We spent our last day in New Zealand climbing and enjoying the view from the top of Mt. Eden. Before you envision us emulating Sir Edmund Hillary, I should tell you that climbing Mt. Eden means walking up the paved pedestrian pathway from the parking lot to the summit about 600 feet above. In other words, it’s a nice, easy walk. And the view from this highest point in Auckland really is pretty cool.
Mt. Eden is what’s left of a volcano that last erupted about 1,500 years ago, according to the volcano scientists. I’m relying on their estimates because humans only came to New Zealand about 800 years ago. Most if not all of Auckland is in big trouble if it ever erupts again, but it had the good taste not to erupt today.
After our descent, we returned to our hotel. Because of our dinner plans and our 7 a.m. flight tomorrow, we decided to get showered and packed up this afternoon. And that’s what we did, all while watching the Oscar telecast live. You know how the hosts always mention the world-wide audience of hundreds of millions? I suspect it’s true. The ABC telecast was carried live here on New Zealand’s Channel 2. And it did not bleep out Spike Lee’s “mother-f#$%&r.” We had to leave right after Olivia Colman won Best Actress in order to meet cousins David, Anthea and Izzy for dinnner.
Dinner was lovely, and we said our goodbyes. Back at the hotel, I dropped off Roslyn while I went to the nearest gas station to fill up the rental car we’ll be dropping off in several hours. Gasoline here is expensive. It’s $2.16/litre here, which works out to almost $6.00/gallon in American dollars.
I will not miss that. I will not miss driving here; the other drivers are very aggressive and the streets and roads hardly have any straight stretches. And in the cities, streets are marked so cavalierly that they might as well not be marked at all. Even New Zealanders complain about it.
But the people are friendly and outgoing and a pleasure to be among. And it is so beautiful here. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever come back here, but I’ll be thrilled if I do.
Tomorrow we fly back to Sydney for our final two days of our trip. We have lunch plans with another of Roslyn’s cousins we’ve never met, and then I’m not sure what.