Trip date: December 2023
There are no direct flights from Seattle to Aotearoa (Auckland) and it's an incredible distance of over 7000 miles! So I chose to "reposition" to Honolulu and, after spending a few days there, flew 9 1/2 hours on Hawaiian Air Business Class.
I had transferred 130K points from Amex to Hawaiian and paid $44 in taxes. The cash price was $3514 giving me a $2.66 CPP, definitely one of my best redemptions! The configuration on the A330 was 2-2-2 so in order to not have anyone crawling over me to get to the aisle I chose seat 1G which was bulkhead & aisle. This was a basic biz class with layflat bed, not a posh pod set up with any real frills, but plenty of room, good food, and cute "flip flop" slippers.
Also they offered both Aviation cocktails and pineapple daiquiris during the flight!
I landed around 10pm and it was very quick getting thru customs & passport control. I took an Uber to Ponsonby area where I met up with my friends who had come in earlier in the day. Another friend of mine who lives in Aotearoa but unfortunately was out of town, had lent us her house! We had 2 days in the city before setting out to explore the rest of the country, and then I would have another 3 days at the end of the trip.
One of Aotearoa's most impressive sights is the Auckland War Memorial Museum. We spent a few hours here learning about the history of New Zealand, going through the thousands of Maori artifacts, looking at the incredible exhibits of taxidermied animals and birds collected throughout the country, and trying to understand the incredible journeys that were made in small wooden boats in order to discover the 1000+ islands that make up Polynesia!
This was a perfect first stop and we ended talking about so many of the things we saw here over the next 2 weeks of traveling!
Aotearoa is a beautiful city and we took in some incredible views at Mount Eden / Maungawhau. We had an Uber drop us off about midway and then walked the rest up to. This dormant volcano is the highest point in the city and if it is clear you can see quite far!
For a completely different type of view, we went to Sky Tower to watch people bungee jump off the top! Tickets up the tower run $47NZD but we made reservations for just the bar and didn't have to pay anything! We ordered a couple of rounds of drinks but there wasn't even a minimum when we were there.
At the end of my travels around New Zealand I spent another 3 days in the city, this time at the Park Hyatt for 20k points per night, transferred from Chase. The hotel sits right down at the marina, which was a new area for me, and my room was crazy big and modern.
My friend Gail was staying nearby at the Hilton, also right at the marina, which made it super easy for us to meet at the ferry dock for a day trip to Waiheke Island. This little island is just 45 minutes away by boat and is known for its vineyards and beaches. We bought our ferry tickets along with hop on/hop off bus tickets all together and in advance.
First stop for us was lunch in the town of Oneroa. We decided on VinoVino as their deck looks straight out onto the ocean. The views were fab, the food was fine- not surprising considering the view!
From here we jumped back on the bus and rode out to TeMotu Winery We had a nice walk from the bus stop to the winery and then had a great time sitting outside tasting their Bordeaux style reds near the vineyards.
When we were done, we walked a short way to the neighboring winery, Tantalus. Unfortunately we arrived right before closing but they were very nice to pour us a few tastes before we set out for the bus again.
It does take a bit of time with the bus to get around so if I were to recommend this I'd say get out their early, like before lunch, and just plan on eating at one of the vineyards so that you can make a whole day of it.
We also went sailing one evening with Explore Group which was awesome! We had a 2 ½ hour sail around Waitematā Harbour which included dinner and drinks! The boat came back in right after sunset so the views were just fantastic! Highly recommend!
As far as eating and drinking goes, I had a few very good, casual lunches while running around different parts of town. In Ponsonby, we had lunch at the very historic looking Hotel Ponsonby. And on Federal Street, right downtown, we really enjoyed our oysters and the snapper sliders at The Depot! Also in the central area is Odettes which is not just delicious but also really cute! And at the marina we went to White and Wongs which is a good mix of Chinese, Hong Kong, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Thai style foods.
And although we all liked our dinner at Metita, it wasn't overly memorable for some reason. Maybe being inside a big hotel was part of it, maybe we were just all tired. YMMV!
Our best night started at Caretaker where we had some really great cocktails. It's a speakeasy style bar with fantastic bartenders and it just happened to be my birthday so they were extra nice!
And just around the corner we had a fantastic 4-course tasting menu dinner at Mr. Morris. We had chosen to sit up at the pass here and were treated to being served directly from the chefs. Dinner was paired with some really interesting wines too. It was a great birthday!
Another great place for cocktails is ACS, a speakeasy that is part of the Broken Lantern tavern group in Ponsonby. I won't say too much, as it is one of the most hidden speakeasies I have been to, but suffice to say it is worth the search!
All Auckland photos here.
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