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Published: August 6th 2007
Skytower
At night, they really lit it up well.New Zealand or Aotearoa (The Land of the Long White Cloud)
From the beginning of my Australia trip, one of my plans was to head to New Zealand and see why everyone was describing it as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Green hills, amazing coasts, friendly people, and an accent similar to Australian was what I expected. I knew Lord of the Rings was filmed here for a reason, and as a fan, I wanted to see some of this amazing scenery. So I jumped on my plane from Melbourne and in less than 4 hours I was on the ground in Auckland and heading to the CBD.
Auckland Auckland is the largest city in the North Island housing 1.2 million people, 50%!o(MISSING)f which are of European descent. Auckland lies on and around an isthmus, less than 2 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, between Mangere Inlet and the Tamaki River. I stayed in the central downtown area at a large backpackers hostel conveniently named
Auckland Central Backpackers Hostel or just the ACB. This huge office building was recently turned into a hostel and sits on the busy but happening, Queen Street. ACB had multiple
Skytower jump
I took a few photos of people jumping too. Looked pretty scary to me. floors of rooms, outdoor BBQ area, kitchens, TV rooms, and large Internet room. Right around the corner, they co-owned a downstairs bar called the Globe Bar, filled with large dance floor, pool tables and billiards tournaments, a very fun Simpson's Pinball machine, and or course unfamiliar New Zealand beers for me to try.
Over the next few days, I met new English travelers, drank new beers (
Tui,
Monteiths,
Speights,
Export Gold,
Lion Red, and a few others I don't remember the name of), and explored as much of the city in 2 days as possible. Two interesting points of interest for me were the Harbor with it's National Maritime Museum. This is where I started to learn about the Maori culture, the indigenous people of New Zealand which I'll go into more detail later. The museum was huge, filled with large wooden boats, videos showing how the Maori tribes came to New Zealand, shocking videos of New Zealands whaling industry, and current boats and diagrams showing how their competition sail boats have made history in more then a few races and maintained some world records. "Big Boat", which raced in the 1988 America's cup but was defeated. Next door, a few interesting
Skytower reflection
A building as I was walking back to my hostel. Nice reflection of the Skytower. bars and restaurants are situated on the waters edge, including the Loaded Hog brewery and a very interesting bar chain called
Minus 5. Minus 5 is what you'd call a bar in a freezer. Yep, it's a bar that is completely made out of ice, from the chairs, sculptures, the tables, to even the glasses. You get complimentary sheepskin jacket, gloves, and boots, as well as 1 drink for and entrance fee of around $27. You also are limited to 30 minutes and subject to costly photo ops and plenty of cold shivers. So far 4 of these chains exist in Australia as well as New Zealand, with many more to come. I wonder if this would work in America?
As the skyline of Auckland is seen from the distance, one thing that stands out is it's 328 meter tall Sky Tower, attached to the Skycity Casino, convention center, and hotel. Along with just looking cool at night and hosting a revolving restaurant, the Sky Tower is known for it's Skyjump. This insane ride consists of a 192 meter controlled fan descender fall, regulated by wires, making it a cross between a base jump and a bungy jump. Once dropped
KZ-1 "Big Boat"
Huge boat, raced in 1988 America's Cup. from the top level, a quick stop to take a photo, wave at the restaurant patrons, and swoooooop, you're dropped at speeds up to 60 mph. Not nearly as fast as a bungy jump or skydive, but the people I saw do it seemed to be having a scary, good time.
On top of a dormant volcano in the
Auckland Domain, sits the iconic
Auckland War Memorial Museum. This amazing museum holds the largest Maori and Pacific Islander artifacts in New Zealand. Exhibits include old Maori houses, a 100+ person war canoe, a cultural dance show, as well as war exhibits explaining New Zealand's roles in the World War I and II. In 2 separate rooms, an original British
Spitfire and Japanese
Mitsubishi Zero airplane rest while videos and displays explain their history. There are two "Halls of Memory" within the museum whose walls, together with a number of additional marble slabs, list the names of all known New Zealand soldiers killed in major conflicts during the 20th Century. A faintly lit moving rectangle shines over an individuals name for just a second before moving on to light the next name. On one blank wall in the hallway, hopeful words are inscribed, "Let these
Maritime Museum
Great boats, cool exhibits, worth the money. panels never be filled."
Orange, Green, Flexi, or Harry Potter?] Just as I started to get anxious and bored in Auckland, I booked a 16 day trip around the North and South Islands on one of the many types of bus transportation. The one thing that made New Zealand a great place to backpack was the many options of transportation around the 2 main islands. The great thing about these bus systems, is that they had daily transportation from most of the main cities and popular tourist attractions. Along with the main tourist areas, they also took you to less well known areas, booked your hostel accommodations, and also gave you daily activities lists so you could plan ahead of schedule of what you'd like to do. Activities ranged from bungy jumping, to skydiving, to free hikes, to bone carvings, and of course surfing or sailing. In the end, this was the best option for any backpacker, or traveler on their own, as each bus held between 20-45 people. It made meeting new friends a breeze and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
I had talked with many people from Australia and did some research with
An Iced bar
Not as good as Minus 5, but at least here you could have as many drinks as you wanted, and only your beer stayed cold. brochures around town and found that I had 4 main bus transportation options.
Kiwi Experience, or the big green buses, was a company that hosted to mainly younger 19-25 year olds and geared towards seeing the sites, but known for a more party crowd. I being 30, was not ready for that, so I moved on to my other choices. The
Magic bus, also having jump on, jump off type of experience, but cost a little more and had a longer route then I had available. Another smaller option, was a
flexi-pass, where you bought hours of time between 5-50 hours, like a phone card. Depending on how long you were on the bus and where you were going, they pretty much covered the entire island, including the smaller cities where the other buses weren't going. This would have been great, again if I had more time. The last choice was a newer company, started by the same guy who helped create Kiwi Experience. It was called, Stray, or the big orange buses. They had gained a reputation of being a fun bus, but also going to places a little more nature oriented. The travelers were known to be a littler older,
The Harbor
Some cool buildings, water, and lots of people hanging around. but still having a good time at nights. The 16 day trip sounded perfect for me, and at a measly $355 NZ after rebates and discounts, I was sold. On top of the great deal, the pass lasts for 12 months, so at anytime I can come back and jump on it again and do round two for free.
Going Stray, 6 days in the North, 10 days in the South So I jumped on the Stray bus, met a few travelers from Ireland, England, and Germany and we headed out to our first destination of Hahei, East of Auckland to see the Cathedral Cove. Our drive was a gray haired kiwi who called himself Gollum. Apparently all Stray drivers have a nickname, and his either originated when he fell into the water somewhere, came out looking all skinny, pale, and drenched, and hence was named Gollum. Along on the drive, was Anthony, nickname soon to come, and he was a Trainee driver practicing and taking notes to become a full Stray driver himself. As we pulled out of Auckland, I was excited about what I was going to see in this much greener land. Little did I
Albert Park
A Park near the University. know, this was going to be some of the best activities I would do the entire trip!!
Coming up Next - The North Island (Hahei, Raglan, Waitomo, Rotorua, Taupo, and Wellington)
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Mike (Crusher)
non-member comment
Magic Bus
Nathan, your writing skills are clearly evident in this blog. Wonderful descriptions and, again, it's just like being there. I mean, c'mon, am I the only person who thinks this? Are there any other readers out there that feel the same? Your blogs are always a terrific read, accompanied by excellent photographs. Seriously, I would imagine any travel magazine snapping up your blogs to benefit their readers. Looking forward to the next installment!