Auckland

---

I was greeted in Auckland by an afternoon of heavy rainfall, obscuring my view of the high rise city centre and sky tower until the next day. After this though the weather quickly improved and the rest if the week was mostly hot and sunny.
The largest city in New Zealand, with something like a third of the national population, Central Auckland is a big dirty mess of suburbs and shopping districts clustered around two harbours. There is a lot of volcanic history here, with extinct cones of Mt Eden and Victoria looming above the city, and the still-active peak of Rangitoto island always on the horizon. It seems to me like a very precarious location for New Zealand's economic capital.

My primary objective in Auckland was to visit Tiritiri Matangi Island - a small island wildlife reserve (similar to Kapiti Island) which has been planted and managed by volunteers. After attempting and failing to find volunteer work I settled for an overnight visit. They normally have two volunteers at a time to work on the island, providing free accommodation in the bunkhouse, but unfortunately they didn't need me during few days I spent in Auckland.
Two days were plenty of time to cover all of the walking tracks on the island, and chill out with a book at the visitor centre, watching the almost-tame takahe wandering in amongst the tourists and their attempts to steal themselves a packed lunch.
On my arrival I met Mary-Ann, who is in charge of the volunteers (we had already spoke by email). She offered to take me for a walk that night to see Kiwi in the wild, which was pretty amazing(we saw two). The island was also crawling with penguins and petrels and we saw a tuatara (an endemic reptile of New Zealand) sitting right by the path.
My favourite bird on Tiritiri was the Kokako. One of the many native birds who lost the ability to fly, they climb trees using their beaks, and hop from branch to branch like a squirrel. A pair of them passed right by me in the early morning - their call is a little creepy and sounds like a sad cat.

Returning to the mainland I met up with Chrissie, an English volunteer from the Kaikoura Shearwater Project and who is now living in Auckland with her boyfriend. We spent the day seeing the sights of the city - we took a ferry out to the North Shore to see the old town of Devonport and Mt Victoria, then back across to the centre to see a fantastic sunset from the Sky Tower (a petty attempt to outdo Sydney by having the tallest building, achieved by putting a big needle on top.).

That night I met Chrissie's boyfriend, who drove us out to the suburb of Mission Beach for a night out, and so my last night on the North Island was spent in a blur.

---

Photos

Rangitoto Island
There are volcanoes all over the Auckland region, but this is the only one still classified as active.

Takahe
One of the 'tame' Takahe who graze around the visitor centre. This one I think was called Mungo.

North Island Kokako or 'Blue Wattled Crow'
They don't fly, but hop like a squirrel from branch to branch. They only use their wings to glide.

Cabbage Trees at Dawn
The sun rises as I hurry to the feeding station to await the dawn chorus.

Fantail
These little things are all over the mainland - they fly into Max & Kd's kitchen in Kaikoura. They're very friendly but I've never managed to make one stand still enough for a photo. This particular bird followed me for a good 20 minutes through the bush.

Big tree, Devonport
I have no idea what kind of tree this is but I liked the roots.

Mt Victoria's disappearing gun
Part of the original wartime harbour defences. More of a deterrent, the hidden gun was fired only once.

City of Sails
Sailing boats in the harbour

Vertigo
The glass floor of the Sky Tower viewing deck