Auckland

After 36 hours travelling I finally landed in New Zealand, after a visa check I headed towards biosecurity. I had some Yorkshire Tea and Marmite in my bag for josh which I had to declare, but was let through without any problems. I took the next shuttle into Auckland which was about 45 minutes away. I thought I could find my way to the hotel easily, but ended up taking an hour while carrying about 40kgs of luggage! I was glad to be able to have a lie down and a shower. In the evening I headed out to the city to have a look around. One of the things I noticed is that there are loads of Sushi bars and Japanese restaurants, so I decided to have sushi for dinner and was surprised how cheap it was - $20 (£10) for five plates of sushi and a beer!  After dinner I was feeling very tired, I had only managed to get about 4 hours of sleep on the plane, but wanted to try and stay awake until about 10pm so I could get used to the time difference quicker, so I wandered about the city a bit longer and by the time I got back to the hotel I feel asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

I was up at about 7am ready for my first day in New Zealand. I had decided to take a ferry to Rangitoto Island, an island 20 minutes from Auckland Harbour formed by a volcanic eruption about 600 years ago.

                                                           Rangitoto Island



There are only 2 return ferry's after arriving at about 10am, one at 12.30 and the last one at 3.15, I decided to spend the day on the island and get the last ferry back. It took about 45 minutes to reach the summit (a lofty altitude of 260m) which gave brilliant views of Auckland City.

                                               Auckland from Rangitoto Island

After having a rest at the top of the volcano I started down the other side passing people who had taken a ride on a tractor/trailer to get near to the top complaining that they had to do a 10 minute walk up some steps! I continued along the road towards Wreck Bay, which was once used as a dumping ground for old ships. You can only see one today, but a few decades ago there were a dozen or so ships left to rot.

                                                                 Wreck Bay

I stopped here for lunch and took the track back to the road and continued round the island. As the island was forms by a volcanic eruption there were a lot of lava rock fields.

                                                     Me in a field of lava rocks

After another couple of hours walking around the coast I arrived back at the port with 15 minutes to spare.

After arriving back in Auckland I headed over to Skytower - New Zealands tallest building. I bought a ticket that allowed me to go up now and to come back later in the evening when it was dark. The lift has a glass floor panel in it so you can down to the ground while you are taken up to floor 52 where you have great views all round the tower.

A view from Skytower

If you were in the right place you can see people falling past the window as they jump off from a few floors above (attached to wires, not people trying to kill themselves!). I then took the lift up a few more floors to the top floor (disappointingly only 220m up the 328m tower) where the views were exactly the same as a few floors below, so no need to put a photo up of it!

After a shower at the hotel I headed out to Albert Park where the annual Auckland Lantern Festival was being held.  Auckland (and NZ) has quite strong ties with Asia, especially China and this festival is held in conjunction with the Chinese New Year. As I approached the park there were over 100 food stalls selling every kind of (mostly) Asian food there is, and I had a Japanese chicken Okonomiyaki (pancake) and some Chinese dumplings, all the food was quite cheap with most things costing $5-$7 (£2.50-£3.50). After filling up on food I entered the park to look at the lanterns.

A lantern

More lanterns

Even more lanterns, lit the traditional way with l.e.d lights.

Still jet lagged I was getting a bit tired at this point, but thought I would go back up the Skytower as it was now dark, but it was the same as before only darker.

The next day I was up early again and had a few hours before my bus to meet Josh, I left my luggage at the hotel and went for a walk along the seafront to the harbour and had a loom around, but I didn't take any photos so you will never know what I saw.

I wisely decided to call a taxi to take me to the bus station, rather than lugging my luggage across the city and after less than 48 hours in Auckland I was on my way to Rotorua to meet my brother Josh……

Bonus photos: