Day 31: Auckland

Emma’s nephew Simon is looking after our house while we’re away. His responsibilities have been to keep the house from burning down, and to ensure Emma’s beloved Lily-cat is alive and well on our return.


So what does this have to do with Auckland?
Simon’s former girlfriend Gina is a Kiwi who returned to Auckland last year, and her parents live south of Auckland. We thought we’d skip the tours and see if we could catch up withthem on this leg. As it turns out Gina’s mother Margaret was free for the day, and drove up from Whangamatta (pronounced “fong-a-mah-tah” apparently) to take us around Auckland. She was under strict instructions not to make a special trip just for us, but she cheerfully ignored us and drove the 2 hours north to meet us.

Margaret met us as we were walking off the ship and took us on a brief walk through Auckland (highlight: the best cappuccino since Juneau at a fabulous little coffee kiosk called Mecca. Praise Allah!) and then took us on a driving tour through the city and outskirts such as One Tree Hill, where we discovered Auckland can get windy.



Gina has just started working for Oxfam, which she loves. We met her at work and hit a nearby cafe for lunch, where Emma was delighted to find Real Bacon, not the shriveled deep-fried pig-fat strips we’ve had on ship.

And Emma and Margaret got some shopping in. How out of character.
After we said good-bye to Margaret (thanks again - you’re the perfect host) we had one last decent coffee before hitting the ship.