15 hours to Taipei, 2 hours to Hong Kong, and 10 hours to Auckland. I was going away to a far, far away land! Having had the painful jetlag experience in Antwerp on my last trip, I decided to take it easy at our first stop, Auckland.
Itinerary of the day: Toronto → Taipei (1 day layover) → Hong Kong (transfer) → Auckland → Depot Oyster Bar and Eatery → Kelly Tarlton's SEA LIFE Aquarium
After working at the same job for a really long time, I finally had enough paid vacation to afford doing two overseas trip in one year. New Zealand was my last destination to cross off my travel short list (there is a longer list, mind you). I was made fun by my friend about "traveling halfway around the world to go to another Canada", but they were so wrong.
My travel companions this time around were my parents. They weren't impressed by the idea of New Zealand at first, but after the trip they were both won over!
The first leg of flight was me taking EVA Air from Toronto to Taipei. I didn't take the Hello Kitty plane, as this is a Taiwan-Japan route exclusive, but it was the first time I saw one!
EVA Air's services were always amazing, as in, they actually treated me like a paying customer. The seats were comfortable, and food were very good, which made a 15 hour flight seemed like nothing.
The last time I was in Hong Kong, it was still Kai Tak and the Hong Kong airport didn't exist!
The Taipei-HK segment was short, but we still got served fried rice and tea. The tea was made in China, and tasted really gross so I only took one sip.
The HK-Auckland segment served much better food. The plane-sized Häagen-Dazs was the dream of a traveler!
10 hours later, we arrived in Auckland. I booked a taxi transfer to take us to our hotel, and the taxi company said clearing customs should take 15 minutes.
15 minutes? More like 1.5 hours! We weren't in a hurry or anything but nobody wanted to wait that long for customs! The line was moving at a very slow pace. When it was finally our turn, the officer asked me a couple of questions, which was not unreasonable, but some were really not that relevant. For examples:
"Where did you learn your English? Korea?"
"Canada? So it must be cold?"
So both stereotypes of "Kiwis work slow" and "Kiwis are over the top friendly" were both validated upon landing in New Zealand.
After the passport check, there was another luggage check, fully equipped with x-ray machines and beagles. New Zealand's food and environmental import policy was more or less similar to Canada's, except they were even more strict on dirts and seeds. Anyone with outdoor equipments (camping gear, boots etcs) had to declare them.
Despite the tedious landing process, Auckland airport redeemed itself to us with its perks. There was a Maori inspired door frame welcoming visitors...
I was glad that I didn't plan much activities on the first day, because the transfer into Auckland downtown took way longer than expected. 1.5 hours instead of the 30-45 minutes. Three hours after landing, we finally checked-in at Waldorf Celestion.
Didn't care for the balcony. Rangitoto Island could be seen, but still not so much of a view.
Evidently by the name of this restaurant, we were here for the oysters. Not that Canada doesn't have oysters, but the point is to have local varieties around the world.
At first we didn't want to wait for the shuttle, so we walked around for 20 minutes trying to find a bus stop with no avail. I looked it up in Google Maps beforehand but the bus stop was simply not there. The bus route map was not helpful, and neither were the locals (some guy told me we can walk to Mission bay in 10 minutes, idk maybe he was a troll). We gave up and returned to the shuttle stop.
The shark bus finally came about.
The aquarium was divided into several sections. One section was the Antarctic Ice Adventure and Scott Base, with some info on the expeditions of Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
The penguin exhibition was the highlight of the aquarium. This aquarium had two species, the King and Gentoo. The penguins were very active and they did seem to respond to humans.
The King penguins tend to cluster together and not move very much. December was nesting season for many birds, but judging from the molting adolescent in the picture, seemed like the Kings were near the end of theirs.
The Gentoos however, were still well within their nesting period. Note the hatchling at the foot of their parent.
It was also a highlight to see the Gentoo's life of crime, a behaviour that was also featured in BBC's Frozen Planet (except carried out by an Adelie). A male was stealing stone pebbles from another nest to build his own!
A tank with a disturbingly number of clownfish.
Near the shuttle bus drop-off point, there was a "Manuka Doctor" shop that sold a wide variety of manuka honey products. The honey is made by bees that harvest the manuka flower (a type of tea tree native to New Zealand and SE Australia), which is known to have antibacterial effects. I ate Manuka honey cough drops during the trip when I felt like I was about to get sick, and successful ward off the cold. It has a faint minty taste, but the best part about it is that it still taste very good. If honey isn't so heavy I would have bought 10 jars all for myself as souvenirs (do keep in mind there are many counterfeit products so stick to reputable brands)!
One block next to it was Movenpick, an ice cream brand of Swiss origin (Nestle). It had very high ratings on Tripadvisor and also seemed to be well known around the world, so we gave it a try.
We would have gone to the Auckland Museum today, but it closed at 5pm and we were dead tired anyway. We spent the rest of the day grocery shopping.
There were four major chain supermarkets in NZ: Countdown, Pak'nSave, New World, and Four Square. We were lucky enough to visit all of them throughout the trip.
Many travelers recommend the kiwi flavour because it's kiwi, but I personally recommend peanut butter and macadamia block. The peanut butter tasted like the manufacturer actually used peanut butter from a jar, unlike that fake stuff in Reese's!
Self-serve cooking was the norm of traveling in New Zealand. Almost every motel had a kitchen with basic condiments, cookware and utensils. In some small towns, dine-out options were not that exciting, and it was much more rewarding to cook our own meals. Cooking not only saved us a lot of money (our food budget was half of what I allocated), we were able to enjoy locally grown NZ ingredients. For this reason, not every meal would be mentioned in this trip report, as sometimes we just had a sandwich or similar dinners for two or three days straight.
As with Canada, I found New Zealand whites to be a better bet, when we were simply taking a guess among the wide selection of wine. Mission Estate Late Harvest 2013 was the best bottle we bought during the trip, but couldn't find it again.
With the help of wine and fatique, we slept promptly at 8pm sharp. Tomorrow was going to be a full day.
