22 February 2018

Departed San Francisco the evening of Monday 19 February and arrived in Auckland the morning of Wednesday 21 February after a quite pleasant 12 hour flight. Tuesday was nothing more than a dream somewhere over the Pacific. Such are the miracles of air travel.

Auckland is a sprawling city that straddles the North Island. I took advantage of this fact by walking all the way across New Zealand on my first afternoon in the country (it’s only 9 miles). Starting in the industrial west of the city, the Coast to Coast Walkway traverses through neighborhoods of Victorian and colonial houses with their corrugated steel roofs, then through parks, and finally to the central business district and eastern harbors. From One Tree Hill midway along the walk there are spectacular views across the island to the Tasman Sea in one direction and the Pacific Ocean in the other.

Many of the trees in the parks and along the streets are absolutely gorgeous.

Everything is very green, the weather is humid but pleasant, the days are long, and the natives are friendly. The cicadas are noisy, but I’ll get used to that. Today I will explore the city.