Arriving in Auckland - and Glenn the tour guide

Arriving in Auckland - and Glenn the tour guide

From the departure lounge at Heathrow, to the arrivals gate at Auckland, it took around 30 excruciatingly long hours. That included a brief finger-printing intrusive stop-over at Los Angeles. LAX by the way is one of the dingiest airports I've been too. Looks like it had its finest day circa 1986. I've got no idea what Rachel Stevens was singing about. Mind you I suppose 'my sweet dreams my BHX' doesn't quite have the same ring.



Dr Richard William Naylor PhD

When I finally arrived in Auckland, I sat in the arrivals lounge waiting for my friend Rich to pick me up. Now, for those of you who don't know Richard William Naylor - he is one of life's 'characters'. He's a cross between Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory and Stephen Merchant. He happens to be king of the nerds, the brainiest guy I know - and one of my oldest, and bestest, friends.
Rich and I have known each other for almost 25 years. We went to the same play school group, then onto the same infants, junior and secondary schools. We played in the same football team, went on holidays to Borth and even hit the clubbing scene of Faliraki together.

After university - and after obtaining his PhD (told you he was brainy), Rich moved to Boston in the good old US of A. He then moved to Auckland, where he now lives. He's tried explaining what it is he does - but all I've been able to ascertain is that it involves a laboratory, a bunsen burner, a white jacket, kidneys and a tank of fish.

We've rarely seen each other over the past ten years but whenever he's made it home we've always met up and it's always been like picking up exactly where we've left off.

Rich met me at Auckland International and immediately drove me to Mount Eden, just on the outskirts of the city, so I could get my first glimpse of Auckland. It truly is a beautiful city.

It was great to see Rich - but for week one of my trip I was pretty much on my own. Rich was at work still so the days were my own - that meant it was time to go exploring.

Without sounding too smug, especially given the arctic-biting temperatures back home, the weather in New Zealand was rather pleasant. Whilst snow drifts brought parts of the UK to a standstill and, as my Dad dug himself through the snow into my house in Dudley, I was exploring Auckland in temperatures of around 25 degrees at the tail-end of one of New Zealand's hottest summers for many, many years.

The city is great - but where you want to be is out on the harbour; taking the ferry out to the nearby ports and islands like Devonport or - my personal favourite - Waiheke Island.

I took a mini bus tour of Waiheke Island when I was there. It turned out to be one of the more amusing guided tours I'd take on my travels.

Glenn was our tour guide. A middle-aged guy with a thick head of white hair; Glenn looked like the unfortunate love child of failed US Presidential candidate John Kerry and former Wolves boss Mick McCarthy.

Glenn was driving the blue, 12-seater minibus which would take us around one of the most beautiful islands I've ever been to. I was joined on the tour by a group of elderly American tourists with Hawaiian shirts, baseball caps and some rather fetching socks and sandles combos.

I should also mention that Glenn had a lisp, which, when you're a tour guide reciting the history of an island through a minibus sound system from 1976, makes understanding him a tad tricky. That said, five minutes in, Glenn was cracking a mother-in-law joke. Like a Kiwi Les Dawson. I liked Glenn.

We made our way across the island, taking in some of the stunning landscapes and lounging around on almost deserted sun-kissed beaches. But it was on the way back to the ferry when Glenn came into his own. We drove through one village on the island when Glenn announced over the crackling tannoy that the locals on this part of the island were "all a bit Cadbury's". The Americans on board looked at each other, clearly very confused. Glenn then finished - "you know, they're all a bit fruit and nuts". The Americans still looked baffled...I chuckled quietly to myself.

My first week was all about discovering Auckland, discovering the local islands and soaking up the city's rich and diverse cutlure and cuisines. But week two was all about 'Jay and Rich's week of fun!'. Rich was booking a week off work and we were going on a road trip!

It would take us to egg-smelling towns, glow-worm caves, a nap in parliament and a ride on the 'vomit comet'. But more of that in my next instalment.

Auckland is a wonderful city which I fell head over heels for. So, I'll end this blog with a tribute to the Kiwi's greatest (and only?) music export...oh and, fortuntately it turns out that you don't take the weather with you at all. There wasn't a flake of snow in sight...