Our passports got stamped in and out of Tahiti. That doesn’t always happen since everything is computerized.

We boarded another 787 Dreamliner for our 5 hour flight to Aukland that would cross the international date line.  Tahiti is 23 hours behind Aukland, but only five hours away.

Our route was just over 2500 miles.

Air Tahiti Nui has the best safety video!  I watched it mostly on our flight to Tahiti and really watched it on the flight to Aukland.  It is available on YouTube at YouTubehttps://m.youtube.com › watchAir Tahiti Nui Safety Video – English – YouTube. Imagine that – A recommended airline safety video!

Once we were airborne, we were served breakfast.  Randy watched movies.  I listened to podcasts and randomly watched the update screen. Notice the altitude on the bottom left! That is pretty precise.

We passed the Cook Islands.  Our family took a trip there with my parents in the 1990’s.   It was on my father’s bucket list to see the southern cross, the southern hemisphere’s answer to the big dipper. We also had a wonderful excursion to Aitutaki, also shown on the map, that we still talk about.

Our flight towards Aukland was uneventful.  That’s a good thing when you are going thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean.  Note to self – I prefer flights in which I stay awake during daylight hours instead of “sleeping” during night time hours.

We can see New Zealand from the plane!

After we landed, and as we were taxiing to the gate, I turned my phone off airplane mode and the time was 2:48 on Wednesday January 15.  

One minute later, after my phone oriented, it was 1:59 on Thursday January 16th!  We lost a whole day in moments!!  

We had participation streaks for a couple of activities and one of Randy’s was broken at 760 days! Bummer.

Before leaving the plane we saw a video about declaring contraband foods or facing the consequences.  They also expect you to declare if you have been hiking because of what may be on your shoes or equipment.  Right away we acknowledged an open bag of cashews and pistachio nuts but they were acceptable.  

We passed several more reminders to declare items or have consequences.   We finally passed “the last opportunity.” They take protecting their country in this way very seriously.

We walked through a Māori carved arch towards immigration and baggage claim and began a multi step customs and immigration process.  The first was to insert our passport into a machine and have a picture taken, all automated.  Then we had to visit an officer where we were once again asked about what food items we might have to declare.

We gathered our luggage and it was scanned. Then we were free to find our driver.  He was right there waiting for us.

 

Walking to his car, we passed a statue of Jean Batten,  an aviator from New Zealand with several record-breaking flights.  These were records for any aviator, not just a woman’s record.  Her records include being the first aviator to fly solo from England to New Zealand.  She did it in 1936, yet, she was denied the opportunity to serve in any flying capacity during World War II.

Our ride to the hotel was very pleasant and our check-in went smoothly.

 

The hotel is ultra modern!

Our evening plans were for a Harbor Dinner Cruise.  We expected a yacht or trawler type boat.  

Instead there were two sailboats, the Courageous and the Defiance.

On board the Courageous, we joined guests from Vienna, Bulgaria, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and Canada.   We were the only ones from the US.  That doesn’t happen very often, maybe never before.

We had drinks, canapés, a main dish and dessert while we sailed in the harbor.

This is Aukland’s first electric tugboat, Sparky. Over 2000 batteries provide adequate power to direct this small cruise ship.

We generally tracked with the sister boat, Defiance.

The Spirit of New Zealand was built in 1986 to teach New Zealand’s youth about sailing and their heritage.  It operates year round on journeys with students 16-18 operating as crew trainees.

Randy drove the boat!  The captain let everyone who wanted a turn have one.

This is New Zealand’s only naval post.  The navy has seven boats that operate more like the US coast guard.  It is primarily focused on search and rescue. There recently lost a ship, an eighth of their navy, when it was grounded on a reef and sank due to the captain’s error. 

The Chelsea Sugar Factory has been in business since the mid 1800s processing raw sugar cane from Fiji and Australia.  The orange color was the only paint they had enough of when it was originally painted.  Now it is tradition.

There were many views of the Aukland skyline on this side of the harbor. The bridge below extends the city to the opposite shore.

We had a perfect evening for sailing.

The Viaduct Harbor and Marina was once a small fishing harbor.  Now there are many gorgeous yachts and many restaurants.  This harbor area was imagined and funded after New Zealand’s America’s Cup victory in the 1990s.  

As we walked into the hotel at the end of the day, we thought how strange it was that we woke up Wednesday morning and are going to bed Thursday evening. 

We arrived in Aukland on January 15 and/or 16, 2025.

Next up:  January 17th!