First Days

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Hiya folks, I arrived in Auckland around lunchtime and not feeling too tired despite only having an hours sleep between Dubai and Auckland. The journey was in three parts Dubai ---> Singapore ---> Brisbane ---> Auckland. The first two flights were about 7hrs or so. Quite a cool part of the flight was getting to stay on the plane in Singapore while the plane was refueled and passangers got on and off. The cleaners came onboard and gave the plane a not so thorough going over. Quite a serious point was put across the flight intercom as we arrived in Singapore, we were reminded that drug smugglers could be punished using the death penalty, that gave me quite a shiver even although I would never dream of doing that, but you do hear stories of 'innocent' tourists being arrested. Before arriving in Austrailia we were sprayed with a chemical that they assured us would not harm humans but would kill off beasties (not sure I totally believe that - we all had to breath in the gas, which smelt really strong - but not as bad as the smell in Rotorua, which I will explain that later).

I was glad to finally arrive in Auckland and meet my distant family but not before declaring all on an arrival card. It took me ages of reading the instructions before I gave in to the strong threats on the card and declared my hiking boots and sweets. The boots are the ones that I had worn up Glen Doll and more recently in the mud bath at Dalguise so they were pretty bad. On arrival I had to show the muddy boots to the quarentine staff who then cleaned them for me, which was a bonus.

I spent the rest of the day with my relatives Tani, Werner and their two young boys Mitchell and Dillon. They drove me around Auckland, fed me and generally took care me while I tried to fight the sleepy feeling that was getting stronger and stronger as the evening progressed. I ended up giving in and going to bed at about 9.30pm.

I was expecting to sleep in and be really groggy the next day but somehow (probably Mitch and Dillon), I awoke about 8.30am feeling pretty bright and refreshed. I went up the Sky Tower where I got a good view of the volcanic cones surrounding Auckland including Mt Eden and One Tree Hill (U2 song written/named of a popular N.Z. roadie for the band who died in a car crash) Auckland is the 3rd largest city in the world and even from height of 328m I wasn't even close to seeing beyond the city. Later in the afternoon I booked an Awesome Adventures tour up North which was leaving at 7.20am the next day - I just hope I am not going to suffer a delayed jet lag....

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Photos

Auckland Cityscape
View of Auckland city centre from across the harbour at Kelly Tarltons Underwater Encounter

Sky Tower Auckland
Thick glass panels in the floor provide a scary view directly to the streets below