Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city and is as big as you would think it would be. Luckily, we decided to take an excursion that took us out to the countryside. There were only nine people plus the driver and the guide on the trip, so it was so much more intimate and friendly than the bigger tours.

Our first stop was the mandatory stop for tea. Boric Food Market looks like the baby of Sprouts and Trader Joe’s. It was fun seeing the cheeses, meats and produce, and tea on the back porch was “delightful.”

Our next stop was west of Auckland at Muriwai Beach. It is a stunning beach up against a bluff and has black sand due to volcanic activity. The beach is known for its surfing and for its colony of gannets. There are also tui birds hiding in the bushes.

Alan went up the bluff on a short hike to see the gannets and the tui birds while BJ stayed on the bottom and watched the surf.

He also got to watch the gannets soaring on the currents and nesting on the bluff.

We then moved on to our final destination of the day, The Vineyard Cottages. It is a lovely vineyard with 9 guest cottages and would make a wonderful place to stay outside of Auckland, if only you could get used to the “wrong” side driving! There, we had a wonderful lunch and a wine tasting with it.

We left the Vineyards, reluctantly since it was so peaceful, and got back to the ship with 15 minutes to spare before gangplank up time! No worries, right?

The skyline of Auckland was beautiful as we left in the late afternoon.

Again the tug boat made doughnuts to say goodbye.

Goodbye to New Zealand. Hopefully, we can come back some day. What an amazing place. Now it’s three days of crossing the Tasman Sea and then we are in Melbourne, back in Australia. More about that later.