Back after vacations, MacWorld, and a very busy work schedule, here is my promised New Zealand trip report.
The skinny: Two married couples in Auckland for ten days over Thanksgiving. My friend’s boss let us stay his penthouse apartment for free. This one, to be exact.
Arrived in Auckland at around 6am and took a cab to our hotel. We couldn’t freakin’ believe how nice this hotel was. I knew my friend’s boss was loaded, but I had no idea what to expect. This place was ridiculous. How ridiculous? Cher was staying there after we left. This was a big deal to my friend’s boss, who is gay. My response to Cher is more like this: 
But there ya go.
Anyway, the first couple of days we spent in and around that area of Auckland, which is to say the wharf / America’s Cup area. I didn’t think it was all that - I equated it to the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco - some place I would take friends from in town, but no place I would ever consciously visit on my own. We went to some very pricey touristy places, but since that’s what we were, these were OK. Highlights were the bar Lenin and the bar next door, -5 Degrees, which was entirely made out of ice. They make you put on these big coats and gloves and drink Vodka drinks. The floor, bar, cups, sculptures, everything made out of ice. Restaurants in that area were about what I expected - pricey, decent.
The third night we were there we went to my friend’s boss’s friend’s house in Ponsonby for a BBQ. There were about 10 people there, and it was a blast. We drank our first taste of NZ wine, an unbelievably delicious Sauvignon Blanc. I’m more of a red drinker, but I gotta say every bottle of Sauvignon Blanc I had from NZ was fantastic. (And the best part is that nobody in San Francisco has figured this out yet, so I can get a great Marlborough region Sauvingnon Blanc for about $10). Anyway, we wound up getting rather hammered, talking about everything from the Queen’s role in NZ to the All-Blacks to the cricket game that had been going on non-stop since we arrived to the rules of cricket to some sort of screaming dance routine they started doing for our amusement (or perhaps their own). I’m really glad we got to do this, b/c it was a really good local experience.
The next day we got up and drove to Rotorua. After trying the Zorbing thing, which I was way too hungover to be doing, we sat in the Spa, relaxed, and decided that it smelled too much like sulfur for us to stay there. The smell really didn’t bother me, but I wanted to get to Lake Taupo so I could fish, so I went along with it. We wound up renting a cabin on Lake Taupo and hung out for two days while my friend and I went trout fishing and the girls went looking for yarn or sheep slippers or whatever they did. Fantastic fishing - I kept about 6 trout over 7 pounds, and caught I don’t know how many fish - lots of dory, lots of gurnard, lots of catfish, mostly trout. Great fun.
After Taupo, we went over to Turanga for a few days. I liked this area - lots of fun bars along the Strand, lots of great hiking around Mt. Maunganui, lots of great restaurants. I wish I had more memorable stories about it, but we mostly just hung out on the beach, ate and went to bars.
As we were driving back to Auckland, my friend’s wife figured out that we would be driving right past “the hobbits.” She started going berserk. “We have to see The Hobbits!” Attempting to explain to her that hobbits are actually a fictional creature didn’t seem to have any effect. Finally we relented and bought a book that went into detail about Hobbitton. As we were approaching the turnoff, I read the fatal words “Guided 2-Hour Tours Only. No appointments.” Needless to say, we did not go. (Although they did by themselves the next day).
Next day, they went to Hobbitton, my wife and I took the commuter ferry over to Devonport and Waiheke Island. Devonport was nice, we walked around and didn’t do much b/c we were trying to get to Waiheke Island. We got to Waiheke Island and rented the cheapest car they had. This turned out to be a really good idea.
We have several hours before we check in at our hotel. What to do…ah yes. WINE TASTING!!! This was the main reason I wanted to go to New Zealand, so we were quite excited. This did not disappoint. Mudbridge, Onetangi, Cable Bay, Stonyridge, (rather appropriate at the time, but I digress), and the best food we’d had since we’d been there at Te Wahu. Lucky for me we were on a small island, so it was not much of an effort for us to get to our hotel, and we made it with only the occasional using the windshield wipers instead of the turn signals. It was up the hill from our dinner location, so I figured driving to dinner wouldn’t be a problem. Driving home from dinner was a problem. I got a little too close to the left side of the road and we wound up taking off the front bumper and side mirror. Not to be discouraged, I was able to find some fast-sealing adhesive the next day at a local hardware store, and managed to re-secure both the bumper and the mirror with no one caring about any of this back at the rental car place. My wife reminded me that the entire island population probably already knew all about our repair job.
Back in Auckland now, we went to another party in Ponsonby, which turned into a rather outrageous drunken fiasco. One of those nights where you get kicked out of a bar (SPQR) and wind up at the casino winning $500.
All in all, a good time was had by all. Most of my smaller comments about little intricasies and differences I included in the link to my post above.
Going with another couple is rough when you go on vacations like this, b/c group consensus sort of rules things out. When we go back we’re definitely going to the Bay Of Island, and definitely finding time to hit the South Island and the Marlborough wine region. But that’s a great country you folks have - friendly people, great wine, lots to do, and a true respect for the environment. I’d recommend it to anyone.
Now I’m off to go polish off the last of the Brancott “Sav”. 