August 1, 2013

Auckland, New Zealand


After nearly a fifteen, leg-cramping hours later, I arrived in New Zealand! Immigration at the Auckland Airport was the usual cattle gridlock, however moved on quickly. The customs was quite stringent in the fact that officers asked the same question,if you had brought any food items from other country,  in three or four different ways. But, still finishes with everyone's luggage being x-rayed before exiting the airport.

At first glace everything seems expensive here, but only because I kept forgetting to apply 20% discount to the price (to convert to USD), so it's actually not too bad, pretty much the same as US. I took the airport bus to the downtown, where I was staying. Downtown Auckland is pretty neat. It has large buildings, a diverse group of people, all the hustle and bustle that any typical city has.  I walked through the downtown area towards Mount Eden  which is a dormant volcano and offers some of the best panoramic views of the city and beyond.The entire downtown area is very hilly, similar to San Francisco. So walking can be exhausting. There is also buses that will drop you at the Mt Eden village, from where you can take the trail up to to the summit. It probably took 20 minutes to get to the top. The first thing you notice once you reach the summit is the huge volcanic crater. Its very Interesting seeing the remains of a dead volcano, huge crater overgrown with grass. From the summit you get the most stunning 360 degree views of Auckland. You could see all the volcanic hills that is scattered around the city of Auckland


Mt.Eden crater with the background of Auckland skyline

I took a bus back to the the downtown. The downtown, or the CBD as locally known is dominated by the Sky Tower. This is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere.You can buy tickets for the Sky Tower  and take the elevator to the observation deck . I contemplated going up as the views from 220m up will be breathtaking, but decided against it. The sky tower also offers sky walk around the outside of the observation deck on top of the tower and buggy jumping jumping.



Sky Tower in Downtown

The next day, I decided to walk to Auckland Domain and checkout the Auckland Museum and the surrounding area. I took a wander through the city's main park, Albert park where one would pick up the trail towards the Auckland Museum. 





Albert park is small park surrounded by tall buildings of downtown on one side, and Auckland University on the opposite side. It is a steep but very worthwhile climb to a well-kept and idyllic city-centre park. There are different paths leading different directions, but most lead to the University Campus Walking through the University, I enter the Auckland Domain which is essentially a big park in Auckland with several walking paths, one of them leads to the Auckland Museum which is in the Auckland Domain. A bit of an uphill, but then the view is worth it. Before you enter the museum the view from the steps of the harbor and ships is eye catching. The museum is free to enter and gives an excellent outline of New Zealand's discovery and settlement.   It has a comprehensive Maori and Pacific section including original sea and war canoes and a replica Maori meeting house, with all its intricate carvings. Next to the Auckland Domain is Parnell, one of the oldest suburbs in Auckland. I walked back through Parnell. It has a quaint village feel area, with a stretch of shops, restaurants, and cafes.



Auckland Museum




In the evening, I walked down the Quay Street and west to the Viaduct harbour. The Viaduct harbor  was developed for the America's Cup . Great sights of expensive sail boats including the home of the America's Cup yachts and the Maritime Museum. 




Home base of Team New Zealand





The harbour is a bustling place where you can stroll .There are plenty of restaurants and yuppie type bars to choose from and a seascape of berthed yachts/sail boats to look at, thousands of them. And then one can wander over the little bridge towards the Wyndham quarter to the fish market and another 10 or so restaurants/cafes