Wednesday – February 25, 2026 – Auckland
Today’s featured photo is a screen capture of a macadamia nutcracker. More about that in today’s text.
This was our second day in Auckland, and the weather today was just as beautiful as it was on Tuesday. Our excursion today didn’t begin until after 1:00 pm so we had the morning to do some exploring. We decided we were going to make another trip to Woolworths (because you can never have too much of either Mountain Dew or popcorn) and see if we could find a nutcracker for the macadamia nuts given to me in Mexico.
According to Siri, there was a hardware store on the next pier over from ours. On our way off the ship we asked the security personnel if we could bring back a pair of pliers. Answer – “NO”. We asked if we could bring back a nutcracker. Answer – “YES”. As we walked down the gangplank and were greeted by New Zealand personnel, we asked them for suggestions of stores that might carry nutcrackers. They said a large store named The Warehouse. We found one on a map about 4 blocks from us. We walked over to the next pier only to find that access to one side was restricted to passengers on another cruise ship – and that is the side that showed the presence of a hardware store. Upon further checking we determined the hardware store did not exist there anymore. I looked on The Warehouse website to see if they carried a nutcracker and, sure enough, they did! However, if you look at today’s photo, you will see the words “Delivery Only”. Well, that scrubbed our walk to The Warehouse.
We ambled over to Woolworths and bought more Mountain Dew and popcorn. Jan said she actually likes this popcorn better than what we bought in Hilo. We now have 5 bags of popcorn to sustain us for the remainder of the voyage.
In the early afternoon we boarded our small van (21 people or so) driven and narrated by Richard (from Britian via Barcelona). Richard provided many interesting stories about his time in Auckland and the history of the area. We were on our way to a small area of Auckland named Devonport. Along the way we saw black swans, children leaving school for the day (including Richard’s 12-year-old daughter), 140-year-old houses built with material from British ships and sacred Māori sites. We stopped at one of the sacred sites on a mountain that provided a great view of the area – Maungauika. We also saw the cemetery where Eru Patuone (famous Māori chief) is buried. Richard let us off on Albert Street (named after Queen Victoria’s husband) and we took the time to explore.
We had been told that another place to look for a nutcracker was an Op Shop. There were 3 in Devonport but only 1 was open – and that shop did not have a nutcracker. Kelsey found a store to have some gelato, and we had a chance to look at some real estate for sale. We saw an ad for a small bungalow for only $2,899,000 NZ ($1,739,400 US).
Completing our walk through the business district of Devonport we headed to the pier to take a ferry across the bay. The ferry arrived at 5:20 and we were back by our ship by 5:40.
There are several photos and videos as we said “Good-bye” to Auckland. I would welcome the opportunity to return and spend more time in this area.
These are the photos from our second day in Auckland.
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