Heading Home

Our last day in New Zealand was the 29th of April. Since our plane did not take off until just before midnight, we had the whole day in Auckland.
We spent our time in the Auckland Museum.  Since it did not begin life as a museum, but rather as a war memorial, it feels a little chopped up and confusing to get around in.  We paid for the Maori performance, but thought it was not as good as the village performance we had seen before in Rotorua.  If we had not seen so many museums before, maybe we would have been more impressed.
One part that we had not seen covered in prior museums was a room devoted to the New Zealand Wars. We knew the Maori had fought the whites, but the extent of the disagreements aka wars had been a bit glossed over in other museums.  The other museums had glorified the Treaty of Waitangi , but had not mentioned the wars that came after from 1845 to 1872.  The war cry was Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake, ake, ake (We will fight you forever and ever and ever).  The Maori were valiant warriors  but they were overwhelmed by the shear numbers of the English army and settlers.

Outside the museum 

Maori Carvings

Maori kite

Giant Rimu cut down in 1920

Then on to the plane. I was a bit ill for the flight to Singapore. Still ill for the flight to Seoul. Recovering on the flight to San Francisco. We were able to sleep some on the last leg of the flight as we had center bulkhead seats.  Much more room to stretch out and no one reclining into your lap. Singapore Airlines has fairly comfortable economy seats and the service is good.  Emirates has bad seats but good service. I heard from a fellow traveler that Lufthansa treats economy passengers very badly.  Air New Zealand on a short flight had moved the economy seats about an inch closer throughout the section and disabled the reclining function so they could fit an extra row of seats in. Economy passengers are the modern day equivalent of steerage on the Titanic.