Auckland, the City of Sails and the first England vs All Blacks match...

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She’s back in the sunshine! Ok, so Auckland isn’t as warm as the heatwave that hit England over the past two days - but landing after my short flight from Wellington to blue sky and warmth was fabulous. Took the shuttle bus to the YHA, not as nice as the one in Wellington was but hey guess that was only expected given that the hostel had won ‘Hostel of the Year’ for the Oceania region for the past two years. So dumped the bag and changed into something for warmer temperatures and headed off down to Viaduct Quay. Auckland is much, much bigger than Wellington but still is fairly easy to get your bearings when walking around. Had a quick stop off for lunch in the sunshine (my new favourite word!) and then it was off to meet my boat...

Explore NZ is a company based in Viaduct Quay that runs sailing trips on two ex-America’s Cup boats (from the 1995 race, which was held in Auckland). Tuesday afternoon was therefore spent sailing on NZL 40 around Auckland Harbour and was absolutely amazing. The boat is big but very beautiful and the weather (and wind) made the views of the Auckland skyline, Auckland Harbour Bridge (like a mini-version of the Sydney one) and Devonport coastline all the more enjoyable. You are also actively encouraged to become part of the ‘crew’ and so are turning the things to pull up the sails (hum, might have forgotten what they’re actually called) and also manning the wheel! The wind dropped off significantly as we were on our return journey back into ‘port’ but I guess that’s what happens when ‘little miss sailor’ takes the wheel. (As an aside I should like to mention a special thanks to my girlies as I found out about Explore NZ on page 037 of the Wallpaper* guide you gave me!).

Back on dry land and I decided to completely confuse my body by sending it up 328 metres to the Observation Deck of the Sky Tower. Hummm... Forgot that I’m not that good with heights (and in particular when you can ‘look down’ to see the ground directly below you), so nearly had a fit whilst going up in the lift of the ‘tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere’ when I realised that a significant part of the floor of the lift was glass. That meant that until the lift doors opened my eyes were more shut than open shall we say! The views from the observation level were stunning though and I happily took photos of the view (and the sun setting in the background) once I had recovered from the lift experience. The colourful blur that you can see rushing past the window every 30 seconds or so, is a crazy person doing a bungy jump - they must be mad to fling themselves off of the tower! Have to confess that I didn’t spend too long up in the tower and at least knew not to look down whilst returning to ground level in the lift.

Wednesday was spent walking and browsing in the shops on K Road and Ponsonby Road. The area has a lovely feel to it - kind of Sydney-esque in a Paddington/Oxford Street way. Then headed down to Quay Street and had a late lunch at Northern Steamship Co Brewbar (041 from the Wallpaper* guide!), the food was delicious and I sampled a couple of glasses of ‘Spring Tide’ beer too whilst watching the sunset. Back in the hostel later, it was time to chillout and pack for the Kiwi Bus (as off on a two day trip ‘up norf’ to the Bay of Islands).

Early start on Thursday for my first experience on the kiwi experience - as headed 'up north' to the Bay of Islands for a couple of days. The bus didn't seem too full of young 'uns and chatted to two irish girls whilst at the breakfast stop (their advice was don't tell anyone you're over 24 on the kiwi bus, so when I asked how old they were the answer was '24'!). Arrived in Paihia and broke away from the 'Base posse' of the kiwi bus and the irish girls and I checked into another hostel and settled into our dorm - where thankfully we were the only 3 people in the 6 bed dorm.

Paihia is a beautiful place, kind of like Airlie Beach in Australia, as its the gateway to the Bay of Islands (a group of 144 islands and sailing paradise). The weather when we arrived wasn't that great - a bit cloudy - but still warm enough (just about). Feeling adventurous, or rather in need of stretching my legs after 4 hours on a bus, I set off after lunch on the walk to Haruru Falls. Arrived at the entrance to the walkway in Waitangi National Park and read the sign saying that it was 5km each way and should take 1 1/2 hours each way - not quite the short, gentle walk that I had envisaged (especially given that it had already taken me 30 mins to walk to the start of the walkway!!!).. Took one look at the time and the sky and decided that I had better walk pretty quickly to get there and back before it got dark. Well, I motored it shall we say up and down hills, through mangroves and over fallen trees (quite a mini-indiana jones adventure!) and arrived at the waterfall in just over an hour. Haruru Falls isn't that impressive actually and I was kind of surprised to find it right by a road and a backpackers place. Why oh why do they make you walk a 10km round trip to it then?! The walk back took just over an hour too and thankfully wasn't yet sunset (although this did happen whilst I was walking back to the hostel). Made the best decision of the day and jumped in the hot tub upon my return to the hostel (the reason why we decided to stay there) and spent a happy two hours drinking my new drink (spring tide, the low-carb beer!) and also jumped in the freezing cold, heart attack inducing, water of the swimming pool to cool off for all of 2 seconds before heading back into the hot tub. After a quick supper, it was chilling in the room and then a much needed sleep!

Up and out the hostel on Friday in time for my 8:45am boat trip around the islands and to spot dolphins and whales. This time it was motor sailing on a boat that was nothing like the beautiful americas cup boat in Auckland. The 'dolphinz' boat headed around some of the islands in the Bay of Islands and they do remind me of the Whitsundays - except here there are no hotels on any of the islands. The NZ government own most of the islands (all but two of the 144!) but there are some rich Auckland businessmen with huge houses and helipads on some of the islands - I want one! This area must be stunning in the summertime and also probably a lot busier than what it is in June...

We headed out to the 'Hole in the Rock' which is a cave that the sea has eroded away so much over the years that it has now formed a passage right through the little island. So off our boat headed through the rock! Then a very kind fisherman had let our skipper know about a group of dolphins that he'd seen, so we headed out into the pacific ocean and there were loads of playful dolphins jumping and swimming around - they were so beautiful and tranquil to watch. Unfortunately watching was all that we could do as there was a baby dolphin in the group, and marine laws prevent you from swimming when there is a baby dolphin present. We stayed quite a long time until another boat obviously heard about the dolphins and came steaming over to disturb our serenity! Then it was a slow journey back to Paihia but no more dolphins or whales were seen...

Took the kiwi bus back to Auckland later that afternoon. Did my laundry that evening, the one thing that I hate about travelling (might have mentioned this already, but surely fantasising about returning home to your own washing machine & tumble dryer's got to be a bit odd!?!). Earlyish night as Saturday is England rugby day!!!!

Had a little bit of a lie-in on Saturday morning and then headed off for a run. Back in the hostel and feeling nervous about the match later, don’t know why really but sometimes I feel like this before an England game. Killed time until 5pm by walking around Auckland, having some lunch and then getting changed into my England shirt! Headed down to Globe Bar where I was meeting some people and then a quick drink later and I was on the free bus to Eden Park. The seats that we had for the match were pretty good and thankfully the weather was so much better than it was in Wellington - aside from a brief drizzle shower in the first half (which got everyone in the terraces slightly ‘damp’), it was fine. What was not fine however is the way that England played... You simply cannot expect to play rugby for only 20 minutes against the All Blacks and hope that that would be enough. It won’t and it wasn’t. England got torn to pieces by the All Blacks backs - and I just hope that they learn their lessons (and also practise defending) before Christchurch next Saturday. I was a little bit inebriated shall we say by the end of the match - my excuse being that I was drinking to take away the pain! But at least the Kiwi fans didn’t gloat or rub our noses in the result too much. Then it was back on the free bus to Auckland city centre to continue the evening and eventually I returned back to the YHA for some much needed sleep.

Sunday was a struggle to say the least. I ventured out on the ferry to Devonport, which is only a 15 minute ride across the harbour, but it started doing that drizzle rain thing again as soon as I arrived. Not good, so only spent about an hour wandering in and out of shops - and unfortunately didn’t get the chance to go up Mount Victoria, but not too sure what I would have seen if I had gone up there as there was a lot of low cloud around. That really was the extent of my day - and aside from a mild panic (and lots of email sending) when I heard that the ski slopes in the South Island were suffering due to ‘warm weather’ - I really didn’t do much else other than pack and get ready for my flight to Queenstown. Fingers crossed for cold weather so that I can ski!

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