It was an early flight into Auckland airport on Wednesday 24th March, as I landed at 7am! The flight left the Cook Islands at 3.40am on Tuesday 23rd March and took 4 hours to fly, but there is a 23 hours time difference between the two countries as you cross the date line during the flight, so it was very surreal to be landing in Auckland one day ahead effectively! It was as if Tuesday didnt exist that day, and it is the first time during my trip that I have been ahead of England!
So Im now in my third country, New Zealand. I was desparate to get here as everybody I had spoken to throughout my travels only had positive things to say about it! Once I had picked up my backpack from the claims area, I had to get my visa that allowed me into New Zealand, and the usual interrogation took place, so they can work out why you are travelling to the country! From there you go past the area to declare if you have any food items as the security are very picky about what you bring into the country! After telling the guy at the security point that I had nothing to declare I then went into the wrong queue, so I was in the declare queue, but the guy spotted me and sent me into the correct queue where we just got out bags x-rayed and then I went out of the airport to find the airbus!
After waiting for about 5 minutes the airbus turned up at the bus stop, I had a free ticket for the airbus as I am doing the Kiwi Experience, they give you a free airbus ticket which I took full advantage of and saved myself NZ$14 in the process! After the half hour bus journey into the centre of Auckland where I was staying, I got off the bus on the third stop which was right outside BASE hostel which is the hostel that I was staying at, so after going inside and getting the the lift upto the third floor, I went to reception to find out what time I could check in, which was 1pm, it was 8am at this moment, but they said they can check my details now! So after giving them my booking details they couldnt find my booking, so they said I would need to print of my booking email that I recieved, but to do this it meant that I had to go on the internet which they charged NZ$5 for, so I had no option but to use their internet and print out my booking confirmation! I still believe that they did this just so they could get more money out of me to use their internet and that they did actually have my booking on the screen, but I wasnt too fussed as I needed to use the internet anyway! After the hour and a half that I had on the internet I went to show the woman my booking and she processed it all and told me to come back at 1pm to complete the process and check in properly! So I put my backpack into their luggage storage then went into the city to see what it had to offer!
I started off by heading to the information site, and then went on a walk through the most historic streets in Auckland, including Parnell street where I walked past various pubs, bars and shops! I made my way back along the Quay and got to see the Ferry port, before getting to the hostel at 1.30pm and finally getting the opportunity to check in and get into my room, once in my room I sorted out all my stuff and spoke to the English couple that were in there! After which I went to the supermarket that they recommended which was a 20 minute walk away to get some food for my brief stay in Auckland, then on the way back I walked around the skytower, which is a really tall building in Auckland and a great look out point onto the rest of the city! People also walk around the top of the building whilst harnessed as well as bungy jumping off of the building....which is not my cup of tea! After taking my food back to the hostel, I then went to explore a bit more of the local area along Queen street and K road which is what they shorten the road name down to as its such a long and wierd name that noone remembers but begins with 'k'! After this I went back to the hostel to make my dinner which was pasta with a tomato and mushroom sauce, then after checking out the hostels own bar, and meeting a few other people from my dorm, I was off to sleep as it had been a long day!
The BASE hostel where I was staying was decent, I was in an 8 bed dorm which had a fridge, but there was no ensuite and the showers and toilets were the other end of the floor that I was staying on! There were lockers under the beds however and the dorms were an average size! The hostel was huge though, and ment it was very difficult to meet people in, it was by far the biggest hostel I had stayed in, there were 8 floors, and the hostel had its own computer room with about 30 computers as well as 2 tv lounges, one for sport and the other for movies, and their own job centre and travel centre! The kitchen was a good size and they had good facilities! The location was brilliant though, right in the thick it in central Auckland and right next to the bus stop! The showers were pathetic though, they were hot enough and were really powerful but you had to keep pressing a button to keep the shower on overwise it kept turning off every 10 seconds, so this was very frustrating, but on the whole the hostel was to a good standard, it was just huge!
So after waking up at 10am on the Thursday I ate my breakfast which was cornflakes, and then saw that there was football on in the sports lounge so I went in to discover that it was the premier league that was live on the TV, because of the time difference, so I watched the closing stages of the Chelsea vs Portsmouth clash which was obviously a comfortable 5-0 win for the blues! After this I set out for the day at around 11ish and decided to go to Auckland museum which was a good 45 minutes walk away! The museum is free but a suggested donation of NZ$10 is appreciated so I went in and asked for a ticket, and got my wallet out to pay the donation but the woman just gave me a sticker to say I had paid and sent me on my way, not caring about recieving the donation which I was obviously quite pleased about!
The museum was really good though, I got to learn a lot about the Maori culture, as well as learn about the history of New Zealand and find out about the geographical elements of the country and its location, I found out that there are a lot more volcanoes here than I knew about and found out about the volcanoes that are still active which was very interesting plus there was this show where you go into this room which is decorated like a living room in a house then you watch the TV and it talks about a volcano happening at that very moment and the news are reporting about it then the picture goes fuzzy then the lights go out before the TV turns off completely before the house starts shaking! Then the TV comes back on and you see the aftermath of the volcano eruption as if it had just happened in Auckland, it was quite scary to think that that could happen at any moment! There was also a section dedicated to wildlife and animals that live in New Zealand, plus a section on the various wars that New Zealand had fought in, and a zone where there remembered the people that had lost their lives fighting for their country! So the museum gave me an excellent insight into the country I was visiting and a very worthwhile trip! After this I walked back into the city and went on the internet in a local internet cafe, before making my way back to the hostel! Although Auckland is a nice enough city, at the end of the day it is just a city and is not a true reflection of the rest of the country, there are many businessmen and college students and backpackers, as a third of New Zealands population lives in Auckland! It is a big city but when you compare it to somewhere like London, LA or New York it is pretty small, at least thats the impression I got, as there are very limited things to do in the city and I would descibe it more like a revolving door as there are always people coming and going, flying either into or out of the airport, so most people take a night or 2 just to stop by and take a look, but its nothing spectacular, its ok but just a city at the end of the day!
So after arriving back at the hostel after my day out, I chilled out around the hostel for a bit before heading down to the bar at 7.30pm because there was free pizza that night when you brought any drink, so I brought a spirit with coke as spirits were on offer that night and then sat at the table before the pizza arrived from Dominoes, the way free pizza worked was that each table recieved a couple of boxes of pizzas each then when you finished them you took the empty boxes back to get another pizza, so after our table got through at least 6 maybe more pizzas we decided we were full! We had such a variety of pizzas though, which were all so tasty and a very nice dinner! The people I met at my table were all really cool as well, and all different nationalities, after this I was up to bed ready to prepare for my first day on the Kiwi Experience the next morning, but although my stay in Auckland was short, it was still quite sweet, but you wouldnt want to spend much more time there as there are limited things to do as it is just a city, but I will be back in Auckland at the end of my adventure in New Zealand to catch my flight to Fiji!
So for now goodbye Auckland!
Missing you back home,
Love Toby xxx