Second day in Auckland

Today has been a fairly "laid back" day to enable us to get back on our feet somewhat following the long trip. Severe storm warnings have been posted for both the north and south islands and Cyclone Lusi is currently drifting offshore of the North Island where Auckland is located. Cut and paste the link below into your browser or simply click on it and it will take you to the news bulletin to hear and view the current local forecast on the storm that is now scheduled to strike Auckland tonight and tomorrow.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/543302/20140314/cyclone-lusi-new-zealand-auckland-floods-storm.htm#.UyPXcnmKUZY

The storm is sizable and civil defense warnings have been posted. Here’s yesterday’s front page from the New Zealand Herald.

Look below, there we are, shown right in the center of the storm. :-)

Todays current temperature is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit and drizzly with frequent low velocity wind gusts but not unpleasant. It’s still safe to be outdoors so we took the opportunity to walk about a mile to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, a large and amazingly well designed museum featuring, an extensive and impressive Maori culture collection of the ancient history of the original inhabitants of the country as well as a sensitive and elaborate display wing dedicated to New Zealand’s participation in both of the world wars. 

Tomorrow, weather permitting; we are scheduled to leave early for an all day tour bus trip to Rotorua, the center of the ancient Maori culture. It is a seismically active region with multiple hot springs and probably not unlike a smaller version of Yellowstone National Park. New Zealand has seven volcanoes, all currently dormant, (thank goodness!) the last eruption was in 1923. We plan to spend the night in Rotorua after a mid trip two hour stop at Hobbiton, the village setting for the movie the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and the sequels, all of which were filmed here in New Zealand.  It will be a full but eventful and hopefully exciting day.

We have only two small issues about New Zealand that we would like to see different. The pricing of everything is outrageously expensive. Toast and jam is ten dollars, a modest lunch for two is about forty dollars and dinner for two runs between sixty five and ninety dollars. The US and the NZ dollar are close in value so it makes the vacation a bit pricey. The other oddity is that there are very few electrical outlets in almost all locations. The electrical current here is 220V and we have an adapter to allow us to use our things but sometimes there is simply no where convenient to plug them in. 

We’re having a wonderful time and hope that you are enjoying traveling with us through our blog. We’ll attempt to post every day so please keep checking back for the updates and additions. The newest and most current posting will always appear at the top. Scroll down to see prior postings.