First Contact - Auckland

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Street Show

Good Morning New Zealand

Saturday

Jeremy (Nick's cousin) picked us up at the airport after we got through immigration. After figuring which side of the car was the passenger side, we hit the road out to Waitakere City, the part of Auckland where Jeremy and his wife and kids leave. Immediately we were struck by the different look of New Zealand, especially the palm trees and Norfolk Pines (google these, they do not look like pine trees in Canada) covering pretty much every piece of ground that wasn't built on, and the mountains everywhere that rise straight up out of the sea.

Once we passed through the main part of Auckland, both completely lost as to which way we were going, the roads got narrower and very windy. Carla got a little green around the gills while we were going through the corners. We got to Jeremy's offloaded the backpacks and had some breakfast. Carla went for a short tour of the local area with Jeremy's wife while Nick helped Jeremy paint the basement.

Sunday

On Sunday Jeremy and his wife took us touring around downtown Auckland, we had some great dockside dim sum for dinner then we headed to the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower top viewing platform is 220m up overlooking both harbours in Auckland. They have glass floors in portions so you can look straight down at the street if you really want a sense of vertigo. From the Tower we saw a festival on one of the docks so we checked that out. It was an Indian festival with a market and bazaar and a big stage with lots of different dance and music performances. We tried some New Zealand ice cream, the flavour is called Hokey Pokey and its vanilla ice cream with actual honeycomb in it, and its delicious.

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Photos

Nick Earning the Place to Sleep
We got there and Jeremy (my cousin) was painting, so I helped out. Carla took pictures.

First Palm Tree
You don't see too many of those in Saskatchewan.

Jeremy's Deck
That's just awesome. And he's moving!

The View from the Deck
See what I mean, this place is amazing.

More View out the Window
Still awesome.

Jeremy's Kids
They kept everyone busy and entertained the whole time, lol.

Us in the Sky Tower
I think this is around 200 m up over downtown Auckland.

Comments

[Kristin]

amazing...
I cant believe it- those pics are amazing! Id have to agree that its crazy they're moving... Wow- great view! Love the pics you guys!

[Tamara & Justin]

"Us in the Sky Tower"
We have the exact same picture!! hahaha :) Awesome!