Our trip to New Zealand begins in chaos.

 Tuesday,  March 3, 2026

For the first time in recent memory we had problems at the airport, Detroit Metro specifically.  We walked up to the check in counter and presented our passports. As we watched the agent checking us in, we noticed a questioning expression on her face. She finally told us that she could not find our flight from Detroit to Los Angeles in the system. Tim showed her our paper work from our long time travel agent, Lora Helfer, that had us scheduled to fly from Detroit to LA at 5:50 p.m and then fly on to Auckland, New Zealand to 10:50 p.m.  She looked again at her computer and finally told us we were scheduled on an earlier 12:30 p.m. flight to LA. We asked if she could schedule us another flight to LA that would get us there in time for our flight to Auckland.  She then asked if we had made our reservations through Delta or a third party.  We responded that we had scheduled through a third party. That elicited her reponse that she was unable to alter third party bookings. We needed to call our agent to have her rearrange our flights.  Tim immediately called Lora.  She didn't understand how the change in flights had been made. Lora's fault. She asked if we had checked in 24 hours ahead of time where we would have caught the change and been there on time. Our fault.  She said she would try to change our booking but we were under time restrains in regard to how early before a flight we can book the flight. Our Delta agent asked us to step aside so she could check in other customers but would check us in as soon as we heard from our  agent. Lynda went to sit down as Tim waited impatiently for Lora's call.  When Lora finally called she had bad news. She could only rebook our flight at what we considered a prohibitive cost. The only other choice was for Tim to beg with the Delta agent to get us rebooked.  Bottom line, after much respectful begging on Tim's part and with the help of the Delta agent confering with her supervisor, we were booked on a flight to LA that got us there in time for our flight to Auckland.  When we finally settled into our seats, cocktail in hand, on the Detroit to Los Angeles flight it was like the weight of the world had been lifted off our shoulders. The total flight time of our two flights was 18 hours but we made it to Auckland with us back on schedule.

Enough drama. It's Thursday and we are in New Zealand wondering where Wednesday went. The islands that make up New Zealand were all created by volcanoes.  There are thirty one volcanoes in the Auckland area, thirty of which are extinct.  The other one is dormant and has not erupted in 600 years. We like are chances of not being affected by this volcano.  Because of this the only animals in New Zealand were brought here by immigrants.  Thus, there are no dangerous animals or poisionous reptiles and snakes.  The  result is a very strenuous customs process coming into the country. Lynda brought a box of protein bars that she had to declare thinking they would be confiscated. She must have smiled sweetly at the customs agent because he gave the box back to her. We found it refreshing to be in a country that takes protecting its environment so seriously.

Having arrived at our hotel around 10:30 a.m. we were not surprised that our room was not ready. Regent Seven Seas had a welcoming area where we were able to hang out untl we finally got into our room around 1:30.  After our long flights we were more then happy to spend the afternoon napping and resting in bed.  We hate to admit that after much discussion about dinner, Tim ended up going across the street to a Pizza Hut and bringing a small pizza back to the room. He should have gotten a medium size pizza but the measurement chart was in centimeters. Another bad on Tim. After a quick dinner we were both back in bed by 8:00 and asleep shortly after.

Friday morning we had booked a half day tour around Auckland through a tour company named Viator that serves tourists worldwide. The brochure advertised this as a small tour of 8 to 10 people on a minibus.  In fact, our tour ended up being a private tour in a very comfortable Tesla.  Our first stop was one of the extinct volcanoes named Maungauika which is Maorian for North Head. More about North Head in a moment. To get to this site we had to cross the Auckland Bay Harbor bridge. The original bridge was built in the 1850's and was two lanes in each direction.   It was the shortest connection to the City Center from the other side of the bay.  Once cars became common place, it saved travel time by 40 minutes each way.  This resulted in a housing explosion on the north side of the harbor.  By 1950 the bridge could not handle the amount of traffic occuring and a plan was made to expand the size of the current bridge.  New Zealand reached out to Japan for help with financing the expansion.  Japan agreed to help in exchange for preferred treatment in the exporting of Japanese cars to New Zealand,  Read no tariffs. Two lanes were attached to the existing bridge and eventually were called the "Nippon Clip ons."  Because of this nickname older New Zealand drivers did not trust these clip ons to remain in place and refused to drive across the bridge. The other result of the bridges expansion was Japanese cars being the predominant cars seen on the streets of Auckland. Now, back to North Head. After WW II, Auckland, watching Russia's expansion into new territories,  worried about a Russian military invasion.  They installed seven large canons into the side of the small mountain in a way that they could not be seen. In case of an invasion they were mechanically lifted out of the ground .  Of course, they were never needed so that North Head now is a wonderful place to hike, have a picnic and enjoy the fabulous views of the Auckland skyline across the harbor.  Another example of New Zealand's protection of its environment is that all houses over 100 years old go onto a historical registry and are protected from being torn down or drastically physically being altered.  A small rod that looks like a small steeple is attached to the front peak of the roof as a designation of Historical status.  We saw many of these lovely, well preserved houses on our way to and back from North Head.  Our next stop on the tour was actually a drive through Cromwell Park, the largest of the many green spaces that Auckland maintains throughout the city.  We asked if the park was named after Oliver Cromwell, the famous British General. Our tour guide, who was of Indian (the country) decent, had not heard of Cromwell so we have no answer for you. About half of the park is made up of well maintained fields for rugby and football (soccer). The other half is alive with an abundance of trees and flowering plants designed as, again, a nice place to walk and picnic.  What a concept.  From Cromwell Park we drove to Maungaeton Mountain. Mount Eton is the tallest and largest of the extinct volvanoes. There is a visitors center at this mountain that shows how the volcanoes erupted eons ago to create theseis mountains that dominated the landscape of Auckland.  Finally, on our way to board our ship our guide drove us by the Auckland Grammer School which leads to a short discussion of schools in New Zealand.  Primary schools are similar to our elementary schools. Intermediate schools are similar to our middle schools/junior high schools.  Secondary and Grammer schools are similar to our high schools. The difference is that Secondary schools are a combination of our high schools and Junior/Community  Colleges.  Grammer Schools are solely prep schools for University.  It is a highly competitive admission process to get into a Grammer School.  The more prestigious the Grammer School the more competitive the admission process. The campus of the Auckland Grammer School was very much like the campus of a small college in the states.

The afternoon was spent going through the whole boarding the ship process, unpacking, and reconnoitering our way around the ship.  We have sailed on Regent Seven Seas SS Mariner before, however, after booking this cruise we discovered that Mariner would be in dry dock during January and February for a complete refurbishment. That refurbishment resulted in various venues on board were in different places.

Overnight Friday we sailed to the Bay of the Islands, still part of New Zealand.  We had not booked an excusion at this port of call thinking Tim might take the tender from the ship to the island explore on his own.  When we discovered that there was a craft market at the villiage where our tender docked, Lynda decided to join the trip. We landed in a small village named Paitia where Tim went to the information point to ask directions to the market.  Tim discovered that the craft market moved from village to village each day and this day was located in Russell. This was not a problem as there was a ferry leaving in the next ten minutes for the 20 minute trip across the bay to Russell.  We enjoyed watching a parasailor and a group of sailboats as we made the short trip. Upon arrival there was a small cafe at the end of the dock that had outdoor seating overlooking the bay.  We had a delightful lunch in a picturesque setting making us consider why we would ever want to leave Russell, New Zealand. The craft market was in the town hall.  There were  5 or 6 local artisans displaying their crafts. We saw many lovely pieces of jewelry and beautiful crafted bowls.  After leaving the craft show Lynda was quickly tiring  and we still had about 20 minutes before the next ferry back to Paitia so Tim found a bench in the shade for Lynda and continued exploring. Russell, even with just 700 inhabitants, was bigger then Paitia and had much more shopping opportunities that Lynda would have enjoyed wandering through. Guess we will have to come back. Saturday night we attended a concert in the ship's theater presented by a talented trio of Irish musicians. They were backed by 4 members of the ship's house band. It was a good ending to a good day.

As we create this blog post, it is Sunday and we are sailing across the Tasmanian Sea towards Sydney, Australia. We dock in Sydney tomorrow morning and will be docked there overnight. We have two shore excursions that we are looking forward to including a visit to the Sydney Opera House which we will report on in a couple of days.

G'day for now.