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Auckland, New Zealand: First Impressions

We were sad to leave our island relaxation and rest time in Tahiti.

We had a wonderful time there.

So far in comparison, where Tahiti was nice but expensive; Auckland, New Zealand just seems nice.

Getting off the plane and on to the airbus express, the bus cost NZD $16. This bus is set up specifically to get people to and from the airport from Auckland City.  The bus driver was really great.

Because we had him as a bus driver during the 25 minute ride to our stop, we learned a lot about the history of New Zealand, and the layout of Auckland.

We learned significantly more about Auckland on the city bus ride to Auckland city from the airport than we did about Tahiti on the “Tahiti island tour”.

This wasn’t a language issue, because our driver in Tahiti spoke English as a native speaker.  It was simply that our driver here in Auckland shared more information in 20 minutes than our driver in Tahiti shared in 3 hours.

On the way to downtown Auckland, we saw nice homes with well cared for yards, and a general niceness about things and people.

First impression of Auckland, and New Zealand in general:
People and things are (generally speaking) just nice here.

Walking around Auckland City, we’re already had dinner at a middle eastern restaurant, coffee at a New Zealand chain café, lunch at an English pub, and dinner at a Korean place.

All the food we have had so far has been absolutely fantastic.

At the English pub, we met Kelson, whose family owns the pub and had a speaking part as a pilot in the movie Avatar (the actual movie).  He asked us lots of questions about south America, where he and his fiancee plan to spend their honeymoon.  In exchange, Kelsen gave us free coffee after our lunch.  Totally unnecessary, but very nice.

At the pub, we tried something new – Kumara, which are basically mashed potato and corn fritters (fried).

It’s a traditional New Zealand food apparently.

They’re probably not that healthy for you, but they sure are scrumptious.

Last night, we went for Korean food, bringing back to the Auckland City Hotel more food as leftovers than we actually ate there in the restaurant.  (I had a LOT of food because it was so delicious, but just couldn’t eat anymore.)

Second impression from Auckland, New Zealand:
There are TONS of restaurants, and all the ones we’ve eaten at so far have quite delicious food.

6 thoughts on “Auckland, New Zealand: First Impressions

  1. Anne

    Hey you guys!

    I hope you will enjoy the country as much as I did! It’s a bit sad you don”t get to spend more time on the North Island as there really is a lot to see. If you only have a couple of days you should visit Mission Bay (for a leisurely stroll) and see if you get maybe take a ferry over to Devonport or rent a car and go over the bridge north towards Piha – fascinating landscape and woods!

    By the way – Kumara is not the dish you discribed, Kumara is the vegetable that’s used for it 😉 it is some sort of reddish potato – kinda sweet, very yummy!

    Have fun and keep posting pictures, so I can get homesick!

    All the best, Anne

    1. strive4impact Post author

      Yep! That’s the Korean place and that is a tofu, dumpling, and kimchee soup. We took home more than we ate. It was a HUGE amount of food (probably enough for four), and the two of us ate for NZD $25, which is about USD $19.

    2. strive4impact Post author

      The big cauldron is the Korean. That was enough food to feed at least 4 and maybe 6 people. We took more food back to the hotel than we actually ate. The cost was about NZD $25, USD $19.

  2. Lisa

    that’s an amazing pot of “stew” — it’s Korean, so I’m sure it’s not stew, but looks yummy. The best part of travel for me is always the food and it looks like you’re taking it all in! Love to you both! Mom

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