| Awesome
Auckland
By Steve MacNaull
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| It feels
like my own personal episode of The Amazing Race.
I jet to Auckland in 14 hours on New Zealand Air’s new non-stop from Vancouver and immediately jump off the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.
In Waitemata Harbour I’m put to work grinding on the America’s Cup yacht NZL40 putting up and pulling down sails In between I catch a small plane to Great Barrier and hike to the highest point on the island to take in the view at Windy Canyon. But the trip also includes a Maori art tour, tastings at wineries and olive groves, fine dining, beaches and shopping. It all shows that Auckland is a destination for whatever you are seeking.Travel to Auckland is so much easier now with the first ever non-stop flight between Canada and New Zealand. This month Air New Zealand started flying the new Vancouver-Auckland route three times a week with return fares starting at $1,209, plus taxes and fees.
For my Sky Jump I don a Super Dave Osborne-style blue and yellow jumpsuit with a lighting bolt across the chest. After being outfitted with a heavy duty harness I’m put in the elevator of the 328-metre Sky Tower and sent to The Observatory level at 192 metres. Before hopping onto the jump platform I’m given some safety pointers and double hooked to the wire that will let me free fall, but not hit the pavement. I get a quick view of the city, the water and islands beyond and three, two, one, I plunge and travel 75 kilometres an hour in 11 seconds to the target below. I like it so much I jump again, this time backwards. ”It’s a buzz, isn’t it?” asks the jump crew’s Kevin Carter. ”Everyone is happy after they’ve done it, most because it’s a thrill, some because they’re glad it’s over. We have ‘chicken’ t-shirts for those that back out at the last second.” I take the glass-bottomed elevator up a third time to take a more leisurely look at Auckland, which is New Zealand’s largest city with a population of 1.4 million. Located on a narrow part of the country’s North Island, the city is surrounded on three sides by water and features 50 outer islands - all formed by 48 spouting volcanos, that are now long dormant. Sky Tower is part of the huge downtown Sky City complex, which includes a casino, shops, restaurants, convention centre and two hotels, Sky City and Sky City Grand, where I stayed. Tourism operators in New Zealand have taken their trade up a notch by offering as much interactive and meet-real-Kiwis-in-their-homes product. For instance, on the Bush and Beach Eco-Tours’ day at Great Barrier Island we had lunch with Helen Mabey in her farmhouse. The widow and her sons run a 4,500-sheep farm that also sports incredible beachfront. As such lunch includes fish tarts with snapper Helen caught the day before and the farm tour features range land full of sheep and the shearing shed.
Great Barrier also has vast swathes of gorgeous uncrowded beaches and good tramps (the New Zealand word for hikes) through the jungle to Kaitoke Hot Springs and through Windy Canyon to enjoy the views from the highest point on the island. The Potiki Adventures art tour includes some galleries and tea and cookies in the home of Maori painter Sofia Minson. And, my favourite, the Explore NZ outing on the America’s Cup yacht NZL40 where I get to grind to help put the sails up and down and even get to steer for a while, when we’re in open water, of course. “This is a great way to get out on the water and see the city,” says NZL40’s skipper Raynor Smeal. ”You also have the chance to get involved in the sailing if you want or just sit back and watch if you want.” Smeal may be over-qualified for taking tourists out, but she loves it. She is on the New Zealand three-woman keel team and will likely be competing at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing. A 40-minute ferry ride gets you to Waiheke Island, where not only grapes are grown for wine, but olives are grown for olive oil. Rangihoua Olive Mill is set up like a winery with a tour and tasting room where you’ll find out by dipping in bread and testing that some oils are buttery, others appley. At Obsidian Winery our tour is greeted by sales and marketing manager Janet MacKay, a transplanted Canadian from Halifax. She’s passionate about the vintages, especially the Bordeaux-style winery namesake The Obsidian, a smooth red blend. Waiheke Island isn’t suited for growing New Zealand’s most famous grape - the pungent sauvignon blanc - so it concentrates on cool climate reds like merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec, syrah and cabernet franc. At nearby Mudbrick Winery they are most proud of their syrah and merlot-cab. Mudbrick also has a spectacular restaurant in a stone and timber French-style manor where the view includes lots of gardens, vineyards, water and the Auckland skyline in the distance. Waiheke Island is also home to numerous beaches. I had the chance to eat at three of Auckland’s hottest restaurants, which, of course, feature inspired wine pairings. New Zealand’s most famous chef Peter Gordon has Dine in the lobby of the Sky City Grand Hotel. Gordon’s also a cookbook author and has restaurants in New York City and London, England. The Hawkes Bay rack of lamb at Dine went beautifully with the Waitaki Valley 2004 Main Divide pinot noir. At The Engine Room on North Shore - deemed Restaurant of the Year by Metro magazine - the corn-fed chicken and mashed potatoes was made for the Millton Briant voignier. And at Soul on Viaduct Harbour the roasted snapper with saffron potatoes went well with the St. Clair sauvignon blanc. Just so you don’t think it was all gourmet, there was also a meal of nachos and beer in The Loaded Pig pub, also on Viaduct Harbour. If you go:
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