Auckland, New Zealand

We arrive in Auckland at 4:15 a.m. after spending a day in Santiago's airport and then a 14 hr. 30 min flight from Chile. YIKES!!! Thru customs and into New Zealand with no snag. Go to the information counter to get a room and need to pay up front. Head for the ATM machine and we both draw out Australian dollars instead of New Zealand. Go to pay the girl at the info booth and that is when we embarrassingly realize what we have done. Back to the ATM machine for some N.Z. dollars. We find the Princeton Backpacker Hotel for NZ50 or $15.57 a night for each of us. The place is fantastic. We have our own little bedroom with 2 twin beds with a bathroom and another room like ours off of a most efficient little kitchenette. No one is in the other room so we have this nice little apartment unit all to ourselves with a fab view of the street from our room. Janeen has an appointment to see a dentist just down the street the next day. We find a bookstore very close to our little apartment and exchange our Lonely Planet South America book for a book on New Zealand and Australia for an additional $15. Janeen has success with the dentist and will be back to normal by tomorrow. We have bought tickets to see "Dirty Dancing" which was a fantastic show. Enjoyed it very much. The next night we go to the buffet at the Skytower high above Auckland with a fantastic view. I must admit that this is the best buffet I have ever been to and I usually hate them. Raw oysters, shrimp, clams, mussels, sushi, sashimi, salads, salmon, mushroom Cajun soup, lamb, fish, scallops, chicken, beef, stuffed prawns, fabulous desserts and coffee. I am in pain on the walk home :), :(, lol. This room is the best yet, we can make our own food, coffee every morning and do our own laundry and the location is 10 minutes from the center of town. We catch a ferry to Weiheke Island, a delightful little island off Auckland. Auckland reminds me of Seattle very much, needle and all plus ferries going everywhere. It is a very cool city, very youthful and very Asian. The food is very good a cheap also, Asian that is. Back to Weiheke, buy two rings on this wonderful little island. A wonderful seal ring similar to one found in King Tut's tomb with Egyptian symbols and a meaning that Paul, the designer who is Polynesian writes out for me on his business card. We have a lunch of cheese, tomato avocado and feijos, a small green sweet tart fruit grown here in NZ along with a delicious bread that we buy at the corner store and take to the beach for our lunch. A lovely day at Weiheke. I also buy a gorgeous silver ring with Irish knots on the top done in rose gold by an Irishman immigrated some years ago to this lovely island. I absolutely love this ring and wear it alot. Take the bus around the island after our lunch and it is such a beautiful spot.