Outdoor Wednesday: Oakland and Auckland

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http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

http://rogerowengreen.blogspot.com/2010/04/n-is-for-new-zealand.html

Fellow Blogger Ramblin' with Roger did a great post informing the world about my adopted country New Zealand. Thank you very much.

I was posting my comment to thank him when I remember this news story. Then I went on to another site which has a header photo of Oakland.

I live in Auckland. Often confused with Oakland California when I tell my American friends.

This is true, in the 1980s, a young American man ended up in Auckland, without the tickets and passport. He said, he was flying to Oakland from an American town, heard the announcement advising passengers to Auckland board at gate _____. So he went.

He duly fell asleep in the plane and arrived in Auckland. Mysterious as it was, people wonder how he could have boarded an international flight. Without any cash or clothing, typical of the warmth of Aucklanders, he received a lot of Auckland hospitality.

Nutty but true.

Roger, and anyone else in the whole wide world, if you decide to come to New Zealand, we offer you a warm welcome. Some times, you might even get a tradition Maori Official Powhiri welcome.

We have some tourists who are stranded in New Zealand because of the Icelandic Volcanic ash. There were twice more New Zealanders than tourists who offer to "shelter" them. This should take a bit of the bitterness of the sad situation.