A ferry-ride to Davenport, a rather cute Victorian suburb on the north shore of Auckland Harbour.
View from our window: Mt. Eden, Auckland, New Zealand. 9:30 am, 29 December 2013.
Currently getting tarted up in the Auckland dockyards, this floating argument for higher marginal tax rates is the “A”, a creatively-named 120-metre Philippe Starck-designed superyacht belonging to Andrey Melnichenko, a Russian oligarch (surprise!) Despite its size (16th biggest in the world or some such), as the owner you can’t really bring many mates along, because it only sleeps a rather paltry 14 people. Not sure that’s great value for your $300 million. Still, the 42 staff along for the ride do mean the service should be pretty good.
Auckland is pretty much deserted between Christmas and New Year. And what with the ocean views, superyachts, and harbourfront drinking, you can see why the residents all flee this urban hellhole.
Sam, taken aback by the biggest, cheapest ice creams in New Zealand.
The Waitomo caves, an hour south of Hamilton, are famous for their glowworms. This being New Zealand, though, the mode of transportation is a little different - bobbing along an underground river on rubber rings (while wearing super stylish wetsuits and rubber boots). Unfortunately we don’t have any photos of the actual caves, what with them being wet and underground and dark and all, but afterwards we went for a stroll with the family through the forest and the river gorge above.
Our Christmas stockings were stuffed with a selection of New Zealand’s finest sweeties, including such intriguing options as Jaffas, Pineapple Lumps, and lemon & paeroa white chocolate. Taste testing was obviously required, and the Jaffas (orange sugar coating, chocolate inside) emerged the consensus winners. Pineapple Lumps divided the judging panel, but Ollie showed his loyalty by rather impressively devouring a whole pack in 20 minutes in the evening after Christmas lunch.
Christmas dinner, including the requisite NZ lamb and barbecuing (even if it was only because the oven was too full).
A Kiwi Christmas.
A New Zealand bush walk around the slopes of Mt. Pirongia. The nikau palm tree, crazy vines, and other Gondwanaland natural wonders.