most of the sail.

You can clearly tell that Rangitoto Island in the harbor is a volcano from the one image below.

The Waitemata Harbor was beautiful, full of wind and relatively smoother water as it was pretty protected.  Even better, there were a number of boats out enjoying the beautiful day.  We headed out and north between the mainland and Ranitoto Island, where we soon found the SailGP boats and several kite-boarders each just screaming over the water.

Time to lower the sails and head in.  Unfortunately they experienced what was apparently a recurring recent problem, with the head truck getting caught.  They sent Lydia, the young gal on their crew, up the mast in a chair to get it loose and help get the sail down.

A couple quick pictures of Andy with the Aukland skyline in the background as we headed back in.

Our boat in the left, and the other bigger boat they had on the right.

We had a bit of free time after the sail, and Steve was excited to see the SailGP boats were headed into their dock.  He was able to get to the end of a pier while some where stilling coming in.  Some fun pictures of the Germans still on their foils as they came into the harbor area.

Managed to see the Italians sailing in too, but they weren't up on their foils.

They were all lined up waiting on tenders to help them come in.

Got to see several teams pass right in front of me., including the Brits, Aussies, Danes, Germans, and Italians.

There were eventually seven boats at anchor in the little inlet.

Some pretty big ships in the harbor down the quay.

We regrouped a bit later to head to the Aukland Zoo, for a private after-hours tour and dinner.

Time for some Disney magic.  As we turned a corner on our way into the zoo, we were greeted by Nettie and a troop of four Maori in traditional dress playing music and singing.  Nettie helped lead a traditional welcome song as we gathered around them.  So incredibly cool.

The ladies then performed with their poi balls, which they beat or otherwise hit against their bodies in rhythm to produce a percussive sound and beat for a dance.

Nettie then took a couple minutes to introduce everyone.  She explained that the dancers were all her relatives (sister, brother-in-law, and cousins) and part of her dance troop, which had just won a regional competition, qualifying for the national competition in a bit over a month (the Te Matatini biennial Festival which includes 55 groups this year).  She discussed the tattoos, stating women were only allowed to tattoo their chins while only certain men in a community were allowed face tattoos.  She then explained the traditional haka dance and helped lead the dance.  Here the women bugged out their eyes while the men stuck out their tongues, both looking as fierce as possible, in a prelude to battle.

From there we were off on a guided, private tour of the zoo.  Some fun Maori carvings to denote the entrance to the Te Wao Nui - The Living Realms habitat representing the wildlife unique to Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand, which means Long White Cloud and was originally tied only to the North Island, but which eventually came to mean both islands).

New Zealand has only three indigenous mammal species, all bats.  The largest animals were a couple amphibians (lizards), sea mammals like seals and sea lions, but mostly birds, and few carnivores in general.  The biggest bird was the Moa, now extinct, which was a flightless and wingless bird which grew to 12 feet in height and over 500 lbs.  The apex predator was the Haast's Eagle, which at almost 40 lbs and with a wingspan of almost 10 ft was almost twice the size of the second largest eagle known to have existed, the Harpy Eagle.  The Moa, along with the Kiwi, developed defense mechanisms by becoming nocturnal and freezing in place as the eagles eyesight depended on daylight and detecting movement.  Not a good trait for defense once carnivorous mammals were inadvertently introduced to the island.  The Maori hunted the Moa and Haast's Eagle to extinction.  The invasive rats, stoats (a weasel), possum, cats, and dogs have almost wiped out the Kiwi.

First stop was the harbor seals, and a pup needing some rehabilitation.  Next was some penguins.  I think these were the blue penguins (known as a korora to the Moari), the smallest penguin species and one which breeds and nests in burrows on the New Zealand coast.

A couple fun lizards

Our next stop was an exhibit with native longfin eels (called orea by the Maori).  There was a zookeeper waiting for our two groups at the exhibit who was rather passionate and excited, giving us all food and warning us not to get bit as the eels would be rather aggressive in getting the pellets.  He also discussed that the eels, although found in most streams, actually migrated to the ocean and all the way to Tonga to breed at the end of their lives, with the young managing to return and climb through streams and lakes to propagate across the islands.  They are common enough to have been an important food source for the Maori.

The last area was an aviary with some of the indigenous birds

The kea, a large, green parrot found in the alpine and forest regions of the South Island was fun.  They were rather large and known to make mischief, including breaking into vehicles to steal what they could find.

Too bad it was starting to get dark, as the pictures were rather under-exposed.

As we started making our way out, we passed a tiger perched high on a rock and roaring ... didn't know they roared, not quite like a lion, but still.

We made our way to the Old Elephant House (built in 1922, and something of a throw-back building with a lot of tile), which had been converted in a restaurant and where dinner was waiting for us.

A wonderful moonrise over the harbor that night.