Our arrival at Auckland was a little rough. We had to update the term hangry to trangry, because over tired Tara is a little grumpy. But that was all rectified by a shower and a cuddle from Gandalph the dog, who was the resident of our first ever Airbnb. We jumped on the bus and headed into the CBD.
Our plan had been to be grab tickets for the hop on off bus, but a lady at the Auckland i-SITE (their tourist info kiosk) told us not too. She told us all the spots to hit and the local buses that would get us there. I’m still not sure if she was an employee or just a friendly local who happened to be standing there. I’m hoping she’s a local as I’m pretty certain she was supposed to be selling those tours!
Jose and I thinking we knew better (mostly Jose) thought we could walk it all. So we stopped in to a local brew pub on the water for a quick lunch, almost lost our appetite when we saw how expensive food is here, and then hit the pavement. For anyone planning to do the same, about 20 000 steps (10 kilometers ) takes you around all the major downtown attractions . We saw the cruise ship harbour, which was absolutely bustling with people and activity. We walked up Queen the shopping district which would have been impressive if we hadn’t just been on Rodeo drive yesterday. We saw the sky tower, the art gallery, did a sun salutation or two in a local park and generally just wandered.
A few things we noticed is that they really like their food in Auckland, I’ve never seen so many restaurants, bars and cafes. They are every where, and seem to be generally higher end places then the average family restaurant we have at home. We must have walked past 50 little coffee shops all with little bakeries and a cool vibe. Speaking of a flooded market, I think we must have counted over 20 Flight Centres! We grabbed a take-away for dinner (when in Rome, right?), but by the time we got back we both passed out before we could eat it .. and woke up 12 hours later!
