Auckland Hotels
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Altitude in Auckland
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We are in a new continent and new country. Yep, we are in New Zealand, Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud.
Arriving at Auckland airport you are welcomed by biohazard signs warning you of the fines involved for bringing food, seeds etc into the country. They take this very seriously over here, with a beagle sniffing out a random apple in some girls bag, she was told very matter of factly that the dog had just saved her a $200 fine. Abiding by the regulations we duly declared our hiking boots as a "biohazard" and the nice lady kindly dipped and washed the remaining llama droppings off the bottom for us.
Decontaminated, we got a cab into Auckland to our digs for the next 3 days, the Oaks Smartstay Apartments on Hobson Street in the city centre. It was nice to have a 2 bed apartment with kitchen and laundry to be our base for the next 3 days - it felt like a home away from home and like we were back in the real world.
Desperate for haircut each, we found a hairdressers in a local mall, Maud had a trim and her hair ironed very straight, I had a trim from a bloke that was anything but....
We then wandered back to the apartment up Queen Street, one of the main shopping areas, with Maud making a couple of purchases on the way.
At last we had a good selection of eateries to choose from, so that night we headed to a Thai place "Mai Thai" that Maud had spotted and which had won a few awards. Needless to say we weren't disappointed. Not wanting to change our current traveling habits we then headed to Sky City casino, had a good win and hit the sack at about 2am.
Next morning we got up and finally cooked something ourselves, bacon and egg butties, before heading down to Victoria Park Market. This was quite a nice chilled out market for a Sunday stroll and a few wooden crafts were purchased. We then walked down to Viaduct Harbour to check out the cruisers and sailing boats,
as well as debating which apartment Stu (little shot) would have owned. After checking out some very nice yachts, we had a few drinks on the harbour at the "hog" (can't remember the full name), Maud finally getting some decent cider and myself tucking into a few pints of "Great White" wheat beer which was pretty good.
That night, with a huge selection of gourmet restaurants available to us, we headed out for an Indian. The one we had tried to find had obviously closed down and become something else (thanks Lonely Planet) so we found a really small place whilst wandering around. It was a bit of a strange Indian, with the bathrooms being in a building next door so you had to ask the waiter every time you needed the bathroom, but the food was very good indeed, and we had know it was also bring you own wine...shucks. Suitably stuffed we retired for the evening.
We got up fairly early the next morning, and after a lazy Sunday the previous day decided some adrenaline was needed. What better way to wake up than take a walk around the 328 metre Sky Tower, but not at ground level, at about 250 metres up at the observation deck level, walking on a 1 metre wide platform with no railings and only held on by a sort of seatbelt device attached to your back. This may not seem that scary, but once you get onto a platform that high up with no railings and the wind gusting around you, it soon wakes you up. Unlike a bungee or skydive, you don't get the adrenaline rush of the 2 seconds when you jump, instead you are teetering on that adrenaline precipice the whole way around for the entire hour, as at any moment you could fall or get blown over the side....a different buzz altogether.
Half way around we did a lean over the side for some photos (we can't post them unfortunately as they weren't on a disc) until the finale of walking across a 12 inch glass plank between the walkway and building. I managed to do this with a few 360's thrown in, but Maud could only manage a few steps, I don't blame her though as it was getting quite windy up there at that time.
We then had another look around some of the shops as I was interested in buying an iPod for the long roads ahead in the campervan. Undecided, we headed to an area of Auckland called Parnell Village for lunch, which was a really nice area with lots of cafes with their chairs spilling onto the street front, good for people watching. After lunch we wandered around a bit more, some of the arts and crafts places were very good but the stuff we liked was a bit too big to ship home. So having bought nothing we headed back into the city were I decided the new iPhone would be the best accessory for playing music in the van, this was whilst Maud posted the Easter Island blog - she shouldn't leave me on my own with a credit card really to make such decisions, it's only going to work out very expensive !!
That night we went to the Grand Harbour Chinese Restaurant on Viaduct Harbour as recommended by Stu & Bels (thanks guys - or should I say "cheers bro"). We had a lovely meal, maybe the last in a while as we were picking up the van the next day, the lobster tank there was the highlight with some absolutely huge spiny lobsters, (even put yours to shame Billy) but we couldn't find any dishes with lobster in ?
After dinner we headed back to Sky Towers as we had been given free observation deck passes having done the "SkyWalk" earlier. It was good to see the city at night and they also had glass floors you could walk over, just not quite as extreme as earlier in the day.
A final couple of hours in the casino ("there aren't any now until Queenstown" said Maud) where we came out even, finished the night off. Tomorrow we pick up the Wicked Campervan to begin our travels round New Zealand in earnest.
The next morning we packed up and headed down to Parnell Village again (as this was near the Wicked Camper pick up). As we were going to rough it for the next few weeks, we decided to get a decent breakfast of eggs benedict, coffee and OJ, especially as we would be cooking on a gas stove going forwards. We walked down to the van depot, only to be told pick up was at another depot near the airport. So we caught a cab down to there where we were presented with our van for the next 3 weeks.
Somehow I think we got possibly the worst van available, but had no other choices, as this was the only two seater van left at the depot. On the passenger side was spray painted DiC and on the drivers side BiTCH, both plays on the BiC lighter symbol. To cap it off, the phrase "My wife's a sex object - every time I ask for sex she objects" was emblazoned on the boot door.
We couldn't do much but laugh at the whole thing, so signed the papers, got instructed on how to use the single burner stove, grabbed some cutlery and hit the road. As soon as we got onto the main road there was much laughing from passing motorists as well as a few glares, it appeared we were going to be the amusement of the general public for the next 3 weeks.
On the way out of Auckland we stopped at a large supermarket (they love warehouse style shopping here) and picked up some necessities. Cheap bedding, mosquito nets and coils, food for the next few days and unbelievably some Brit food, so Pot Noodles, Hula Hoops, HP and Colemans were all in the shopping trolley and we headed for the open road...
Latest Comments (2)
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The Van (reply)
Mar 6, 2008 14:51 EST by lozza76
I almost wet my pants reading about 'the van'. Reminds me of that episode of Top Gear where they drove around the South with Hillary for Pres etc on the car.
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Paint Job Needed (reply)
Mar 6, 2008 10:13 EST by therickards
Suggest you obtain 2 five litre tins of exterior grade Emulsion ( Magnolia should be a very suitable colour) and a couple of 8' brushes and give the Van a quick makeover.
Another delightful Meal by Meal account of your travels.
Keep up the good work, any chance of sending a case of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough??
Dad
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