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After an long and turbulence riddled flight we arrived in a new continent and were greeted by a completly different culture. No longer did we see whole families on scooters, street food vendors, and hordes of stray animals! We felt in a strange way like we were back at home. The people, the cars, and the advertisment billboards were all reminicent of England. The price of the taxi´s (we nearly died at the price of our taxi from the airport!) and the weather certainly reminded us of home! Although it was sunny it was very chilly and we both had to buy some warm clothing for the week ahead!
As we only had five full days in New Zealand we only got to see a small part of the North Island but what we did see was beautiful. Our hostel was located in downtown Auckland and was the perfect base.
On our first full day we got a ferry across the harbour to the suburb of Devonport. It is a quient place full of antique and craft shops, similar to small towns in Devon or Cornwall. We mooched around the shops and bought some souviners before climbing Mount Victoria. At the top of the small volcano we had a great panoramic view of the harbour and of the hauraki gulf.
We explored the hauraki gulf further when we took a trip to the Bay of Islands. Located about four hours north of Auckland the Bay of Islands is where the first European settlers landed in NZ. Before taking a tour of the many islands by boat, we visited the house were the Europeans signed the treaty of Waitangi with the Maori tribes. Here there was a museum dedicated to the treaty as well as the Maori history. Our boat trip then took us around the islands and to Cape Brett. The entire area is really picturesque and along the way we saw dolphins and fur seals.
The dolphins and seals were great but we figured we could not come to NZ and not see a kiwi. We knew we had no chance of seeing one in the wild so we went to Auckland zoo. We got to see a kiwi here and its was so cute! We also visted underwater world were we saw some really cool penguins.
NZ is a great place for views and scenery and we got a great view of the city at sunset from Mount Eden. Mount Eden is a dormant volcano and is the highest natural point in Auckland. The climb up was fun and the view from the top was superb.
We went from the highest natural point in Auckland to the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere when we went up the Auckland sky tower. At the top of the tower we again had a great view of the city. There is also the option of a sky walk around the tower or an absail down the tower, but we both were to scared to do either!
On our final evening in Auckland we took a ghost tour around the city. This involved a guide walking us around the streets of the city at dusk as he told us stories of murder, cannabalismand all things macabre that had happend in the area. The tour was really interesting, a bit scary at times (for Mandy anyway!!), and a great way to round off our short stay in NZ.
We decided to get a bus back to the airport (!!) and boarded the plane to our final continent...South America.
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