Pratt/Thor Adventures: New Zealand Day 19 and 20

Yesterday was a long, long travel day. We rode the Northern Rail Line from Wellington to Auckland. It was scheduled for 11 hours but it took over 12 hours due to complications from storm damage in the Auckland area and other slow trains. The last five miles took nearly an hour. We were grateful to exit the train and enjoyed our "leg-stretch" to the hotel for the night, the Auckland Harbour Suites. Betsy and I have a room on the 36th floor with views over the rail station and container port.

We traveled along the coast, mountain areas, river gorges, high plateaus, a couple of engineering feats to allow the train to traverse steep grades, and rich agricultural lands. The photos are all taken from the train as it journeyed on.

We read, listened to books on tape, ate lunch, visited the observation car, which is an open air, grilled flat car from which most of the photos were taken, or just vegetating staring our the window at the passing countryside.

In these clouds, sits the highest mountain on the north Island -- Mt. Ruapehua at 2,797 meters.

A picturesque river canyon.

The back end of the observation car.

The Locomotive.

One of the "spirals" built to accommodate a steep gradient. We went downward so it was no problem. It has several turns, one 360 degree turn and two tunnels.

Several days ago, Auckland got nearly 10 inches of rain in one day. The water flooded some of the city and this is a river where the runoff is still surging.

Our hotel.

The next day, today as I write this, we spent walking from the Tasman Sea across to the Pacific Ocean, on what is called the Coast to Coast Walkway. Betsy and I did this walk 3 years ago from the city southward and I thought it would provide a nice overview of the Auckland area for J&R and L&D. This time we took a bus to Onehunga Bay Reserve and walked northward. The route starts upward through residential areas, rising to One Tree Hill, 182 meters high with 360-degree views. It is the gravesite of John Campbell who gifted the land to the city and requested a memorial to the Maori peoples. We descended through Campbell Park, stopping for tasty lunch at a bistro in the park. Then, after some more walking through residential areas and a college, we ascended Mt. Eden, a volcanic crater at 196 meters high with a perfectly shaped funnel depression (i.e., crater) whose bottom is 56 meters lower. The cone was site of a Maori encampment and the crater is still sacred or tabu. And we finished by passing through the Auckland Domain (a reserve or park) and the University of Auckland. The route ends at the waterfront at 10.2 miles. Since we passed by our hotel, we took a break to clean up and rest, then finished the last half mile or so on the waterfront as an excuse to go to dinner. After walking to the end of the waterfront, we diverted over to Portofino Restaurant for an Italian dinner - 'insalda mistas' and pasta dishes. We strolled back to the hotel with a stop for ice cream.

While waiting for the bus, we saw the SKY Tower. SKY is a TV station.

An unusual arch.

A historic city building.

The sign post guiding our way,

The Maori Memorial on top of One Tree Hill. The one tree died several years ago and the city has planted 6 new ones. The one that thrives the most will become the "one tree."