Thursday 20th September 2018.

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It’s around 2/3 am. Me and Danny are both suddenly more awake now than we had been the whole previous day. Perhaps that 4 hour nap wasn’t such a great idea, then again, I think it was pretty unavoidable, I would have probably just feel asleep standing up. We decide to just accept the alertness, and don’t try to force sleep. We actually get out of bed around 5 am, and I make a call to mum and dad, who have just gotten in from their work day. We have a lovely catch up and it’s amazing to hear their voices. It does add to my current mental confusion a little bit, due to them about to have dinner, when I haven’t even had breakfast yet. After my phone call, me and Danny make breakfast together, Danny makes the porridge, and I make us a turmeric, lemon and ginger tea.

It’s now getting towards 8/9am, and tiredness yet again starts to take over, due to our brain clock saying it’s now nearly bed time. Apparently for every hour that the clocks change, it takes a day to readjust. Meaning where our time zone has come forward 11 hours, we should have readjusted within 11 days or so.. so we’re remaining optimistic! Haha! We again give over to tiredness and fall back to sleep.

We wake up a couple of hours later feeling much more awake, although still slightly fuzzy-headed. After much discussion, we decide to take a walk through the city and down to the marina, and fresh air was exactly what we needed! Plus, it’s a beautiful day, blue sky’s all around, and gorgeous sun warming our skin. We picked a great day for our first visit to the marina, the sun is glistening off the waters surface, making it look like a sea of liquid silver. We stand admiring the many yachts that are currently moored in the area, imagining ourselves on board, I’m sailing us through tropical seas, whist Danny lounges out back sipping on champagne! The dream haha!

After walking on past the luxurious yachts and fancy restaurants, we reach a slightly more industrial looking area. It’s home to several dozen, humongous, cylindrical shaped vessels, many adorned with paintings and different sayings. Although not quite the view of the marina we was just at, there is something still quite beautiful about huge, concrete, urban art. Much to our surprise, there just so happens to be an entrance to a cluster of four of these cylinders, with a sign saying ‘step into the underworld’..

With a little apprehension at the ominous invitation, we walk up the stairs leading to the door, and step into the underworld. What’s inside is not quite what we expected, but much more beautiful. A architectural student welcomes us in, and explains what is happening inside this exhibition. Inside are several 3D printed images of the many lava caves which lie beneath the ground in New Zealand, many of which are accessible through residents back gardens. Archeologists have took their time to document them through these 3D images, and the results are illustrated here, they look amazing! We pay a small admission fee, and take a walk around. We attempted to get a few photographs, but the results came out much like when you try to photograph a beautiful moon on a dark night, they just don’t do the art justice.

Upon exiting, we squint as the sun hits our eyes and we attempt to readjust to the day light after our walk through the underworld. We leave very happy at the accidental discovery, and continue on our walk. By this point we’ve been walking for several hours, and decide to start walking back towards the city centre. Our walk takes us directly beneath the Sky Tower, and we wonder what actually goes on in there. To our surprise it’s home to a hotel, many different restaurants and bars, and even the opportunity to bungee jump off the top of it. As much as I would be up for the bungee jump one day, I can’t justify spending that kind of money on something that will last for little more than 30 seconds. Instead, we book ourselves a table at the 360 degree rotating restaurant, which is right at the top of the tower, and your view changes throughout your meal as the whole restaurant slowly rotates, giving you panoramic views of the whole of Auckland! The nearest table that takes our fancy is 5.30pm on Sunday, which means we should see the transition from light to dark.

After this, we start to head back, we grab a Guinness from the local Irish bar, then back to the hostel. When we arrive back, Danny makes us lovely soup for dinner, then we go up to the room to watch a film. I don’t think I even made it past the opening credits before I fell asleep.

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