Arriving in Auckland we realised that we would need longer than the 4 days we had anticipated - there are so many touristy things to do and so many walks around the coast, we were concerned we would need a month! Staying first in the lovely Remuera area, we found a fantastic pub (The Villager) where we spent a great night acclimatising ourselves to the Auckland way of life. Extremely similar to the British lifestyle actually; drinking beer! And we are pleased to report that we can now fully retract our statement regarding New Zealand's beer brewing ability after discovering
Monteiths - 100% yummy. One waitress commented on how she thought Steve looked like Chris Martin of Cold Play fame. When no likeness of Beth to Gwyneth was proffered, Beth insisted on leaving. Humph.
The next couple of days was spent exploring the sights around Auckland, most notably the wonderful
Kelly Tarlton's Antartic Adventure. You walk through a tunnel surrounded by the sea with sharks, rays and fish swimming overhead and around you. Very 'Jaws 3' but without the Great White shark.
The Sky Tower, the world's 12th tallest building, offered great 360degree views of Auckland and the Islands, although we were not silly enough to leap from the top as some crazy, crazy people were doing.
Although we are pretty 'museum'd' out, the
Auckland museum is pretty good with such diverse displays as a Maori war canoe, New Zealand stuffed animals and a presentation on the holocaust - we weren't sure whether to laugh or cry at times. Most lunchtimes we (or rather Beth) indulged in some Sushi sessions. As a growing percentage of the New Zealand population is made up of Japanese, the sushi is perfect, in constant supply and only NZ$6 (2GBP) for a huge carton. At 6GBP for a small lunch box in the UK, Marks & Spencers have a lot of explaining to do!
One clear evening we went to the
Auckland Stardome Observatory which is similar to the London planetarium but with a star show of the Southern hemisphere. The telescopes were pretty impressive too, dwarfing Steve's at home and really bringing the stars to life like the colourful 'Jewel Box' cluster. Very worthwhile and we got discount with our hostelling International cards, although the cashier looked a little shocked we had them. Her reaction was 'you guys have youth hostel cards?' in an incredulous tone of voice. How rude.
We spent a leisurely day walking around the historic seaside town of DevonPort situated south of the Northshore, Auckland. With it's Victorian mansions and colonial timber homes, the town has a village air. We climbed both extinct volcanic cones, Mt.Victoria and North Head, for amazing views of the Auckland city skyline and the America Cup Harbour (renamed 'Luxury yacht harbour' after New Zealand lost the cup!) Oh, to own one of the big yachts in the harbour - you can certainly see why Auckland is called 'City of Sails'.
We rounded off our stay in Auckland with drinks in the suburb of Parnell and couldn't help but stare wistfully at the trendy people in the bars, dressed for a night out and smelling of wonderful fragrances. If we were ever glamorous (and that is up for debate anyway), then we certainly aren't now in our uniform of walking boots and jeans!
Next stop took as slightly further north of Auckland but not quite in the Northlands at Takapuna - a gorgeous campsite where we could park almost on the beach and see the sunrise before breakfast. We wanted to explore one of the islands surrounding Auckland but there are so many to choose from with the most populated being Waiheke. We settled on
'Tiri Tiri Matangi' (Maori meaning 'tossing on the wind' apparently and you can read into that what you will!!!). We got on the ferry in the morning alongside what seemed an army of elderly people. It turned out they were the Auckland tramping club and my God, did they tramp. We didn't see them for dust when we got off the ferry! ***Anorak mode*** The island is a wildlife sanctuary and one of the only marine reserves open to the public in New Zealand.
An Island volunteer took us on a guided tour at first to explain the history and take us to the lighthouse, the central part of the island. We were lucky enough to get Anne Rimmer who not only made bird-watching fun but as she has just written a book about Tiri Tiri Matangi with a foreword by David Bellamy, she was really knowledgeable about the island. We learnt from her that the volunteers in partnership with New Zealand conservation department are trying to recreate an environment similar to New Zealand's before the Maori's landed 800 years ago and Europeans 150 years ago. In this vein they have eradicated all the mammals that were introduced by settlers such as weasels, stoats and possums which became predators to the flightless birds, endemic to New Zealand, such as the famous Kiwi and Takahe.
Birds that are still on the brink of extinction now live happily and breed peacefully on the island...some of them are not very easy on the eye however as you will see from the photos! The island was so green and with the sun finally shining, we had a perfect New Zealand spring day as we wondered around smelling the sweet honey fragrance of the flowering Manuku trees that fragranced the air. If you hadn't guessed already, we totally fell in love with the island and are going to join as oversea supporters when we settle again. ***Anorak mode ended*** We had an eventful journey on the way back when the starboard engine exploded which meant that the journey would take 2 hours longer and we could only be dropped back in Auckland and not Gulf Harbour where we had boarded. But the great news was that as the ferry was now going so slowly we got free food and drink (Beth was in her element) and a school of Dolphins followed us in the wake, leaping out of the water only a metre from the boat. In the dark, we drove to a very random campsite called 'Sheepworld' and left before light - certainly not waiting to hang around and find out why it was so named - then started to drive to the Northlands, the warmest place in New Zealand. After 3 months in the winter, we couldn't wait to get there!
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