Auckland in 2 days

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After leaving Coromandel, we crossed over from the west to the east coast and headed for a town called Whitianga. We stayed there for a few days and had a look round - a few roads with shops and many empty holiday homes along the seafront but nothing to distinguish it. On the second day there, we bought a stunt kite and tried it out at the beachfront near next place we stayed at. When the wind was blowing, it was great fun - it had two lots of string and if you pull one of them, the kite will turn in that direction - loop-de-loops and allsorts! Sadly, the wind died on us (typical - I mean how many times do you go to the beach and it’s gale force winds??) and the only way it would fly was if we ran really quickly, pulling the kite behind us. One for the kiddies to do but not us grownups methinks.

After a couple of nights outside Whitianga, we started out on the journey towards Auckland which took us a fair few hours. It was a real culture shock - we’d been used to small little towns with one or two people and lots of countryside and the sea. Auckland was a huge sprawl of suburbs and traffic, noise and people (D’uh, you might be thinking - what did you expect?? - Well yes, I know but it was still strange to be back in proper civilisation). On our first night in Auckland, it took us ages to find a campsite - and looking on the map, there’s only about 4 in the whole city - which considering it’s size, is amazing!

However, after a false trail in peak traffic time , with Paul getting increasingly stressed, we found one next to the sea on the north shore and parked up for the night. - we were pretty lucky as we took the penultimate spot (which happened to be right outside the camp office as well as next to the kitchens and showers) At 2.30am, we (and the rest of the campsite, no doubt) were woken up by extremely loud “Bangra” style dance music playing, a stone’s throw away. After 20 minutes, it appeared that some of the campsite residents had had enough (there had been a previous attempt which just resulted in music being turned up even louder) and words were exchanged before the car and it’s occupants took themselves and their music away. Thank God - maybe we can sleep again.

After waking up with gritty eyes, our first full day was spent in the city centre. Paul drove us in as we were fairly confident in getting parked up without any trouble (it was a Sunday and our city centre map showed blummin‘ loads of those little white P‘s in a blue box scattered about the centre. As we pulled into the multi-storey car park, Paul suddenly thought, he couldn’t remember how high we were and the limit was 2.25 metres. Was the van higher than that? We couldn’t remember ( I didn’t even know to remember in the first place) but having looked at the top of the bar, we decided to risk it. Paul very cautiously drove us under the metal bar, our ears strained, listening for the tiniest sound of metal upon metal. No, nothing and we relaxed.

We walked into the centre and pretty quickly saw the huge Sky Tower. You can do the sky jump or the sky walk. The sky jump is a person (ie, you) suspended about your waist from the top of the building and lowered to the ground (fairly quickly but not like a bungee as there was little elasticity in the cord you’re attached to), or the sky walk which was you and a group of others, harnessed in and walking around the top circular section whilst a) trying not to fall off due to the high wind and b) continually conquering, if not trying to stop developing, a fear of heights. Hmmm, I think I’ll just take a photo from the ground.

Auckland city centre is not that big but quite spacious (it’s one of the least densely populated cities in the world apparently) it would probably be the size of Leicester or Nottingham but it’s suburbs are huge and each of these have their own shopping precincts. We’d heard about one in particular, called Parnell which was meant to have lots of boutiques, cafes and restored Victorian buildings with rather a quaint atmosphere After arriving in the city centre and a little walk around centre, we firstly attempted to walk to Parnell which was just the other side of one of the highways. We walked through Albert Park, which was on a large slope with statues and flowerbeds and arrived at the University but we’d still have another half an hour before reaching Parnell. So we cheated and caught a bus. It is one long road and every other shop is a restaurant, café or coffee house. There was also a little Chocolate boutique which was crammed with those shiny wrappers, hiding all sorts of delights. Sadly, it was a bit crowded so couldn’t spend too long in there. We stopped at an Italian called “La Porchetta” and I ate the biggest pizza ever - I sadly regretted this for the rest of the afternoon as we walked on to Newmarket, me with an increasingly sore stomach (and how gutted was I? I didn‘t even want to go back to the chocolate boutique to buy something to have for later? That‘s how bad it was…). Newmarket was another section which had loads of shops again - most of them were the same as those found in the city centre. After a while, Paul, noticing my discomfort, said that we should get the bus back to the city centre but I’d have to drive back as he’d been drinking. So we hopped on the bus, and were back near our car park.

The only trouble I had driving in Auckland was getting out of the damn car park! It had one of those exits which you go through on a tight right-hand bend and had curbs either side. Putting the ticket in the machine - not a problem. However, I then noticed that if I moved forward at the current angle, the rear bull bars (on the right side of the van) were going to make contact with the protective metal bars in front of the ticket machine. I couldn’t take the corner any wider though, as the front left side of the van would make contact with the wall. Ah. There was already a car behind me when I discovered this but luckily, there was another exit lane, so that was one humiliation I was spared - a huge queue of cars waiting for me to edge the van slowly out. However, it just goes to show what a skilled driver I am - I reversed the van (without hitting anything! Another bonus!), changed the steering wheel a fraction, and tried it again and was a whole 2 centimetres clear of the metal this time. Och, easy!

The next thing to tackle was doing a U-turn on a major road, but that was peanuts in comparison! So we get back to the campsite and hope that tonight had no disturbances like the previous night.

Sadly I was wrong and I woke up to hearing 2 or 3 guys talking and laughing, and then a dubious “clunk” like stones, hitting the tarmac drive nearby. Oh great, that’s all we need - a stone through one of our windows. However, the rain came and got rid of them so I could go back to sleep.

The second day in the city, we decided to have a look round the centre of our suburb - Takapuna as we were on it’s doorstep. There were loads and loads of bars, cafes and restaurants - particularly Japanese cuisine and sushi bars, then the usual smattering of banks and gift shops, and the odd newsagent (which get called “Dairies” over here - maybe milk is more popular than newspapers? But they sell both nonetheless) I did spot a chocolate shop (yay!) but sadly it was closed for lunch. Having peered in through the windows, it was just full of garish looking toys fill with a chocolate egg or something else in a wrapper - not a patch on Hotel Chocolat.

The third morning, we had decided to escape - neither of us do cities, and Auckland was no different to any other - filled with the usual people, traffic, big buildings and noise.

Northland, here we come.

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Photos

Albert Park
They do like Victoria and Albert here - there's another Victoria Park over the otherside of the city.

The Syktower
From a city centre street.

Parnell
A little side street in Parnell - doesn't lead anywhere but a cobbled courtyard. Very cute.