Thursday, October 12.2023

Kia Ora is welcome, hello, or be healthy in the Maori language. (The Maori are the largest indigenous group in New Zealand.)

We are in Auckland, New Zealand, about 1500 miles east of Sydney, across the Tasman Sea. We arrived late yesterday, and today is our first opportunity to get a taste of the city.

Auckland is a harbor city like Sydney, albeit a much smaller one (5 million vs 1.75 million). As it turns out, our hotel is directly on the harbor at Princes Wharf.  Most of the photos here were taken from our room’s balcony.

The Ferry Building, which in addition to being a marine transportation site is also home to various shops and eateries

The lobby of our hotel, in keeping with the nautical surroundings

The most interesting thing we did today was to visit The Weta Workshop, a film and video studio on the cutting edge of movie and TV technology. While a very small nation (less than 6 million people), New Zealand has an outsized influence on the movie industry, being home to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.

That is me, a temporary alien life form

After visiting Weta, we stopped for lunch at the Federal Deli, a so-called NY style restaurant. Surprisingly, the matzo ball soup was well worthy of the NY comparison. It’s a small world after all.

On to Friday, our last full day in New Zealand.