My hubs has been in Denver for 20 years. He's been attending what he refers to as his "Gadget Meeting" the entire time. A friend in his meeting is a retired United pilot and offered a last minute FREE!!!!! trip to New Zealand, all on standby, all with flexi dates. And we said yes. So instead of returning to Denver from Syracuse, I flew to San Francisco to hook up with them before the long flight.
All of the pilot's calculations on United's internal site are based on "loads" in each class. He is an electrical engineer by training, very good with numbers. Anyway, he did his magic and we ended up with the second level of service, Business First, with a reclining bed! Very nice. It's quite comparable to domestic first class but with a reclining seat. International first class is a whole other animal.
But first, we goofed big time, dashed for a quick munch one hour before the flight and left the pilot to schlep all of our bags downstairs to the gate area without us. Horrible! We felt so bad.
Day one, we snagged a two room hotel room, and then we took a two hour bus tour of Auckland, NZ's major city. It was a very nice history and with our Maori driver, we also had the cultural background pointed out to us. She recommended we go to Te Puia for their tour, a cultural site of the Maori near Rotorua. We stayed in Auckland next to the spire, but did not dine there, and we had a fantastic Chinese lunch, there are loads of international cuisine choices throughout NZ and many of them are Asian. For dinner we stayed close to home and dined at the Admiral Nelson next door. They have Date Toffee Pudding instead of the UK's Sticky Toffee Pudding but we abstained. Anytime we found Frozen Yogurt we stopped for the pilot, he is a nut about it, as well as all things chocolate:)
Day two we headed to Roturua, a beautiful lakeside area with a lot of geothermal activity nearby. We stopped first near Hobbiton, but there were no available tours for over two hours. Make advanced reservations. It was crazy beautiful everywhere, but especially in this countryside. That night the hubs and I did the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua and it was incredible. Our concrete block hotel with three of it's own hot springs pools reminded me of FL in the 60's. Outside at the Polynesian Spa, the furthest pool is next to the lake and we had dozens of seagulls squawking while we sat in the pool.
The third day we did the Te Puia cultural center, took in the history of the Maori, and watched a cultural dance. Then we toured the hot mud pit, six to ten meters deep and watched the 30 foot geyser go off. Our guide then waltzed us through the Kiwi hut and gave us the opportunity to see this endangered, chicken-sized bird. They burrow, they hate light and it was very dark in the viewing area. They only allowed photos of the stuffed bird. After that we did a treetop tour of the NZ American Redwoods, which were planted 110 years ago. They grow very well in Roturua. The moisture has them grow more than ten times faster than they do in California and they are thriving! Beautiful grove of gigantic trees, some already nearly three feet across in diameter.
We finished the day at the magical Waitomo Glow Worm caves. This was a top three ever site for all of us. Really amazing cave structures, a cathedral like area and then, of course, the glow worms. It was spectacular. A quiet hushed boat trip on the river with zero light, powered by a man pulling us along on ropes with the incredible worms phosphorescence above us ended the tour.
Day four was a road trip to the Taupo area on another lovely lake. We stopped at the Wellesley hotel with "The Lazy Trout" restaurant. It was a lovely log cabin like building but while our room was expansive with a suite, the pilots' was very, very small. The next day our clerk suggested we do the Coromandel coast, view their colorful Christmas trees in bloom (which look like a bottlebrush) and visit lovely Sailors Grave Beach. Listed as one of the top 10 beaches in New Zealand and we were able to walk out onto it where a river flows into the South Pacific Ocean. We lunched in town and had a lovely view of the bay while eating.
Then it was back to Auckland and a decision on a return date based on loads. Our driver was spent and catching a cold by then (Hubs). But he also didn't want either of us to drive. And as it turned out hotels were hard to find. We were all hunting, but Hubs hit gold with a Best Western near the airport. We stopped downtown so I could get some souvenirs for family and then headed to the hotel. Dinner was at the Holiday Inn next door but it could not have been any better! A lovely buffet with all of NZ's best, Lamb, butter, ice creams, several Indian entrees, some delectable shrimp, mussels, oysters on the half shell and fresh fish, along with steamed vegetables including asparagus. Pilot and I had both traveled a lot and rule of thumb was never eat at a hotel, but this surprised us both. Thank you New Zealand for a fast and furious North Island trip!
The loads were so good we made it all the way into first class! *sigh* So good! Day one of Polaris class and United did it right. Came home well rested on a coach flight from San Francisco. Thank you pilot!
