A New Country

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So we arrived in Auckland early afternoon and caught the shuttle bus into Auckland town centre. Firstly, its a lot colder here than in Australia, which would take a bit of getting used to after the warmer climates of the East Coast.

We headed to Base, off Queenstreet and decided to have a sleep as we were pretty tired after the journey and a fairly late night in Sydney. We went for a stroll around town to see what the city had to offer in terms of food and found a nice Italian down at the harbour. We went for a free beer in the hostel bar that night and there was a foam party on, so we spent some time watching some bloke dancing very strangely and throwing foam on everyone. Bed time was calling....

Our second day we decided to have a proper look around town. We headed to Parnell, Auckland's oldest village, it was a pretty place with quaint little streets with shops and cafes, and the weather was kind to us luckily. After a coffee we made our way to the Sky Tower, one of Auckland's main attractions. Its the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, we went to the top level to have a 360 degree view over the city. There are also glass pieces in the flooring so you can see straight down, a bit unnerving but it says that the glass is just as strong as the concrete. You can do a sky jump from the top level but we decided not to as it looked a bit rubbish. That evening we went out for drinks in an Irish bar (they get everywhere!) down one of the little streets off Queenstreet, and got chatting with some guys from Watford. It ended up a bit of a late one, which always seems to be the way when you have an early start the next day!

All in all Auckland is a nice city, not as busy as we thought it would be, but a nice place to look around for a day or two. We'll be back up this way soon as we're catching our connecting flight to Fiji from here.

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Photos

View from one of Parnell streets
...with Sky Tower visible