Auckland Started Out Awkward. . .

We were to arrive in Auckland late on Friday night -- about 10:15.  I figured that meant around an 11:15 arrival at the VRBO apartment I had booked in the CBD (cool people know that's non-American for "Central Business District" -- which isn't the first thing that shows up on Google for "CBD" so, um, moving on).

Boy, was I ever wrong,  We got into the rental condo around 4am thanks to a storm and a South African.  The storm not only delayed our short flight from Canberra to Sydney, but wreaked all sorts of havoc, including hail and lightning strikes in the Rocks area of Sydney.

Upon arrival in Sydney, the shuttle bus driver taking us from the domestic terminal to the international terminal told us we wouldn't make it on time, but he'd take us over anyhow (nice of him to do his job.  I felt like channeling Bill Belicheck -- "Do your job.").  Showed him -- we beat the flight by five hours.  So, rushing through immigration and running to the gate (between our two bad knees, that means Carol and I have two good knees -- glass half full!) got us to the gate ten minutes before the flight was to take off, and over five hours before it actually did.  Something to do with the pilot and crew unable to arrive.

Just like American airlines do, Qantas gave us vouchers good for $20 of food each (oh, wait, American airlines don't do that at all for delays of that length!).  The annoying part was they kept delaying the take-off time by 30 minutes, so it was clear they had no earthly idea where their pilot was.  The gate guy (A+ for not losing his patience with us all) kept telling people that "the pilot is in the airport," but either that was wrong at the time, or the pilot walks slower than the dude learning to walk by putting "one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking" to the gate in that animated classic, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

Then, once we finally boarded, an older woman nearly had a breakdown.  She was sitting across the aisle across from me, one row back.  The flight attendants patiently tried talking to her at length (the word "tried" does NOT imply success for a reason).  Here's something you don't hear very often in US carriers -- the announcement asking "does anyone speak Afrikaans?"

And, what are the odds, the guy in the middle seat across the aisle from me, turns around and starts translating.  Turns out her son is supposed to be coming from Bangkok and meet her on the flight, and since he wasn't on the flight, she was scared (well, I gave her a pass).  They went back and forth -- at one point she got off the flight, but I think it was just to check on him.  She came back on, and they calmed her down a bit longer before we finally took off.  I'm pretty certain an American carrier would have booted her rather than slow the flight down so much.

Then, because of construction, our cabbie couldn't figure out how to get us to the condo.  So, he dropped us 500 yards away, and told us to walk.  However, he had us making three right turns to get there.  When I pointed out we could get there much faster making one left turn, he pursed his lips, squinted at his phone, and nodded his head, as though I had just solved a particularly difficult math theorem.

But, at least the condo was hard to get into.  And the lift was so small that, with our luggage, we could only go up one at a time.

Luckily, the first activity I had booked for Saturday morning wasn't until 10:45 am, so since I slept till 8:45, that meant I got a solid 4.5 hours of sleep.  Carol rounded up to 5.  Fortunately, a 7/11 type c-store was right around corner (similar colors, and entitled "7" -- so either 7/11 owns the chain, OR the chain is getting away with near infringement of some sort), so I stocked up on bananas (oh c'mon, click on the link!  Or, Pierre, at least this one: banana!), yoghurt (NZ spelling), cereal, water, diet Coke for Carol, and, of course, Tim Tams (best cookie ever).

We walked over to our first activity -- America's Cup Sailing (btw, the condo was in a great location. . .we walked to every event and meal!).  We were to go out on an old America's Cup boat from the last time the race was held in Auckland -- 2003.  It was built for Japan's entry, and apparently they finished in the top eight (As Yoda would say, fact check that should you).

Anyhow, the boat goes out in Waitemata Harbor (so large it is bigly) for two hours (according to the website) or three hours (according to the sign at the dock).  There's a crew of four, and about 20 passengers.  We weren't the youngest, but we did bring down the average age.

The idea is very cool, but without wind it was not quite as thrilling.  I did get to help crew the boat, steering at one point, and winding the grinders at another.  (If you don't know what a grinder does, don't feel bad -- not everyone can be the America's Cup boat expert that we are -- of course, until then I had no idea either).  They tried searching for wind, hoisting one crew member up the mainsail, as well as using their wind apps.

But it was all in vain.  So, we packed it in, offered a chance to do it that afternoon, when there was supposed to be more wind, or a voucher for a free trip next time we are in Auckland (love the town, but not sure we'll ever be back -- and, alas friends, it is non-transferrable, unless you look like me and have a fake ID with my name on it, then you are welcome to it).

It was still neat to see the huge harbor, all the ships, the surrounding islands, the harbor bridge (not nearly as famous as the Sydney Harbor Bridge, but I didn't mention that the Kiwis -- no point, really), all four cruise ships, the other boats, etc.  Still we disembarked with a sense that we had missed out on a potentially amazing experience.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Auckland -- just hope there's wind that day (most days this is, but to be fair, the company can't control the weather).

The upside is that we had time for a great lunch at one of the many restaurants dotting the harbor.  Portofino's -- so we opted for Italian.  The waiter told us how much he enjoyed his trip to the US, and was positively rapturous when he talked about NYC.  That was fun.