Day 36 March 8th New Zealand and the United States

Part 1 - New Zealand



leaving Bay of Islands

We started another beautiful day in the Bay of 

different scenery

Islands having to sadly pack and leave this wonderful location.  The weather has been marvellous for our stay and we did not want to leave.  We were all ready and left at about 0930.  The satnav said 

a pointed hill!

about a 4 hour journey to Aukland airport and so we had plenty of time 

undulating countryside

before our 1945 flight. We set off but the satnav had us going on a circuitous route and so it is just as well we had the time.  We did however enjoy some different, unexpected 

last view of Aukland

 scenery and it did not cost us too much time.  We stopped a couple of times for refreshment and eventually arrived after heavy Aukland traffic at about 1430.  We returned the car to the hire station and they gave us a lift to the departure terminal.  We checked in, settled there, had a snack and amused ourselves until the flight was called.  It all went to time and we said goodbye to New Zealand at the correct time.

Our flight was good apart from some minor turbulence and I slept fairly well although Christine was unable to sleep much.

Part 2 United States

 

view from window

We left New Zealand 13 hours ahead of the UK 

from window in other direction

timewise but crossed the dateline and now we are in San Francisco 8 hours behind the UK, which meant that as we landed at 1030 we had most of March 8th to live again.  As you will have gathered we arrived safely and went through customs and 

Golden Gate bridge from walk

Alcatraz from our wharf walk

immigration with no bother and soon found transport to take us to our hotel which is about 20 miles from the airport in the centre of the city.  Apart from time the other noticeable difference was climate - San Francisco was grey and overcast 

part of sea lion colony

with a temperature of 13 (Bay of Islands 22).  We arrived and checked in straight away which was good as we were before normal check-in time.  Our

sea lion pup

room is on the 45th floor overlooking the bay (they upgraded us) and so we are very pleased.  We took some pictures, had a rest, refreshed ourselves and went out for a walk along the wharf front.  We took our coats for the first time of our holiday as it was drizzling at times.  We saw the colony of sea lions with some pups which live on one of the wharfs.  We carried on and chose one of the many fish restaurants for a good meal and wandered back via a different route.