First day in Auckland

City Lodge

Our first hostel is about as basic as it comes, just a bed, shower, toilet and sink. But with the added bonus of fridge, kettle and a TV. A TV that bizarrely seems to document the UK election more than anything else that is happening in the world.

The first day we took ourselves off for a coffee and then for a wander into Auckland. Too tired to form an opinion about anything we had an early night and slept a good 12 hours!

Our first full day in Auckland

We woke up feeling 100% better than yesterday! After a quick breakfast we headed into town. The weather is lovely but its very strange that its so warm and yet the leaves are falling off the trees. We had a meeting at the bank at 11am and picked up our bank cards so we can now access money (bonus), and then found the place where we pick up our campervan and arranged a time for collection. We spent $5 on a sim card from a company called 2degrees (no never heard of them either), who don’t seem to have their own shop but operate solely out of tiny newsagents. Nevertheless calling and texting is now very cheap.

Grabbed a quick lunch and walked through a park to Auckland’s art gallery, only to discover its still charging full price despite half the gallery being closed for renovations - next time maybe. Instead we took a trip up the highest manmade structure in New Zealand, the sky tower. We took a lift up 186m and saw some amazing views, watched a woman jump from the top of tower, being suspended for a minute while she had her picture taken, then plummet to the ground, and we met a man from Baildon. It is most definitely a small world, we travel a million miles to a completely different country, stay in its most populated city and meet a man who lived a mile down the road from home. Unbelievable. He did however mention that he now lives in NZ and passed on his number in case we were ever in his area. After taking another trip up to the highest point (220m) we saw some even better views of the city, got a cold drink, and went all the way back down. All in all a good sight to see.

A very pleasant evening, quick tea and then went out to find a nice bar to have some local booze. Window shopped a few, bypassing them when realising that $9 for a glass of wine was equal to £4.50! Might be on the other side of the world but we’re still from Yorkshire, and therefore tight with money. In the end though we found a great bar where all drinks were $5 during happy hour (yay!) and sat on their balcony people watching.