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Published: June 16th 2013
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We touched down in Auckland at around 4am after a 13 hour flight. Our friend Scott who we both knew from primary and high school kindly offered to pick us up from the airport. It was dark when we got outside and the temperature was pretty mild, not what we were used to after three and a half months in South America. Scott took us back to his house in a neighbourhood called Mount Roskill which he shared with his lovely girlfriend Leanne and four other housemates. We hadn't slept a great deal so grabbed a few more hours sleep.
At around 8am we woke up to birds singing and the sun shining - a good start to the day. Scott made us crumpets for breakfast and told us about some places he would like to take us around Auckland as he'd booked the day off work. Me and Jon grabbed a shower but his leg was bothering him and swollen so we started the day by paying a visit to the chemist as he thought he might have DVT. Long story short after seeing a doctor and a blood test later he was fine and DVT free.
The
first place Scott took us to was Mount Eden, the highest peak in Auckland and a dormant volcano. The view of the city was brilliant; in front of us was the high rise skyline of downtown Auckland with the needle like sky tower the most striking building, close by there was Eden park stadium which held the rugby world cup final in 2011, we could see One Tree Hill and the north shore. Next we stopped of at Devonport, a nice seaside suburb where we visited the I-site (tourist information) and grabbed about 20 maps and leaflets for our trip. We then made our way over the road to a pub where I had my first pint of draught cider in over three months - it was amazing!
We then drove through the Viaduct harbour where lots of nice bars and restaurants are and then onto Mission Bay to grab some lunch. We had read in our Lonely Planet book about a cheap place to eat called Burger Fuel, Scott said it was really good and that we should definitely go and that we did. It was so tasty! Me and Jon ordered a burger each and shared them
- one chicken burger with Brie, bacon, salad and relish and one beef burger with salad and satay sauce. Ummmm ummm ummmmmm! We also shared some kumara (sweet potato) fries which came with a alioli sauce (garlic mayo) which Jon normally declares that he hates. I think he would of said the same again if he knew that's what it was.
After the burger Scott took us to a bar just a few doors down where I drank more delicious cider on the roof terrace bar in the sun. Oh how I'd missed cider! We then went to an ice cream place where you could could create your own ice cream starting from the flavour of the ice cream to the ridiculous amount of choice of toppings. As I was so full on burger and cider I didn't want one much to Jon's disappointment as he still had his sweet tooth cravings but couldn't manage one on his own. We headed back to the car and went up to a view point that looked out over mission bay and apparently a nude beach but I saw no nudies sadly!
After taking lots of pictures, admiring the views and
staring dreamingly into the magnificent houses that faced onto the bay we began to make our way over to Piha. We got stuck in a giant cue of traffic and it was getting late so we decided to go back to Scott's instead. When we got back Scott's housemates beautiful Labrador Stella was around so we took her for a little walk and played a few games of catch. On the way back from the dog park we called into the supermarket to buy food as me and Jon decided to cook for Scott and Leanne.
When we got back from the supermarket we were having to really force ourselves to stay awake and fight our jet lag. We had a few beers and then began to make dinner which consisted of chicken breasts stuffed with Philadelphia wrapped in bacon, vegetables and roast sweet and normal potatoes - Jon calls it Sonya's chicken surprise. We had a few glasses of white wine with dinner and Leanne made a scrummy chocolate pudding. By 10pm we could no longer keep our eyes open so we went to bed. Scott and Leanne insisted we slept in there bedroom which was great and
super kind of them but we felt pretty guilty!
We fell straight to sleep but by 4am we were both wide awake but after an hour of talking managed to make ourselves get back to sleep. We both woke up again around 8am so decided to get showered and ready as we planned to go downtown and sort out a SIM card for our phone and buy some things for our camper-van. After our first proper, amazing, delicious, scrumptious bacon sandwich in over 3 months we were ready at about 11am. It started absolutely chucking it down so in the end decided to just wait for it to stop and plan where we were going to spend our time in the north island and look for campsites. I also fussed Stella quite a lot!
Scott got back from work at about 2.30pm and took us to this discount store called the Warehouse - similar to Woolworths and B&M Bargains. We finally managed to get a SIM card sorted for our phone! We then made our way to the Viaduct harbour so we could meet Leanne when she finished work and head straight to a Thai restaurant for dinner.
What better way to pass the time than indulge in a few bevvies so we went to a bar called Bungalow 8 and luckily for us it was happy hour. Leanne finished work and by the time we needed to leave I was pretty tipsy! We made our way to a liquor store as the restaurant we were going to was BYO (bring your own). I got lost in the fridge area for a while and was confused to what it was for a bit. We then went to the restaurant called Thai Me Up and I had a dish called Spicy Girl which wasn't really spicy but really tasty!
After the delicious dinner we went back to Scott & Leanne's and had a few more drinks. Jon passed out asleep on my lap as did Scott to Leanne so we chatted for a while before heading to bed about 11pm. We got up at 7am for an early start as we needed to pick up our camper-van. Leanne came with us to the Escape van rental company so we wouldn't get lost. We got to choose which van we wanted out of the few that were there. There
wasn't a great selection left and as I can only drive an automatic these days the choice was even smaller. Escape vans all have graffiti on them and each one is different. Our van had teapots and cake on one side and coffee cups and cigarettes on the other. After choosing the van we headed back to Scott's to drop off Leanne and grab our stuff. Before we left Leanne made us try Feijoas (a type of fruit that looks similar to a kiwi) which tasted great but smelt like deep heat and sent us on our way with a carry bag of goods and a hot water bottle. She is definitely a gooden!
We went to the discount store Warehouse again to grab some bits and bobs for the van before making our way up north. Our time in Auckland was great and I can definitely see why most of the population live there. Scott and Leanne treated us like kings and queens and showed us a great time. Auckland I think we will be seeing you again 😉
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