We flew from Queenstown to Auckland to spend a few days on the North Island. After our morning flight, we got settled at our AirBnB then headed out to find some food. We stayed in the Auckland Central Business District (CBD) so we walked down by the water and found this burger place called Beer and Burger Joint (love the original name!; http://www.beerandburgerjoint.co.nz/ ) – they had a sign out front that touted the “best burger in town”. So of course we had to find out if it was true. Well we didn’t try all the burgers in Auckland – but this one was pretty amazing!
I had 2 main things on my “must do” list for Auckland – one was Waiheke Island and the other was the Sky Tower. Then Mount Eden was on my “want to do if we have time” list. Waiheke Island was scheduled for later in the week (on the best weather forecast day), so after lunch we headed to the Sky Tower (https://skycityauckland.co.nz/sky-tower/). Looking at the forecast, it seemed like our best bet for good views because the next couple days looked pretty overcast and rainy. Really great 360 views and it was definitely worth the entrance fee (the pictures look like they have a blue hue because of the windows – they didn’t look like that in real life).
After that we hit the Woolworths (grocery store), wandered around the CBD a bit, then headed in for the night. Incidentally there was a Metallica concert while we were there and there was a pop-up merchandise store right across from our hotel. We could see the line snaked around the block from our balcony (even the next day when it rained, they were out there!).
The next morning we got up for a run along the waterfront to an area called Silo Park – and saw some massively big yachts! We also discovered a local neighborhood playground and Chris couldn’t resist the slide!
The morning was pretty dreary (drizzly and overcast) so we checked out the New Zealand Maritime Museum (https://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/) – it was a super cool museum and a great rainy day activity! New Zealand has a lot of coastline and so, not surprisingly, also has a lot of maritime history. The museum does a great job of covering the maritime history of their nation, to include Māori history, as well as the sea life nearby. They also have a whole exhibit about America’s Cup and modern yachting.
We actually then spent the rainy afternoon at our apartment – organizing photos and just vegging! When we travel, we never want to miss opportunities to see things and rain would not normally stop us from being out and about. But with 6 months of continuous travel, we figured it was important to also take some downtime and this seemed like a good opportunity.
If we had time, I had also wanted to check out Mount Eden (https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/en/parks-recreation/find-park-beach/park-detail/58.html). The next day, the forecast that had looked similarly cruddy had changed for the better. I’ve heard not to trust the forecast too much in New Zealand because it changes so much anyway. So I was glad it changed in our favor so we could go check out Mount Eden. It’s a dormant volcano – which was pretty cool on its own but also had amazing views of Aukland. To get there, we hopped on a bus – Chris was pretty excited when we realized it was a double decker bus and the top deck front seat was open!
The walk up to the top was relatively easy (paved and the entrance to the park was close to the bus stop). You do have to walk up it though – the top is inaccessible by car. I did a couple videos showing the view from the top and also another one to try and give you an idea of how deep the crater is – it was hard to capture with a still photo.
On the walk we saw these trees called Whau – they are native to NZ and their wood is very light (even lighter than cork). It was used by the Māori people for fishing floats and marker bouys (https://www.nativeplants.nz/entelea-arborescens.html). While up there we also got to hear Metallica do some sound checks at nearby Eden Park before their concert that night!
The next day we took the ferry out to Waiheke Island for sightseeing and wine tasting. I saved that for its own post so stay tuned! On our last day we flew out in the later afternoon so we checked out a church (St. Patrick’s) that was a short walk from our apartment.
Then we also did the All Blacks Experience (https://www.experienceallblacks.com)- it was actually right near the Sky Tower (which incidentally was also where the bus to the airport left from and both were only about a 5 minute walk from our apartment). Since this was a last minute decision, we didn’t book in advance but had no problem getting tickets for the next tour when we walked up. We didn’t have enough time to do things further out of town (like the zoo) and this sounded cool. It turned out to be a really neat experience! I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re in Auckland. Now I need to learn more about rugby!
And now on to Cairns!
