Auckland At First Glance...

Hey there everyone! I just thought I would give a little update on our adventure so far. We had a great flight to Auckland; I highly recommend Air New Zealand to travel with. The food was great, free wine with dinner and something like 70 movies to watch. After watching 2 movies Neal and I each took a sleeping pill and dozed for 8 hours. It made the 14 hour flight quite bearable. We landed at 430am in Auckland and took the air shuttle bus into downtown where Jeff and Jess met up with us. They are doing great, so relaxed and loving life here!
 

Auckland is an incredible city. It reminds me a lot of San Francisco, it’s very internationally diverse. It is winter here and would be the equivalent of ‘December’ in Canada, however it is very green here and the weather has been pretty nice so far, except for the occasional rain that blows in out of nowhere and soaks you. There are a lot of hills and plenty of cafés and restaurants.  The waterfront is beautiful and there is a lot to do.  The people are very friendly and polite, even more so than Canada.  The transit system is really easy to use and the city is very safe to walk around in. We have gotten good use of our walking shoes so far.  The coffee is fantastic here; I have yet to miss Tim Hortons. So far we have had nothing but delicious food and the value has been good. There definitely is some sticker shock when you are looking at imported things. The drinks at the bars are really expensive too, hence the very popular “pre-loading” sessions before going out.  All in all we are very impressed with Auckland and everything it has to offer;  it’s an added bonus that Jeff & Jess are here and have had the city figured out for us for the past 6 months!
 

 
After we arrived we had some much needed coffee and got a look at the Stoy’s apartment and then Jess took us to do some errands. They use debit for everything here so we were able to set up a “backpackers account” that provides us with a debit and VISA debit card for while we are travelling in New Zealand, pretty convenient actually! Neal got a SIM card set up with Vodaphone and we have been using the WiFi as much as possible in the coffee shops. We are staying in a Studio Apartment at the ‘Waldorf Stadium Apartments’ that is right near the water and close to everything. We got a great deal on Expedia and got it for $74/night, it’s a really nice apartment!

The first night was really low key as the jet lag was in full force. Jess had to work so Jeff took us out by the viaduct and we walked down to Silo Park where every Friday night they play movies that project onto the Silo’s and people sit at picnic tables/ bean bag chairs to watch. We had some mulled wine and caught a little bit of E.T.  We then went to a place called “the conservatory” and had some delicious pizza, followed by some catch-up beers at Danny Dolans which had some great live music.

Saturday we met up with Jeff & Jess and hiked up Mt. Eden, at the top you get some great city views and you can see both coasts on either side. It was a pretty mild climb that took about 20mins. We ate at “Olaf’s Bakery” and had a delicious brunch.

 
 
After we had a nap to prep for a Saturday night out in Auckland; we had no idea what we were in for.  We had some drinks and the Stoy’s and then a great tapas style dinner at Mezza. We wrapped up there at 1030pm and the night life was still pretty quiet, so we headed out to meet up with J&J’s new friends for some pre-drinks at their apartment. We were surrounded by Brazilians, French, Argentineans and Irish, a lethal combination! We “pre-drank” until 230am which was when everyone was rowdy enough to go out, I was worried none of the bars would be open or we wouldn’t get into anything since Calgary usually shuts down at 230am; I was wrong. We walked right into a club that was still pumping out great tunes and we danced until 430am. This was followed by a stop by McDonald’s that everyone does at that hour. We walked home and got to bed at 5am. I was surprised we had it in us to stick it out considering we haven’t done that since our University days. In Auckland that is a typical and tame Saturday night! All I have to say is the Kiwi’s can seriously drink, and they do it in style. The girls wear cocktail dresses and gigantic heels that they dance all night in, pretty impressive if you ask me.

Sunday after we dragged ourselves out of bed we took the Ferry across to Davenport for a very late brunch at Manuka.  After our hangover relieving breakfast we walked up Mt. Victoria and got some great pictures.
 

The Nintendo airvents at the top of Mount Victoria.

 
 
 
Walking back we got drenched with the rain that came out of nowhere.  The rest of the evening was very low key as Saturday night caught up to us; we were in bed by 9am.
 

On Monday  Neal and I went to the Kelly Tarlton Aquarium and got to see some cute penguins and walked through the shark tank. It was a really nice aquarium but smaller than I thought it would be.
 
 
 

We walked along Mission Beach and enjoyed the Sun that finally came out.
 
 
That night we were treated to some delicious homemade pasta by Jeff & Jess and had a low key night of catching up.

That is the update for now, Neal will take over and update you once we are all wrapped up in Auckland and on our way to get our campervan in Christchurch. We hope you are all doing well. Talk to you later!!

-Laur