Sat 28th Nov

Woke up fairly early as we had organised to go out on a mate’s boat and do a bit of fishing for the day. Me and Dex met his friend Scott and went drudging for scallops to begin with, pretty cool…they taste good too as we had some on the boat. After, we went to get the fish! We all managed to catch 2 snapper each, although they weren’t big enough to take home for tea so we had to put them back. New Zealand has strict fishing quota rules, if a species of fish isn’t of a certain size you have to put it back, and even if it was big enough to keep you are only allowed so many. This is a great way to control the fish stocks and stop them running out, whilst also maintaining the nature in and around the country. We got back home and cooked up the scallops…very nice.
In the evening we had fish and chips from a local chippy, snapper is the nicest fish I have ever tasted…and i bet it would have tasted better if i had caught it!

Sun 29th Nov

Today I did some sight seeing with John and Tracey. They took me to quite a few places…
First stop was One Tree Hill, another of Auckland’s extinct volcano cones.
When Auckland was founded as a colonial town a tree stood near the summit which gave the hill its English name. This tree was cut down by a white settler in 1852, in an act of vandalism or for firewood. One guy repeatedly tried to grow native trees on the hill's summit, but the trees failed to survive - with only two pines, surviving for long. However, in 1960, one of the two was felled in another attack, possibly for firewood. The remaining tree was later attacked twice with chainsaws by Māori activists to draw attention to injustices they believed the New Zealand government had inflicted upon Maori (as the tree was not a native New Zealand species, they considered it an appropriate target). The first attack happened on 28 October 1994, the anniversary of the 1835 Declaration of Independence. A second attack on 5 October 2000 left the tree unable to recover even though substantial efforts were made, and so it was removed due to the risk of it collapsing. Partly due to uncertainty as to what species of tree should be replanted (a new pine or a tree native to New Zealand), the summit stands empty at the moment, except for the obelisk. A new nickname, "N(one) Tree Hill", has become popular.
On the summit of the hill is the grave of Sir John Logan Campbell surmounted by an obelisk. The obelisk was constructed in accordance with the wishes and provisions in John Campbell's will to commemorate his admiration for the Māori people. Before it stands a bronze statue of a Māori warrior.
The ews from the top were really nice, it wan't the tallest hill ever, but you still had good clear views of the surrounding city.
Next we drove a couple of minutes down the hill to Cornwall Park. Cornwall Park is the legacy of Sir John Logan Campbell. Originally the land was a farm owned by him on the outskirts of Auckland. Upon his return from Italy in the 1880s he intended to build a great family residence on the slopes of the hill and planted many trees including olives on the slopes. By about 1900 he realised that Auckland's suburbs were spreading at an alarming rate and he decided to leave the Greenlane property to the city as a park. Parts of the park, about 120 hectares (296.5 acres), are still run as a farm today, providing Aucklanders with access to an example of rural life in the heart of the city. The park is based on Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
Campbell initially intended the name to be Corinth Park after the noted region in Greece. It received the name Cornwall Park because of the Royal visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1901 by the Duke & Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V & Queen Mary). John Logan Campbell was asked to be honorary Mayor of Auckland during the visits, and he took the opportunity to gift the park to the people of New Zealand and asked that it be called Cornwall Park. In return he was knighted. We had a short walk around, the land is beautiful and it’s pretty neat having such a nice park in the middle of Auckland so that you can get away from the cramped feel of the city.
From there we went and had some lunch at a place called Ponsonby, a small suburb of Auckland. We stopped in at BurgerFuel and had the nicest burger ever...with Kumera fries…sweet potato chips, they were awesome!
Our last sight seeing stop took us to the Viaduct/Auckland Harbour. Really nice area, and there are loads of bars down by the harbour front. The place was filled with yachts, worth millions!!! It was pretty cool imagining what it’d be like to own one of them…maybe one day. The harbour was filled with sails, so it’s no wonder this city gets called the City of Sails. The three of us walked round for a good hour and a half. We walked past the Hilton hotel, which was designed to look like a ship as you entered the harbour on a boat, pretty cool idea.
As we walked round I was given ideas for what I could do during the week…my plans are to visit Rangitoto Island and Waiheke Island…which are only a 10-30 minute boat ride away from Auckland.