January 3 – 7, 2014
As much as we were enjoying staying in the Viaduct, we came across an offer we couldn’t refuse. A year ago we’d found an incredible deal to stay at a very nice hotel in Auckland called The Langham. While this time of year is busy everywhere else in New Zealand, Auckland is pretty quiet, and the summer holiday is a great time to find hotel deals in this city. Just for the heck of it, Rich checked to see if we could get lucky again, and yep, we sure could! Rich booked us in at the Langham.
For two nights we enjoyed big and comfortable bed, dinners downtown, cable TV, and taking baths! As cruisers we seldom see a bathtub because the hotels we stay in generally aren’t upscale enough to have them. I estimate I’m lucky to get one bath a year, and this year I was having my bath at the Langham! The ultimate luxury? A bath in the morning, followed by a leisurely hot shower. Those two days at the Langham went by so quickly!
During this time we made our final decision as to which marina to stay in: Bayswater Marina on Auckand’s North Shore. The morning of the sixth, we made our way out of the Viaduct, crossed a rather busy channel, and arrived at our new slip and home for the next month. Bayswater wasn’t a place we’d initially wanted to stay, but looking at the other options had made it seem much more appealing by comparison.
Right off, we liked the marina. The area was low-key and pleasant, the people cheerful and friendly. The shower was nice, as was the laundry room. Bayswater was looking to be a good choice for us.
In the parking area they’d planted a butterfly garden with lots of flowers that attracted monarch butterflies. Any marina thoughtful enough to have something like this gets bonus points from us.
There was one downside: something about this location made it susceptible to funneled afternoon winds which happened almost daily. We weren’t thrilled with this aspect of the marina, but by evening the wind would die down. With all the advantages of being here, we decided we could live with the wind.
Meanwhile, we were really looking forward to getting to know the North Shore area and the nice little city of Takapuna (where we’d made our pilgrimage to find a Starbuck’s the year before). We remembered it was a good-size town and expected it would have everything we’d need. At the tip of North Shore’s peninsula was the beautiful and historic resort town of Devonport, another place we hoped to become better acquainted with. (Below, a map of the North Shore area.)
But to enjoy these places, we’d need our car because Bayswater is within walking distance of absolutely nothing. Thus our first morning after arriving, we caught their early-morning ferry to Auckland, then boarded a bus to make a 4-hour (with a lunch stop) trip to the city of Tauranga.
What a strange feeling to step off the bus into the early-summer air of Tauranga. We thought we knew this area, but in fact we’d only been here in the fall. The bright, intense sun and warm air felt strange to us, and wonderful! Tauranga is one of the warmest, sunniest places in New Zealand, and it was particularly apparent that day. We headed to the marina where our friends had had thoughtfully delivered our car so we’d have access it when we arrived (thank you again, Colin and Jeanette, for taking such good care of our car!).
It was a lot of fun to pop in and say hi to everyone at Phil’s Place, the restaurant we’d frequented at the marina. We’d really settled in here on our last visit, and we were warmly welcomed back. We also visited our car-sitting friends Colin and Jeanette. After that, we hit the road and started our drive back up to Auckland. We’d had only a short visit here, but it was so nice that it made us really anxious to get back to Tauranga! But that would have to wait; for now we planned to enjoy the Auckland area and then do some cruising around the islands of the Hauraki Gulf.
It was initially a little depressing to return from sunny warm Tauranga to a blustery, windy afternoon at the Bayswater marina, but it turned out this wasn’t the usual afternoon breeze. It seemed remnants from an Australian cyclone were now hitting Auckland. It turned out to be rather exciting weather once we understood what was going on, and the sky–full of streaky, soupy clouds–was a fantastic sight. The following day the wind was gone, but he warm humid air and streaky clouds lingered. It was a perfect day to go explore our new neighborhood of Takapuna. –Cyndi
