Auckland - The start of NZ
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2009
1
24
64
Trip End
Jul 29, 2010
Where I stayed
Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
Saturday, November 28, 2009
I arrived into overcast Auckland at 2pm and thought how much like England it was, not just because of the weather but the landscape, signs, people, it felt quite homely, maybe it was exaggerated because I had just come from beautiful Fiji. I caught the local bus into Auckland city centre where I had booked 2 nights accommodation to be going on with whilst I planned my 8 weeks in New Zealand. On the Contiki tour of West Coast USA I met Shelly and Chantelle, Shelly is also from England and doing a very similar trip to me (USA, Fiji, NZ, Oz, Asia) but always slightly ahead as she is travelling for less time and Chantelle lives in Invercargill - New Zealand. Chantelle had been travelling for past couple of years went home after the Contiki tour and invited Shelly and I for Christmas on her parents farm. After some thought and giving her the chance to change her mind she was still keen for us to come so we arranged to get into Invercargill for 20th December so we could all hook up and have Christmas together. There are many different tour operators and options to get around New Zealand, from getting a camper to the Kiwi Experience (guided tour of NZ) so quite a bit of research was required to decide which option would be the best one for me, but I was feeling pretty tried and knew I had the next day in Auckland so thought I would ‘have the evening off’ (it’s a tiring life this travelling business!) so I got dinner and had a quiet one chatting with the people in my room. The next day (Saturday 29th Nov) I headed to travel shop that was in the hostel and had a chat with the bloke in there. After looking at the various options I decided the Stray hop on - hop off bus would be the best one as it takes you to all of the hotspots in NZ and I can decide how much time I want to spend there as there is always a bus behind you to catch the next day or next week. They also organised accommodation that you can stay at if you wish and the bus is full of similar travellers. I booked my pass leaving the very next day which would get me into Invercargill on the 14th December if I stayed on the whole way, so I had six spare days to spend in places of choice. That afternoon was the Santa parade that went through the centre of Auckland which attracted thousands of spectators. Auckland is by far the most populated city in New Zealand with about 1.4million citizens, New Zealand as a whole has under 4million I believe. So after spending a couple of hours watching the parade I headed back to hostel where I got chatting to some Irish lads and ended up heading out onto the town with them for the rest of the afternoon & evening. Before I came to New Zealand many people said to get out of Auckland as soon as possible as its just another big city and other parts of New Zealand has so much more to offer and I did kind of get that feeling but still enjoyed my couple of days there with the parade, harbour and nightlife.
