Thirty-six hours after leaving Osaka, we finally landed in Auckland. A direct flight would have been much shorter, but with the restrictions of award flights and last minute itinerary changes we ended up laying over in Tokyo and Sydney.
The 7-hour uninterrupted sleep on the flight, and a shower at the Sydney airport lounge made the long journey bearable.
The Park Hyatt is a relatively new addition to the Auckland area, and has a much more modern casual feel to it than that of the property in Tokyo. As a side note, unlike most properties around the world, one peculiar thing we noticed about hotels in Japan is that we never saw any housekeeping carts or workers in the hallways during our entire stay. It’s as if they work in stealth mode like ninjas. In the US, cleaning carts are sometimes parked in the hallway 24/7 giving you the impression that they are working hard, despite the fact that rooms are not serviced everyday. There is something about the way the Japanese do things that makes you wonder why the rest of us can’t do better. But I digress…
Back to the PH Auckland…
I had made 2 separate reservations at the PH, but end up canceling one of them. Unfortunately, the upgrade to the suite was applied to the one I had canceled, so we were left with just an upgrade to the one bedroom with a larger balcony and harbor view, which wasn’t too shabby at all.
One good thing to know is that all credit card interchange fees (1.5-3%) in New Zealand and Australia are paid by the customer, so cash is king. Better yet, use points for all hotel bookings.
FIRE'd @ 47 