Auckland

Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city, but not it’s Capital. It lies perched on a very narrow section of the North Island, and so appears to have more than it’s fair share of coastline. As a result Auckland has a very pretty harbour which is made even more scenic by several little volcanic islands just offshore. In summary – a nice place. Friendly people too. The only downside is that it’s more than a bit chilly. Especially when the wind picks up. Or when it rains. Which is pretty often. Auckland does remind us quite a lot of Wales!

OK, Wales does not have any volcanic islands or a SkyTower - or anywhere near as many sushi restaurants for that matter. We spent most of our time wandering around as usual. We took a ferry over the harbour to Devon Port – a suburb with a lovely waterfront full of little cafes with good views back towards Auckland central. The highest point of Devonport is the optimistically named Mount Victoria, which is more of a volcanic hill than a mountain (the summit is only 190 feet above sea level). But it does give stunning panoramic views of the Auckland bay area – the city centre, volcanic islands, harbour bridge… And if you wander back to the ferry terminal along the sea front you can at least see a little evidence of the volcanic eruption: the rocks along the shoreline are all jet black lava-flow relics.

We also spent some time wandering through the town suburbs. Parnell is a short walk off to the east of the CBD, and has yet more cafes and boutique gift shops, a University, and a lovely park called The Domain. We wandered by accident through the student’s campus, grabbed lunch, and then strolled through the park grounds on the way home. There was a pathway through a forest area called ‘Lover’s Walk’ and in keeping with this, Gary (very uncharacteristically) picked a buttercup for me - probably the fourth time he’s given me flowers since we’ve been together… about 6 years! However once we’d walked 20 yards down the path it was closed off for renovation… I think that says it all really.

But we had slightly more success in town – Gary managed to get his hair cut. This was less of a traumatic experience than in China as the hair dresser actually spoke English, so communication didn’t consist of holding up a passport photo and mime-language! The results are nice, but when he hasn’t shaved for a few days his stubble gets longer than his hair now.

Anyway, we now face an excruciatingly long trip to Wellington - an unbelievable 12 hours by bus for a distance of only 658 km (that’s about 400 miles). The speed limits are a bit slow here by our standards, and buses are never the nippiest in any case. Ah well, it should be more comfortable than a coach in Laos or India!