Friday, February 2, 2018

Up, Up in the Air

Auckland Harbor from The Metropolis

Yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday) I felt like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, forever trapped in LAX.  But, airborn we did become finally and stayed such for 15 hours.  We were fortunate enough to be in an exit row with plenty of leg room, unfortunate to be next to the bathrooms where people gathered to chat and stretch.  So, sleep was sporadic.  

View from The Metropolis. Lower right corner is houka land where we had pizza.

We disembarked to a sunny warm Auckland, a nice transport to town, and a lovely 26th floor apartment in The Metropolis.  The location is convenient to restaurants, parks and the harbor.  There are millions of young people (ok thousands) in the area. Auckland University and the University of Auckland are nearby.  Smoking the houka seems to be a favorite pastime for them. All the open air restaurants serve the houka at tables where it is shared around.  

It is brutally as steep here as San Francisco.  We trekked up and down for 30 minutes to the local market, Countdown,  then later realized the same market was a 3 minute walk the other direction. Exhausted from jet lag and mountain climbing, we ate pizza and inhaled second hand houka smoke before retiring early.

The very nice park and wonderful trees adjacent to our apartment.