January 3rd was our last long car trip -- from Kaitaia to Auckland on NZ Hwy. 1. Driving into the city (where we had a B&B booked out by the airport) we decided to drive-and-hike to the top of One Tree Hill that affords some spectacular 360-degree views of the city. The hill has "a history" to it! There was a sacred tree (to the Maori people) which was chopped-down by English settlers in 1852. To replace the "sacred tree" the Brits planted a Monterey pine that for many years was the "one tree" atop the hill. However, in about 2000 Maori activists chopped-down that tree so that today no tree stands on the hill -- only a monument to the Maori people which was dictated by John Logan Campbell who eventually gifted the land to the city. From the top of the hill there's a great view of downtown Auckland.
At the base of the giant monument is a statue of a Maori fighter.We are two nights in a B&B near the airport, so tomorrow (1/4) we plan to take a bus into town and spend the day exploring the central business district and also taking a ferry across the harbor. Then, early on the 5th we will be at the airport for a JetStar flight back to Christchurch -- to connect with our Air Asia flight to KL. - rw
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