The Kinda Kiwi Capital

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Arrival in Kiwiland

The journey across the international date line to New Zealand isn't too bad. Tim sets his watch to NZ time during the transfer in Santiago and our travellers immediately try and have meals in sync with where they'll be headed and by the time they arrive in Auckland airport after the overnight flight they're tired but feel vaguely with it.

As it's now morning, after a quick spruce-up it's out to make the most of the day so they get the ferry across to the north shore of Devonport. The spirit is pretty jubilant despite being a bit tired as New Zealand is one of the destinations they've been looking forward to.

There isn't too much time to kill, as they've plans to meet a friend they know from London, so the Mount Victoria is chosen as the summit from which to have a look across Auckland and the surrounding area. The climb is nearly refused by Sue - for some reason although Sue has climbed to 4600 metres in Peru she decides that she's not sure about it. Tim's iPhone reveals the final altitude to be less than 100m. At the summit there is no disguising in the skyline that the whole area is formed from volcanic cones, their outline still visible.

As they head back to the south shore they realise they've missed out on the hire of a Segway - oh dear, what a unique way to have seen Devenport. Never mind.

Back near the hostel near the Sky Tower they meet up with Debbie, who roars up in her gangster-chic black BMW that despite looking slightly worn seems to purr happily as they zoom off to Mount Eden to get another look around the city. Sue finds driving up hills to be more agreeable and we get much more of a local's viewpoint of the city. Then after a brief chill-out at Debbie's ("Don't bother locking the car - it's worth more if someone stole it") we all head off to a nice restaurant in the trendy Ponsonby area for a meal while holding the jetlag at bay. When Debbie says goodbye at the hotel - after a brief tour of Auckland including a very bizarre street of houses all very lit up with Christmas decorations - it becomes clear that maybe another day in Auckland may not have gone amiss.

As it's a clear evening, though our travellers are very tired the Sky Tower looms above them and they decided to squeeze in a quick late-night ascent. It's a very strangely thin construct and the glass-floored lift doesn't do much for the jetlagged sense of balance as the ground falls away. The view of Auckland at night is needless to say fantastic though on the highest observation deck Tim's sure he can feel the thing swaying, though it's probably jetlag. The offer of lying against the inclined glass windows isn't taken up, though by the time they take the lift back down the glass floor seems more fun than fear-inducing. The next morning it's misty and raining, so the last-minute Sky Tower outing turned out to be a good shout.

Campervan Pick-up

The time has finally arrived for our travellers to pick up their Campervan from Escape Rentals which will be their home for the next four weeks. All the Escape vehicles are painted in a kind of graffiti depicting New Zealand themed things. The vehicle of power has birds on it that they later find out are called tuis that make a sequence of trills that sound like something out of a techno record. ne the other side is the Kiwi hawk. When all the forms are signed and a quick purchase of a cable to play the iPhone through the stereo is made there isn't much time to high-tail it to the Bay of Islands. The rain on the way is torrential and they discover that the campervan isn't quite waterproof with water coming in through the footwells. The scenery and drive is not unlike driving through Wales/Cornwall. Where are these empty roads we were promised?

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Photos

Made It!
Across the international date line and to the other side of the world

View From Devonport
You can't see how busy it is from here.

Who Left That There?
Oh yeah, it's nearly Christmas.

Kiwi Light Sabre?
Well, while we're here, it'd be rude not to, eh?