Auckland
I was pretty eager to leave Waiheke after drab weather in ghost town, so I checked out at 9am and started walking to the ferry with my heavy backpack and daypack. Very uncomfortable! Of course I got there right as the 10:00 ferry was leaving, so I had to sit around for an hour for the next one. It figures that today was gorgeous out and I was leaving the island. The ferries that landed in Waiheke were FULL of people arriving for the wine festival, I’m talking standing room only. Going back, the ferry was pretty empty. I had great views from the top deck of nearby islands and the Auckland coastline. By 11:40 we were in the city and my first objective was to find a place to stay. I had wanted to try the YHA, but it was too far to walk with my bag and I preferred to avoid dorms. I went online to try to find some nearby places and finally gave up and went to Aspen House where I first stayed. Unfortunately they were full, so I went to check out Base Backpackers and Fat Camel Hostel, both of which I would have found myself in large dorms. Ick.
I was *this close* to getting a hotel room – I even walked into one with my bags and then left after no one waited on me [wonder why that was!]. I wandered aimlessly down Queen St, hoping to stumble upon something decent. The first place I found was Auckland Central Backpackers, just off the main road. This big hostel had 10+ floors with a lounge, computer lab, tv rooms, kitchen, travel center, and bars. I was pretty impressed with it. The hostel as a whole was clean, a little plain, and pretty secure [key card access for elevators]. It was basically a very plain hotel. I paid $67NZ for a single, which I think was actually a double because it had 2 twin beds together as a double bed. It also had a long mirror and fridge and big windows overlooking Queen St. Good deal, convenient location.
Second objective: lunch. I had a chicken deli sandwich from McD’s before venturing up Victoria St to the Victoria Park Market, basically a big garage with stands and shops in it. I bought new sunglasses [$10NZ] there, then walked back up to the Skytower, Auckland’s landmark – 2 big hotels and casinos framed by the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. I went up 220m to the skydeck and had an amazing view of Auckland and the ocean – you could see the harbour bridge, hundreds of sailboats, islands, streets, mountains, buildings, bays… it was awesome.
After that, I wandered over to Albert Park around 4:30, where they were setting up for the Lantern Festival for the Chinese New Year. Tons of vendor tents were set up on the street selling all kinds of Asian food – I had some corn on the cob. The park’s trees were adorned with colored lanterns, and lantern statues of various animals and fruits were set up in the grass. More tents were set up for arts and crafts and lantern sales. In the center was a stage for performances – I caught the first one, which involved Chinese people in costume dancing on stage, playing instruments and walking around with a dragon puppet. Really cool to watch.
I ate dinner at a Belgian Cafe – Belgian waffles with apples, of course. I never know what to do at kiwi restaurants – usually I end up seating myself and then am either waited on, or I order at the counter. At any rate, the waffles were alright and actually filled me up. After dinner, I wandered around and browsed some shops. I ended up in Border’s for about 2 hours looking at NZ photo books and this huge travel book with a page of photos and info devoted to each country in this world – so awesome! Definitely almost bought it. I headed back to ACB after 8 and explored the 3rd floor lounge/tv area before going to bed. Somehow I didn’t sleep well, grr.
Sunday the 12th = last day in NZ! I had breakfast at Denny’s before 9am – pancakes of course. It’s comforting that a lot of stores/restaurants in the US are also down under, though I really should try to branch out and try new places. I quickly looked around for a shop to spend my remaining cash in [for souvenirs] but found nothing nearby. I’d be getting $20 in cash back after checking out from the deposit, so I didn’t want to be walking all over with my heavy bag. I ended up going back up to skytower to shop and caught the airbus there around 10:40am for my 1pm flight.
I bought souvenirs at the airport and spent my last cash on the $25NZ departure fee – ridiculous! The plane was smaller, so we took a shuttle out and boarded the plane outside, climbing stairs. This plane was older and we didn’t have a tv in our seats so I had no choice but to watch Pride and Prejudice on the main screen through ‘dodgy’ headphones; I eventually gave up and stopped watching since the music was blaring and the dialogues were barely audible through my phones. The toasted chicken sandwich was great though. We landed at 2:30, Sydney time, I took the train back and spent several hours reuniting with my laptop and catching up online. Apparently there’s a blizzard back home, haha!
THE END!! [finally!]
