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Published: January 10th 2013
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Auckland Skyline People have been asking us whether it's sunk in yet that we have a whole year off, and that we're not just on holiday...now I can happily say that it has! The other night I was lying in bed, trying to decide what to do the next day and it struck me that we could do whatever we liked, whenever we liked, for the next 365 days... And our only real concern is whether it'll be sunny enough to go to the beach or whether we should do some sughtseeing 😊
We arrived in Auckland on the afternoon of Monday 7 Jan. It was our first flight in an A380, which was rather exciting (and so roomy). We made our way to Ponsonby Backpackers (our first hostel), but settled into backpacking life relatively slowly, as we headed out to a Thai Restaurant for dinner. At first glace everything seems expensive here, but only because we keep forgetting to divide the price by 2 (to convert to GBP), so it's actually not too bad, especially compared to Sydney. Interestingly it is Mark who's most unnerved by hostel life at the moment - today he even suggested that we go shopping for
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Beach on Waiheke Island our own tea towels! I'm going to put my foot down if he suggests we buy (and carry) our own pans.
On day two we took the ferry out to Waiheke Island, 40 minutes from Auckland. It is a gorgeous place, covered in vineyards and with some beautiful beaches. Mark tested out his 'it's not that sunny, I won't need suncream' theory and found out it wasn't a great one (I don't think he appreciated one of the other residents in the hostel asking him how on earth he managed to go so red!), whilst Hazel lead the charge on a walk through the woods (things really do seem upside down here - Mark is worried how clean everything really is, and Hazel wears sensible shoes and goes hiking!). We finished our tour of the island by trying out a couple of local wines, whilst sat in a bar over-looking the beach...it's a tough life! We had a great day but came back absolutely exhausted in the evening and completely buffeted by gale force winds... if Auckland is this windy, I'm pretty worried what Wellington's going to be like.
On Wednesday, we had a day exploring the city.
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Vineyards on Waiheke Island We walked up Mount Eden, the highest volcanic cone in Auckland, and enjoyed fantastic views across the Harbour. All the volcanoes here mean that Auckland is insanely hilly, which I'm sure is doing us good, but is exhausting! After that, we took a wander through the city's main park to the Auckland Museum. It has a great Maori section, including original sea and war canoes and a replica Maori meeting house, with all its intricate carvings. They also had the last couple of years' 'wildlife photographer of the year' pictures on show, for free, which was excellent. In the afternoon, we went up the Sky Tower. This is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere so I was amazed that Mark not only walked over the glass sections of the floor but also leaned on the windows - I think the vertigo is improving... The views from 220m up were absolutely amazing though, and it was a stunning sunny day too, so hopefully worth the nerve-wracking height! In true 'glam-packer' style, we went for a latte in the cafe up at the top of the tower too, just to make sure we got our fill of the views.
Based
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Waiheke Wine Bar on CJ's recommendation, we spent our final day in Auckland acting like children and visiting Seaworld! The highlight was the antarctic section, where they have a colony of penguins.
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Christine
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I just nearly fell off my chair - Mark wants to buy tea towels, that may be the funniest thing I have heard :) I like your philosophical intro Hazel, all sounds amazing. Oh and Hazel....your tan is ridiculous already!!!!!