Apr 28th: Auckland Friends

Day 25 (Day 21 in New Zealand)

Today was our one full day in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city with 1.5 million people. We had arranged to meet up with a former colleague of mine from IBM, Rachel* and her husband Danny.

We were lucky with the weather. It was a glorious, hot autumn day here in Auckland. Rachel (from Poole) and Danny (from Malta) picked us up from our hotel at 10am. 

After a drive around the major sights we parked at the bottom of Mount Eden (an extinct volcano) and walked to the top. At about 650’ above sea level it is the city’s highest point. Thanks to the weather we had glorious views all around.






A Pohutakawa (New Zealand Christmas Tree)
Covered in red flowers at Christmas (mid summer)

Walking back down the hill we stopped at a new coffee shop (only opened 3 days ago) before driving to their house for lunch. Their fabulous house is at the foot of another extinct volcano, Mt St John. It is literally at the top of their garden!

After lunch we all went for a drive around some of the posh houses (everyone likes to do that, right?) and the country’s equivalent of Eton. After seeing how the richest Kiwis live we parked at the beach for a stroll in the sunshine. 


Browns Island in Auckland Harbour

They dropped us back at our hotel later in the afternoon for an hour or two before we all met up again for a meal at a restaurant called ‘Ahi’ where we enjoyed some quite fine dining. I wish I could remember everything the waiter said about my lamb but I’ve already forgotten most of it. It was very Masterchefy but absolutely delicious.

A fantastic day with lovely people. 

* Rachel joined IBM in 1993 as a graduate. Her first job and my first employee as a manager.

Comments

  1. Anonymous29 April 2024 at 01:17

    Dennis: Not anonymous, but almost: Glad you're enjoying the grand tour, i shall not bore you with how good things are here in Blighty, suffice to say that the SNP is collapsing.......Meanwhile back in NZ, never been myself, it's on the bucket list and hope springs eternal. Enjoy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wayne29 April 2024 at 20:42

    Finally figured out how to reply with n my name. Techy reason (after RTFM). “This is because your blog (blogspot.com) and your administrative back-end (blogger.com) are on two different domains. So, cross-site tracking is necessary.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous30 April 2024 at 01:01

      Dennis Says; Well, that's exciting as Mac stuff says you should switch off cross site trackin for security reasons........Any way, i'll continue to reply with anonymously and a Prefix..

      Delete

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