Our 2 weeks in Auckland pass quickly. We are happy to be staying in a modern, clean apartment with amenities. We are on the 17th floor of a condominium high rise located close to downtown. Views of the city from our floor to ceiling windows make us want to stay right here for a long time.
We have taken care of annual doctor’s visits, getting appropriate vaccinations and such, preparing for warm weather climates, and catching up with family and friends back home through Skype and FaceTime. We also enjoyed catching some theater events, and even tried out the pool table in the apartment. (the largest pool table we’ve ever seen!)
Initially we read that Niue had internet access throughout the island. Upon closer research, it is really limited. Smile. So the month of July will be mostly sans technology and incommunicado except perhaps for emails.
Here are some views of Auckland we enjoyed:
A dramatic orange building
Mount Eden volcano crater, a park near downtown.
Auckland War Memorial Museum and Park
University of Auckland campus
And some of the theater events we attended. (Well, Tim managed to avoid the opera…)
And finally, the packing for our next location. We are leaving New Zealand, and heading for Niue. Niue is a small coral island in the south Pacific, population of around 1500 people. It’s 10 miles (16km) wide, and is known for it’s laid back lifestyle, beautiful beaches, snorkeling, and scuba diving. Our first house has a deck that overlooks the ocean, and we are looking forward to the next adventure.
But first, packing time… New Zealand Air has pretty strict weight limits, so we will need to keep keep our 3 main bags under 50 pounds (23kg) with our carry-on (one backpack, one computer bag) each under 15 pounds. (7kg) And, of course, we want to stay a few pounds under limit for each bag for safety. When we started in Seattle, we had 188 pounds of gear total, including luggage. (85kg) Since then, we’ve added a few items:
- A Sonos One speaker, which we use to listen to music. We also added Spotify premium, which fortunately is weightless…
- Rashguard gear- long sleeve swimwear for sun protection, and to provide some protection from coral
- Extra suntan lotion and bug spray for Niue
- A small can opener, a lightweight luggage scale, and an extra extension cord
- Deb’s knitting supplies
To compensate, we have gotten rid of extra books, some warmer weather clothing, and some shoes that were wearing out from hiking. So our new grand total is 175 pounds. (80kg) The Air New Zealand website says that we can carry our laptop computer separately, so this should let us stay under the limits. According to our new luggage scale (.2 pounds, .07 kg) we should be okay for our flight tomorrow. Fingers crossed…
