We met our driver immediately outside the exit after clearing New Zealand customs and biosecurity screening, and he led us on a long walk out of the terminal and over to a small parking area reserved for commercial taxi and ride share services. He commented that traffic was light for a weekday afternoon/evening, and we were at our hotel within 20 minutes or so.

The JW Marriott formerly operated under a different name, and was taken over a few years ago and rebranded as a Marriott. That started a round of extensive renovations, which are now winding down but not complete. It is considered a 5-star hotel, although not priced that way, at least not in U.S. dollars.

Having racked up lots of Marriott nights over the past couple of years, we were upgraded to a top-floor room with a city view, complete with a small section of the harbor visible over the tops of downtown buildings.

First adventure. Where are the light switches? I looked in vain for the normal switches, but then noticed a dark panel with four rocker switches on the wall just outside the bathroom, with the A/C controller just above it. You can see the switch panel in this photo.

The problem is that the lettering, perhaps once-upon-a-time done in white, is now dingy and almost illegible in anything but bright light. But how to get bright light if you can’t see the labels on the switches? Cue the deep breath.

I was finally able to see the labels by using the iPhone’s flashlight for bright illumination. One switch had nothing at all to do with lights, but was to set a “do not disturb” signal outside the door. After a round of trial-and-error testing, we were able to figure out what lights each of the others controlled. But real world issues arose. When you get up in the middle of the night in the dark to use the bathroom, how are you going to remember which switch turns on a minimal bathroom light?

We decided to defer worrying and just go with it for now.

Otherwise the room is quite nice. It’s a good size. Lots of plugs for to keep our electronics happy (iPhones, iPads, Apple watches, camera batteries, etc). That makes us happy, unlike some other hotels we’ve been in. And the Marriott wifi is easy to access, and plenty fast for everyday stuff. The higher speed wifi, available to Marriott regulars, is able to handle movies, etc. So no complaints on the wifi front.

There’s an in-room safe, which makes everything simpler. Lots of hangers in the closet. A small table and chair, and a small couch with pillows for lounging. A king bed. The room is quiet. The television huge.

But there’s one major aggravation with the television. The tv remote easily finds a list of available channels. But what is on those many channels at any particular time? We haven’t discovered any source of that info. We turned on the television somewhere around 6 p.m. local time hoping to find some Auckland news. But apparently we would have to go through the channels one by one, checking each manually in search of news. That just doesn’t work.

Note for JW Marriott: You really need to provide the equivalent of “Guide” which lists programming on each channel so that a viewer can easily choose. Without that, the channel list is largely useless.

Since Air New Zealand fed us a light meal about 3 p.m., we decided against looking for a full meal, and decided to split a burger from the hotel’s 24-hour room service. Ordering is online. I selected the burger, responded to a question of how many guests (two of us), and ordered. It arrived pretty promptly, and tasted as good as it looked.

But (isn’t there always a “But…”)…Of course, it was delivered with a single napkin and one set of flatware. Not a big deal, but aggravating since the ordering system solicited the information on number of guests.

And then we learned another lesson. I had carefully packed a bottle in my suitcase to provide us drinks for the first few days of our visit, and they would be much better with a bit of ice. Meda sent me out to in search of an ice machine. I wandered the halls one our floor, which is much bigger than I thought. No sign of ice. So we called down to the front desk to inquire about ice. They seemed surprised by the question and had no ready ahswer, which was a surprise to us, since virtually every U.S. hotel we’ve been in has ice readily available. Finally the front desk contacted the “catering” office, and a ice bucket (about six inches high)was delivered to our room. That got us through the night.

Today we’ll be looking for a better solution, perhaps begging some ice from the lobby bar.

End of Day 1, flight and arrival.