Desert

Ron Laughlin The Ultimate New Zealand Travel Guide

Trail of Discovery and Adventure!
by Ron Laughlin - the Guru of New Zealand Travel

the start..............
I actually started this trip the 22nd of December. I had flown in from Christchurch after a 3 hour drive from Oamaru to catch an afternoon flight to Auckland. Picked up my Jucy rental car and headed off into the city to take up residency at the Jucy Hotel downtown.
I really enjoy the staff that work there they are all vibrant and very international. This time there are two guys from Brazil, a girl from Germany, one from France on the desk during my stay. Really enjoyed talking to all of them. They are extremely knowledgeable of the city and are very helpful to their guests here.
A quick clean up and settle in and I was down the street a couple of blocks to my favourite bar in Auckland - the "Orleans". It is reminiscent of and a reminder of my favourite US city I spent a lot of time in - New Orleans - providing good Cajun food and blues music.............I met with a fellow American here that had actually came from Nawlins' 33 years ago and, like me, loved it so much he stayed. So we spent the evening exchanging laughs and stories........
I was a happy puppy................
The next day I met with Kat Van Dyke, marketing manager and sales manager for Jucy............I call her superwoman.
I don't think she sleeps and works constantly.........and with an outrageous smile all the time............Great to be able to
work with her and Jucy on this introduction blog we have named the "Jucy Trail of Discovery and Adventure" for that is
exactly what it is.................
We are having Rachel LoSecco from the US as our guinea pig for this. I had created a personal itinerary for her that
she had requested and it all seemed to fit perfectly and she agreed................so away we go...................

Day One - the 24th of December, Christmas Eve morning.

Talk about a tough start!!!! Rachel's flight was due at 8:15am but she had sent word of a delay getting to LA from Washington so had missed the original flight. Now I wasn't quite sure which one she would be on so I was at the Auckland airport to be there from the first US flight arrival at 7:30am just in case......
To make a long story (for both of us) short after four delays where Rachel's planes had stops in LA, Cook Islands, Raratonga and finally Auckland she arrived at 2:30pm (so much for a straight through flight).
Actually not appearing the worst for wear (I would have been a basket case) our seasoned traveler arrived with a beautiful smile and energy to continue....unbelievable!!!

By the way they had also lost her luggage!!! Oh boy what a trip this was going to be. I hoped I would be able to make the rest of it a bit more comfortable and easier.............(Airport Information for your visit)

So off we went to downtown Auckland and the Jucy hotel that we would call home for a couple of days. Tough time to have normalcy with it being Christmas Eve today and Christmas tomorrow. I had made arrangements for us to visit the Sky Tower todaay and Rachel to do the Sky Tower jump but obviously I had cancelled.

We still had the evening 6pm sailboat sunset dinner cruise on the harbour and after a stop to check in we sat at the bar overlooking the harbour and enjoyed an excellent Kiwi wine while the other people that would join us on the cruise began arriving.... CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!

So after Rachel got settled in to our new abode and freshened up.we took a walk the couple of blocks from the hotel to the main drag of Auckland, Queen Street, where it was semi busy with last minute Christmas Eve shoppers and I introduced Rachel to the city centre, Sky City and the Auckland Harbour area. (Best way to see the city? the Red Bus!)