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Published: March 3rd 2009
We arrived in Auckland and were met by Kiran...the most over enthusiastic Kiwi I think we will ever meet! Everything was 'sweet as' and everyone was a 'dude'. Was funny for a short bus ride only. Our first accommodation was in BASE, in central Auckland - a 10 floor party hostel. We went to bed at 9 cuz of jet lag!
The first few days were action packed. We had our orientation...setting up bank accounts, tax numbers and stuff. But more excitingly, we went on a ferry to Rangitoto Island, which was only formed 600 years ago from a volcanic eruption, and was an amazing day out. We climbed around the rocks, then tried to walk to the summit but got lost in the jungle. There is no water supply, shops or permenant residents on Rangitoto, so once we ran out of food and water we chilled in the shade until the ferry home arrived.
After our complimentary 2 nights stay at BASE, we decided to move to a cheaper hostel, so moved out of town to Mt Eden Village. The hostel location was lovely, although the rooms were disgusting. Dan saw a cat bring a live mouse into
the hostel, and when I ran the tap into the sink, all hair and flies came floating out of the plughole in the unused bath! But it was cheap.
We walked up to the summit of Mt Eden in the early evening time, although it was still boiling hot. The walk was fun, climbing up the steep grassy bank, and the views were amazing. A few years ago, on April fools day, some kids took a load of tyres into the crater of Mt Eden and set fire to them, and the locals all fled thinking the Volcano was erupting again!
We signed up to a free bus tour of Auckland, not quite knowing what to expect, and thinking it would be fairly rubbish, but was worth doing as it was free. The first stop was the Sky Tower, where they offered a free Sky Jump off it! We were both unsure of what a sky jump was (we thought it was bungy jumping, not a controlled jump) so we didnt volunteer, so we watched Alan (from BUNAC) do it. It looked ace and we both regretted not volunteering! Next stop was Mt Eden...not so much fun when
we had already done it, as we just drove to the summit and looked at the views. Final stop of the tour was Auckland Harbour Bridge, where we were harnessed on and walked along the contruction path to a bungy pod. We watched people throw themselves off this, even being dunked into the water below, before heading back to the hostel.
Our final day was very rainy so we just stayed in playing cards and planning our stay in Christchurch...We had a very early morning flight to catch the next day, so packed and had an early night.
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Lynn Noon
non-member comment
looks amazing
glas to see you are experiencing a few things the place looks amazing, i notice you had no top on make sure you don't get burnt, see I can still nag you from the other side of the world. miss you both xx