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My flight to Auckland, although not the longest I've ever done, definitely felt like it. It was awful, I had 2 stops in Adelaide and Sydney, and I didn't manage to catch a wink of sleep. I eventually arrived in New Zealand at 17.30 local time, a little dazed, completely shattered and a bit daunted by what lay ahead. The past 2 weeks had flown by without me realising it. I had made really good friends and suddenly I was alone, in a big city, with no Johann to guide the way. I soon got myself together however and made my way, via a shuttle bus, to my hostel in the city centre. For this first night I was sharing a room with 2 boys and, although pleasant enough, they did not seem very compliant with my need to sleep...one came in drunk at 3am which was fair enough, but the other turned the light on at 5am to rummage through his bags. I was not impressed! I awoke the next morning still feeling tired and went to Starbucks to cheer myself up. I then had to check in again for the next 2 nights. This time I was staying in a female dorm and I met 2 of the girls I was to share with in the queue. I always find initial meetings very awkward... what do you say? But we all got on well enough and quickly made plans to visit the Sky Tower together in the afternoon. This is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere, standing at 328m, and the lift to the top took only 40 seconds. Extra activities included Sky Jumping from the top (jumping off attached by a rope and landing slowly onto a trampoline at the bottom) and a Sky Walk around the outer rim but none of us fancied doing either so we stuck to the inside view. Unfortunately it was a rather cloudy and rainy day so you couldn't see very far across the city. However you could see the clouds moving below you which I thought was rather cool! You could also see the jumpers flying down past the window screaming their heads off which was fairly amusing. When we had finished, we decided to go and relax in the hostel until it was time for free pizza at 8pm, very eagerly awaited by Dawn, my new Scottish companion. We went to bed fairly early though, all feeling the strain of our various adventures. I woke up very early the following morning, along with Dawn, both feeling the effects of jet-lag. Dawn was off that morning on a Magic Tour up to the north of the island, so I said my farewells, finally finished Boris, and headed to Starbucks again for my much-needed early morning coffee. Judith, my Dutch roommate, had said she would accompany me today to see the volcanoes. Auckland is built on numerous volcanoes that crop up throughout the city, which are now extinct. I was immediately drawn to a place called One Tree Hill, stupidly due to the TV programme although it's set in One Tree Hill in America! It wasn't a bad decision though as this provided absolutely stunning views of the city. It is placed in the middle of Cornwall Park, just outside the city centre, which was given to the people by a John Logan Campbell, whose grave is at the top of the 182m hill. When I had told Judith that today was going to be active, I don't think she quite appreciated what I meant. After a blustery hike to the top, we then made our way to another of the city's volcanoes, Mt. Eden. This is Auckland's highest cone at 196m and its crater is sacred to Mataaho, the god of things hidden in the ground, and therefore untouchable. From its summit, you can see all the way around Auckland, which I soon discovered has a land mass twice the size of London's. We managed to navigate our way to a cute little market called Victoria Market Place which sold various nick nacks and souvenirs. Finally we returned home for some well-deserved dinner and I spent the rest of the evening preparing myself for the early start of my bus trip tomorrow.
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