Feb-April 2011 New Zealand Week 1 part 2

Maori Meeting House at Auckland Museum
King Penguins at Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter
Bus to Kelly's
Downtown Auckland

We left our RV in storage in Albuquerque and flew to Maui to break up the long flight. We decided to drive the Hana Highway instead of going whale watching. (Big mistake - whale watching was at its peak!). We were surprised to find most of the waterfalls along the route were dry - not what we expected during Hawaii’s rainy season. We explored some of our favorite parks along the way and had lunch in Hana. We returned in time to catch a flight to Honolulu and from there to Auckland, New Zealand.
We checked in to the Airport Holiday Inn Express and I was excited to see that they had breakfast out. The only problem was that breakfast was an additional $20! It was clear we had definitely left the good old USA. We crashed for a few hours after the all night flight. Later we started exploring the coast on the west side of Auckland. The west coast was hilly and remote. The roads reminded me of the mountain roads in West Virginia. In addition to the beautiful scenery we saw a rare colony of gannets and the beach were “The Piano” was filmed.
We were able to trade time at our vacation property in British Columbia for a house in Auckland for a week. It was a great location where we could use public transportation to explore the sights around town. We toured the Winter Gardens and the nearby Auckland Museum. When we toured Kelly Tarleton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World we were surprised to find out that his Underwater World was previously sewage holding tanks. We took a ferry to Devonport and hiked to the military structures and gun placements on North Head.