Dec 31 tthrough Jan 1 - Double New Year's!

Dec 31 NZ - The First New Year's Eve started with a lot of sun (Yay!) and a drive to the store for champagne and replacing some items for the condo.  Roads were not crowded; however, the construction around the Countdown we use was somewhat problematic - no turns, no U-turns, no easy way into the parking garage without going around multiple blocks.  So we had a little more driving practice than expected.

There was also a mission to find T-shirts today and that required some walking.  Walked a bit more than expected, but we were able to see someone jump from the Sky Tower.  Di will have to put that off until our next visit - not sure her battered feet could stand the landing.  That looked like such a riot... was very close to just doing it!

We found a wonderful Pub for lunch, the Queen's Ferry Hotel.  They say their fish and chips are the "best in town", but they were the best we had in NZ.  We will go back there the next time we visit!

Fuel for the Celebration

Finally found our shirts at a store down Quay street and returned to the condo to blog, pack (hate to leave!), and then rest up for the fireworks.

They have 2 fireworks shows in Auckland - one at the Sky Tower and on in the Harbor.  We napped from 8:30 until 11:30 and had our New Year's snack (cheese, pate, fruit, bread) with Moet & Chandon Rose. 

Perfect Seats for the Show

Then strolled onto the deck and watched (and took videos) of the entire Show in the harbor.  WOW!  We could not have slept through that.









Jan 1 NZ - Alarm at 5:30 to shower, complete packing, and clean the condo so we could meet our ride to the airport at 7:30.  Perfect timing - only slightly rushed, but left the condo as we had wanted and as we found it.  Thanks to Chris and Hillary for the use of their wonderful home!

Dec 31 USA - Halfway through the trip back to Hawaii, we reverted back to Dec 31 again.  The trip was long, but we got in about an hour early.  Rented our vehicle and headed for Kailua.  The rental car guy told us to watch out as Hawaii was banning fireworks starting 1/1 so people would be out blasting off whatever they had and the roads would be very smokey.  Boy was that the truth... fireworks set up on one lane of a 2 lane road, fog-like smoke from it all.  It was surreal. 

Had a late dinner at Denny's and went back to Susan's house.  It rained hard at times, so some 'revelers' postponed the blasting until 1 a.m.

Jan 1 USA - We seemed to drag Seattle weather all over the world.  2011 started out a bit overcast, but cleared enough so we were able to take a dip in and relax by the pool in the afternoon. This was a lazy day.