Auckland, New Zealand

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Auckland was a city I’d always been recommended to see by people I’d met along my travels so I’d booked it in after my South-East Asia adventure had finished. I arrived one November mid-morning and hopped on a bus towards the city centre. I was staying in a Base hostel which had provided instructions of how to get their on their website.

Turns out these weren’t needed as the driver was extremely helpful and advised everyone where they needed to get off for their respective hotels. The hostel was quite big and I was put on a quiet floor in a private room on the 9^th floor. The lifts were a right pain I remember, as you needed to wait a while for everyone to get to their respective floors. And one of them was out of order which made it worse 😞

View from my room onto Queen Street



After I settled in and had a little nap, I explored the hostel a bit on my own and used the global gossip internet. There was a really helpful tourist information desk where a friendly lady gave me advice of what to get up to around the city. She advised me to see Mount Eden as a good day trip, so I got changed into some more suitable clothes and took the bus over to it.

Although the walk was a bit tiring after a long flight, the views at the top of the mountain were incredible. It gave me a wonderful viewpoint of the city and good chance to chill out when I reached the top.

My hostel was really close to the prominent Auckland Sky Tower so at least I knew how to get home



When I finally got back, some rep told me of the club next to the hostel which would be a good place to go tonight, and I even got free drinks vouchers. As I didn’t know anywhere else I decided to check it out, but first, I decided to head out to explore the city centre and get some food as it was still evening time. I fancied a good proper meal but couldn’t face going into a restaurant on my own so I settled for a Burger King instead.

The city was really cool with some quirky bars and attractive shops to delve into. If only I had more money to spend! I headed down towards the harbour area but didn’t explore it properly yet as I felt like I was getting lost. I managed to get back onto Queen Street, the main street through the city centre and where my hostel was.

When I was back, I decided to head down to the bar underneath, called Globe Bar, with my free drinks vouchers in hand. It was like any other hostel bar I suppose, a bit dungy but with some good deals and drinking games taking place.

Snap of Globe Bar



What I do remember clearly was some of the interesting characters around when inside. There was one guy who called himself Elvis who seemed very strange but popular at the same time. He said he was going on New Zealand’s Got Talent but when I asked him what his talent was, he looked completely blank which made me laugh lots. He helped me feel relaxed anyway, and I then enjoyed the rest of the night playing beer pong and pool with some nice people. It was a good start to the day and I looked forward to seeing more of Auckland tomorrow.

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