One of my favorite overnights during the past year was at the Hilton hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, where traveler’s luck played me well.
No matter how detailed the travel planning, luck plays a role. The bad luck, well, you hope that Plan B works, or C or D. I think I reached Plan F once, and it wasn’t pretty.
The other side of the coin is serendipity, the happy surprise, finding something good without really looking for it.
In truth, I was looking for an ordinary, convenient place to sleep on the last night of a long trip last winter to Australia and New Zealand. A couple of weeks before my cruise ship, Celebrity Century, was to end its voyage in Auckland, I had decided to book a hotel room for debarkation night, putting off, for a day, the long flight back across the Pacific to the United States.
On a previous trip to Auckland, I had noticed a Hilton hotel on the waterfront, guessing that it would be a relatively short transfer from wherever my cruise ship docked.
What I didn’t know was that my ship would tie up so close to the hotel that I could walk off the ship and into the lobby in a matter of about a minute.
After I claimed my luggage in the ship terminal and placed it on a free luggage cart, I wheeled my stuff through customs, out the door, up a ramp to the hotel lobby, and, after check-in, into an elevator, and up to my room.
In 30 years of cruising, that was a first
The Hilton in Auckland has to be one of the closest hotels to any cruise ship terminal in the world. Moreover, the hotel bar has some great views of the harbor, while city shopping and restaurants are only a few blocks away, and ferries to the harbor islands leave from the next pier.
When Celebrity Century pulled out late that afternoon on its way back to Australia, I was so close that I could talk with passengers on their private balconies from my hotel room balcony.
The topper was that the hotel was a delightful place to stay, bright and airy, with a seaside atmosphere, and a helpful concierge who recommended some shops two blocks away and several choices for dinner.
The hotel has a busy bar, with a great view of the harbor, and a big breakfast buffet.
The only caveat: Ask about cruise ship arrivals. If anything is due early the next morning, close your windows and pull your drapes before you go to bed, or you might wake to close company, which can be a little noisy from commotion on the pier.
Eventually, the extreme closeness will change, as Auckland is planning to refurbish a cruise terminal at Queens Wharf, near the pier where ferries dock. Hilton hotel people are excited about the change, because of the occasional noise and obscured harbor views from the bar and lobby when big cruise ships are in port. The new cruise terminal will be about a five-minute walk.
Rooms at the Auckland Hilton are about $200 a night.
David Molyneaux is editor of TheTravelMavens.com
