Wednesday – Auckland then home!

Well it’s our last day in Auckland. I’m writing this summary from the airport. There is actual working internet terminals here unlike the other airports.

We spent the morning at the Sky City Tower.4800 We had purchased a voucher pack and had tickets left to this attraction and Rainbow’s End. After one last long look at the Auckland sky & sea we headed over to Rainbow’s End.

Upon arriving at Rainbow’s End, I had some trepidations from our previous experience here: half the rides were closed for maintenance. This time though, everything was fully operational. It is odd though because we were one of very few people in the park so we essentially had the park to ourselves. We would ask the attendant (usually one or two per area) to turn on the ride and we rode whatever the kids wanted to ride. In retrospect it was much better than waiting in line endlessly to board a ride. We rode Go-Carts, Electric-Cars, Gold Rush roller coaster, Bumber boats, Dragon Coaster, and saw a couple of features in the new simulated motion rides. The kids also had fun at the CastleLand: moonwalks, and various rides for smaller kids.

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After spending most of the day we headed for dinner a “Catch Restaurant.” The food here was quite good as I wolfed down a New York Strip Steak and Marge had Spinach Chicken.

It’s been a great experience visiting New Zealand. We were however disappointed with the NZ Government by hitting us with a $50 NZD “departure” tax. What a scam. The Air New Zealand Airflight people at the Auckland airport here were rude as well. Especially an older woman named SUE that works the Air New Zealand counter. I would have gotten her full name but she hid her tag under her suit the whole time. We’ll definitely avoid Air New Zealand and fly Qantas or some other airline if we ever return to NZ.

One final note: We’ve seen more rainbows in NZ in the past 18 days than I’ve seen my entire life. This is a remarkable place.