Our flight time was just over three hours, and after factoring in the two-hour time difference (+ 2hrs in NZ), we still had a few hours to settle ourselves into our accommodation and get our bearings before it was time for a glass of local wine and some dinner.

But it really wasn’t as easy as that!

Auckland Airport is undergoing a massive re-build and nothing was where it was a few days ago, apparently. No one knew where to go. Including us.

I had pre-booked a taxi with the instructions that the driver would meet us near a cafe in the international terminal.

For the first time ever as well, I had purchased an e-sim card and when I had connected to the New Zealand provider it took me awhile to get it to work. I kept pushing different settings on my phone until I got to speak (using WhatsApp) to someone with a strong Indian (?) accent who told me he was waiting for us in the Uber car park – his car was a black Masters car (never heard of it) with a number plate of DXI something something.

I had enough information I thought. So we headed off.

As it turned out, I did not have enough information.

We got lost.

We asked different people who pointed us in different directions, and then after about 20 minutes, and around 1000+ steps, we found it – a black Mazda, number plate DHI something something.

Close.

Once we were checked into our accommodation, we headed down to the main part of the city, Queen Street, to buy some supplies for breakfast and, to get our bearings.

Our apartment is on the 16th floor and the view is pretty impressive.

During our walk, we found a very comprehensive wine shop that had wines from all regions from around the world – except Russia! Well, that was what the young man told us. We decided on a bottle of Pinot Noir from Central Otago, and we were not disappointed.

For dinner we found a restaurant that had a line up of people waiting to get in – always a good sign. Monday apparently was the ‘special night’.

Once inside – we were treated to wonderful hospitality and great food.

We chose the mussels of course, and we weren’t disappointed. Plus some house Pinot Noir – and again – we were not disappointed.

We have an early start tomorrow on our first wine tasting activity to a place I did not know existed before I started planning this trip. A small island off the coast of Auckland has some treats in store for us I believe.