Around The World – Japan can be found here.
After a very long (close to 13.5 hours) flight from Tokyo with a brief “technical stop” in Christchurch before continuing on to Auckland we finally arrived at our last country in our Around The World adventure.
Map courtesy of worldatlas.com
We were staying in the historic Hotel deBrett in downtown Auckland which has a fabulous wine and cheese hour for guests. We were chatting with a few people when two women approached us and asked if we were Canadian. We answered in the affirmative, but apprehensively having already played the do-you-know-so-and-so game in a few other countries. (Answer: Nope, Canada is a very very large country and Vancouver is not really close to Ottawa).
But this time we were surprised, the women wanted to know our thoughts on merino wool clothing. My wife wasn’t particularly interested as she finds wool itchy and tends to break out into hives but they were convincing enough we promised to check out the chain of NZ Icebreaker stores that they were about to launch in Canada and let them know our thoughts the next day.*
Still trying to get over the jet lag the next day we decided to swing by the merino wool clothing store since the more than two months of continuous travelling had definitely taken a toll on our wardrobes.
We walked into the Icebreaker store and… quite simply we were amazed. The clothing was smooth, not at all rough or scratchy. Almost silky, even and the variety was impressive from base layers for skiing through to heavy sweaters and coats. And the socks. Glorious hiking socks in different thicknesses to replace some of ours that were starting to fall apart.
We promptly bought a ton of new shirts, a few sweaters and socks. The items were pricey but thankfully they were clearing out all of last season’s winter wear as it was now November (Spring) which was perfect timing for us. 40% off – yes, please!
After our shopping spree we dropped our haul back at the hotel and set off for our main event of the day – Auckland Sky Tower. It’s a great way to get your bearings in the city although we decided to skip climbing around the outside.
Then we headed back to the hotel for another wine and cheese and enthusiastically told the Icebreaker representatives that they did indeed have an amazing product. Then it was a quiet dinner and off to bed as our roadtrip of New Zealand starts tomorrow!
After a quick breakfast we headed off to the Auckland Zoo. Which might seem odd but we figured it would be a great way to see some of the native (and not-so native) animals in captivity before trying to spot them in the wild.
From the zoo we drove down to Tongariro and stayed at a tired but comfortable hotel that was close to the mountain. We’d intended to do the full crossing but with my wife still recovering from being ill in Egypt we instead opted to do a hike about halfway up and then double-back. This way we didn’t have to worry about meeting a shuttle on the other side at a specific time and could head back to our rental car at any time. It felt like we were in an evil fantasy land like Mordor. And in fact Tongariro is where the Mordor scenes for Lord of the Rings was filmed.
The next day we headed down to Wellington which is the capital city of New Zealand. It’s also where we’d be catching the ferry to the South Island the next day. You have pretty much two options to get between Wellington on the North Island and Picton on the South Island – you can take a 30 minute flight or you can take a 3.5 hour ferry ride. It is also possible to swim but I wouldn’t recommend it.
We’d originally planned to take our rental car on the ferry but Avis made it abundantly clear that was not allowed – something about how most people fly into the North and out of the South and shuttling empty cars is inefficient… so we made sure to book a second rental for the South Island.
Wellington was remarkably crowded as they were preparing for their Santa Claus parade later that day.
After a light breakfast – as the crossing is notoriously choppy 0 we easily boarded the ferry and checked our suitcases so we only had to carry our backpacks.
South Island here we come!
Continue reading Around The World – New Zealand Part 2.
*Icebreaker launched their first New Zealand store in 2007, but the first store in Auckland only opened a few months before we arrived in November 2010. It would take until 2016 for Icebreaker to have a stand-alone store in Toronto but as soon as they launched the Canadian website we became enthusiastic converts. I am in fact wearing an Icebreaker shirt as I type this.