Updated by PaulTo the local Maori people, New Zealand is known as ‘Aotearoa’ which means The Land of The Long White Cloud. It’s no surprise they are referencing the weather as this is the country where you will be applying sunblock whilst lying on a pristine, unspoilt, golden-sand beach one minute then half an hour later scrambling around for your woolly hat, scarf and gloves as it starts to snow!
The three and a half hour flight from Fiji arrived into Auckland late afternoon and as we took the bus into the city to our hostel we though this might be a good time to consult the guide book to find out a few facts. Auckland is a city twice the size of London - in fact it’s the fifth biggest city in the world by physical size - yet has a population of only 1.4 million people. Pretty sure this was not going to be city of crowds and congestion!
Having got a list of all the things we were going to spend the next few days doing we arrived at our hostel on Karangahape Road (thankfully known locally as K Road!) This area of central Auckland has shaken off a reputation of being the seedy part of town and is now more a place full of cool clubs, bars and coffee shops.
After a 10 minute walk into the Centre we had a look around the harbour. They say that one in five Aucklanders owns a boat - it’s a bloody big harbour! Although it’s the middle of winter in New Zealand, the sun was shining and the temperature hitting nearly 20 degrees. This didn‘t last long though as the heavens opened and a torrential downpour came down. You can bet your bottom Kiwi dollar you’re never going to be wearing the right clothes in this country!
We took a free day tour around Auckland with a company called Kiwi-Experience and it certainly was an experience as we completed the Auckland Harbour Bridge walk in the lashing rain! Great views, but we were still not talked into doing the bungy jump off the bridge into the harbour below. They’re all idiots I tell you!
Next on the tour was a drive up an old volcanic cone now converted into a military bunker. It overlooked a part of the harbour where we could see the whole New Zealand navy fleet. I say whole fleet - they only have two boats. And I think the captains are called Bruce and Shane.
Picked up a huge portion of fish and chips for lunch in an upmarket part of Auckland called Devenport then headed back to the city centre. We liked the Kiwi Experience bus tour so much we decide to ditch the idea of hiring a campervan and booked the tour bus experience for the rest of the country with these guys!
The next morning a brisk ten minute walk to the Auckland Museum enabled us to see the largest collection of Maori artefacts in the world. Impressive weapons but I did expect more scary looking blokes with tattooed faces jumping out to greet us in a traditional way. Or maybe that’s just in Greenford.
One of the dominating features of Auckland is the Sky Tower. Built in 1997, it’s twice the height of Seattle’s Space Needle and on a clear day you can see up to 55 miles away. Given the changeable nature of the Auckland weather system we grabbed the opportunity of a rare clear morning to get up the top.
The views were as stunning as you would expect and you can have a walking-on-air moment by standing on the glass floor. Pretty sure you’re not meant to jump up and down on it but we had to test the claim it was as strong as concrete!
We decided to check out some local comedy talent at a late night comedy club after grabbing a few pints of Stella Artois in an authentic Belgian Bar. In the middle of Auckland! Not much to write home about on Kiwi comedy - other than to say big jugs of beer still can’t make female comedians talking about how badly men deal with the ‘flu funny! I think they’re still at least ten years behind on the comedy front.
Walking down K’ road back to the hostel I discovered the best Kebab shop in the world. The shop was called QPR and yep it was a Queens Park Rangers themed kebab shop! Does life get any better?!
People throughout the rest of New Zealand refer to people from Auckland as JAFA’s - Just Another F*****g Aucklander! Although the city isn’t as pretty or scenic as the rest of the country it is a decent place to visit. We certainly enjoyed our week in the city but it might be nice to try something different. Next up then we’re headed north in search of warmer weather. Oh yeah, and we’ll be working on a farm!!
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