World New Zealand Auckland

Toughs Travels

Auckland - windy and wet! Oct 9, 2009

New Zealand - Auckland

Thursday 8th October 2009

We arrive in Auckland at just after midnight and find a shuttle bus to take us to town but we experience a “round the houses” trip as we drop off other passengers at various locations.

However we find our Hotel locked and had to wait while the night reception got their act together.

Although its now well after 1am we are not tired so we have a couple of Large Gin and Sprites – no tonic in the minibar.

We slept in late and went to the Food Alley for a huge bowl of Laksa for only $9.00 – more than enough for the 2 of us and kept us going all day – Carolyn didn’t even want dinner at night and Neil only ate because he thought he should!

Then a wander round town and book a hire car ‘El Cheapo’ – yes, that’s really what they call it - with Jucy and book a flight from Auckland to Christchurch - really cheap - $59 pp, including baggage, that’s only about £30.00GBP for an hour’s flight!

In the afternoon we wander round the harbour area – though must be nice in the sun – which we get a bit of! Find a nice bar where we catch the sun going down and listen to some good music!

Friday 9th October 2009

Pouring rain most of the morning – and then a trip out to try and find a free WiFi – no success – So, we end up at an Esquire Coffee shop (a bit like Starbucks but not so horrendously expensive – I’m not sure how eco-friendly they are!) but we get 1 hour of free Wi-Fi and a nice cup of coffee for each of us for just $5.50 – very pleasant!

Lunch back at the flat with some delicious Smoked Fish and some of our only slightly Alcoholic wine – (honestly – it was 5.8% - not very nice!)

Between showers we took a walk out to see Sky Tower, according to Lonely Planet ‘The tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere’ at 328 metres and just up the road from our hotel. This is a hotel/casino/etc and amongst other things you can take the lift up to an observation deck and pay a huge sum of money to walk around outside (attached to a safety harness). Or more interestingly, do what is sometimes billed as a bungee jump, but is really a ‘vertical flying fox’ – in that you are actually attached to 3 lines and dive down in a controlled manner with no rebounding at all!

It all looks a bit tame until you see it happening close up and then it is really scary as you see people hurtle at great speed to the ground and think – oweoweeowee- and then they stop! Whew!! After that we had to go to another of Lonely Planet’s recommendations -The Bluestone Room (atmospheric pub) and then down to the Harbour for a drink at Indians (next door to Cowboys – honestly!)

More from North Island next time.

Copyright Neil Tough @ 2009