I need to mention something about the sand flies that we encountered on the south island. They look like regular houseflies but are about half to a quarter the size. Although very tiny and unassuming looking, these little bastards are far more insidious than common houseflies. They are bloodsuckers and leave behind some kind of venom or irritant that causes painful, itchy blisters to form. The blisters don’t form until a day or two after the bite and can take two or more weeks to heal. I regret not using the OFF spray recommended to us because my hands and arms have many of these blisters. Lorna was not affected at all, which surprised us considering mosquitos usually avoid me but are attracted to her.

Friday morning after breakfast, we headed out on our 230 km drive to Auckland. Our hosts had warned us that because this was the start of a holiday weekend (Labor Weekend), the roads would be much more congested with travelers. We found this to be true heading into Auckland with bumper-to-bumper traffic. This was the first time this trip that we had had issues with traffic, even after having driven 1447 kilometers since Queenstown.

We arrived at our accommodations, Sebel Suites, in Auckland’s North Bay by the Viaduct around noon. Although not a bed & breakfast, Sebel had all the conveniences of a modern apartment including washer and dryer. The view from our window overlooked the harbor.

After settling in, we stopped at a sushi place that had been recommended to us and then walked around town.

The main drags in Auckland are a lot like big cities anywhere: homeless people sleeping on benches, stores that sell crap that you can get anywhere, and lots of noise. We didn’t waste much time with this so instead went walking down by the harbor.

We found a harbor cruise that we could do the next morning before we had to leave and made arrangements.

We awoke on Saturday morning, our last day, to find it raining. We did the harbor cruise but it sucked.

The bad:

• Near-zero visibility because of the rain
• The ship was shabby with the taint of previous passengers
• There was no escape from carbon monoxide – there must have been something wrong with the boat because the exhaust was redirected back inside the passenger compartments

The good:

• We only had to endure it for 90 minutes, unlike some of the other cruises that were half-day or more

Rather than find something else to do with the remaining time, we went to the airport and checked in. We gained a day with the flight back so even though we left Auckland on Saturday night, arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, and connected to Phoenix.

Although it was good to be home, it would have been nice to stay longer to visit some of the places, both wine-related and not, that we didn't get a chance to visit. Maybe in a few years after we have had a chance to visit some of the other wine regions on our bucket list.

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