Friday 27 February 2026
Queen Mary 2 could not berth in either of the Auckland cruise ports since she’s an ocean liner and has a deeper draft than a cruise ship so were berthed in the container port northeast of downtown Auckland, New Zealand. After a quick breakfast at the King’s Court Buffet, we were off the ship, into a tour van, and on our way just minutes after eight o’clock in the morning. Our driver Mairi made a quick stop to pick up our guide Warren outside of the port gates and we were on our way for a Waitākere West Coast Wilderness adventure! . As we headed off Warren peppered us with many facts about the natural and cultural history of New Zealand as well as tidbits about modern life here. The land here in the city of Auckland is geologically young, formed within the last 200 thousand years as part of the Auckland volcanic field involving fifty-three volcanoes. Of those only Rangitoto Island off the coast is still warm from its last eruption 600 years ago, within memory of the Māori. This area also has a young human history. The Māori were the first humans settling here only about eight hundred years ago. The 1.8 million people of Auckland are a population of intermarried Māori, Polynesian, and Europeans with the Māori language taught in the schools. Soon we were at the Aritaki Visitors Center named with the Māori word meaning to guide or lead, at the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park. With a name that means sparkling water, this location is spectacular! Mairi introduced us to the ancestors of a local Māori tribe depicted on a kauri pou (like a totem pole) before we entered the visitors center to learn more about the kauri and kauri gum, the kiwi, and threats to New Zealand ecology before heading out on a trek along the Beveridge Track to learn about the silver tree fern with its white or silver on the underside of its leaves, which has been a symbol of New Zealand identity since 1888, the Māori weaving plant, and lots of other plants unique to this land as we made our way to a point where we could look across the Auckland Isthmus from the Tasman Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean on the east! Then for the next part of this adventure in the wild west of the North Island, we made our way to Piha Beach with Lion Rock and magnetic black sand. We watched surfers catching the waves before we joined Warren for a trek to The Gap to watch spectacular surf crashing and to marvel at the incredible geology. Back in the city of Auckland we opted to get dropped off at The Cloud and to poke around town in the vicinity of Queens Wharf for a bit before catching the ship’s shuttle bus back to enjoy views of sailboats in the harbor of this City of Sails from the windows of the Commodore Club on Deck 9 as we relaxed before dinner and celebrated yet another fabulous adventure! Then after dinner, as the sun was setting, we enjoyed the opportunity to watch some containers from around the world being transferred to holding areas or transferred to trucks for delivery to points across New Zealand.
This is awesome!