Advertisement
Published: April 10th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Well here I am in New Zealand all on my little own, after travelling for 5 Months with Ceri. I found my way to the hostel without getting lost so all has started well.
I arrived in Auckland early evening, so I thought I would wonder around the city to see what it has to offer and get some food in as I was staving. The nearest supermarket was an 30 min walk away but took me an hour plus to find as I got lost which is pretty hard to do in Auckland but I managed it.
Back at the hostel and a full belly with my first good meal in over a month Pasta and Chicken mmmmmmm. I went to my room to meet my new room mates for the next 3 nights. You had 2 Brazilian guys and one American who was quiet interesting as he has spent the last 5 years living in China, Japan and Australia and has just been trekking at taupo Nation Park something I am hoping to do.
Day 1
Well day 1 could of been a very interesting day but I got very lucky. I planned to go to Rangitoto island
to walk around the volcano. Getting up late did not help and I had to catch the 10:30 ferry. As sea conditions were bad today the ferry was not stopping at it's normal point but further up the island. The captain of the boat noticed I was not on the tour and just planning to walk around the island.
To cut this long story short if he never came up to me and asked what my plans were I would of been stranded on the island for the night. I planned to come back to the ferry at 17:00 but did not realise that this ferry only runs at this time on public holidays and weekends so the last boat would off been 15:30 which I would off never got back for if visiting the island. In a way I was a little gutted as writing about getting stuck on the island would off been a pretty cool blog entree and I could of pretended I was on the lost island hehe.
So now not really knowing what to do I went on a do it your self Derek tour. The first stop was sky city this is Auckland
tallest building where you can jump off. I went to find out the price of the jump hoping it would not be silly money but it was $195 + $50 for the DVD, I thought this was steep as it's not as exciting as a bungee or a sky dive as they control how fast you fall. Really wanting to give it a go but not waiting to pay the money for it I headed for the casino. I had no idea sky city had a casino until I got there other wise I would of never set foot in the place. Anyway my limit was $100 to try and win $250 so I could get the jump free. Guess what..... yep correct I lost the $100, it did last quiet a while and I had fun chatting to some random Chinese people.
With the time only 12:00 I finished the day by walking 8 hours non stop. I visited the Museum, Auckland Domain which is a massive park, Albert park, Victoria market, viaduct harbor a few shopping centers and the supermarket before I headed for bed cus I was shattered.
Day 2
To day I made it to
Rangitoto island. The sun was out which was nice as it rained for most of yesterday and I planned to walk around the whole island so did not want rain. I started at Rangitoto Wharf and headed fro McKenzie bay and light house before I headed for the summit of the volcano. Here I walked around the creator rim track and then to the summit look out. The views were breath taking but the volcano was disappointing the Creator is just covered with trees so you can not see in side of it.
Leaving the summit I headed for the lava caves. These caves are narrow and were created by flowing lava. I forgot to take my torch but still managed to walk through the cave with the help of my camera flash. I only fell over once as well and was pretty lucky not to twist my ankle. I ended back at Rangitoto wharf around 2pm so the trek of the whole island took me 4 hours which was 1 hour 20 mins faster than what they say and I did not stop apart from 10 min when I had lunch, I was shattered.
That's it for Auckland tomorrow
I am getting picked up and starting my hop on and hop off bus tour of New Zealand I am looking forward to it so will keep everyone posted.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0571s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb