Back to Auckland..................................
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2008
1
29
Trip End
Jun 10, 2009
Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
We met a New Zealander at the first campground we stayed in and he recommended we visit the National Kauri Museum in Matakohe. We follow his advise and take it in en-route to Auckland.
In all fairness its not the best museum we've ever visited and it may have needed more than the two hours we gave it, but it is worth a visit to find out how these massive trees were grown, processed and manufactured into various objects we see today. The full size saw mill replicas show how the logs, on arrival to the mills, were handled and cut to manageable sizes. What is apparent is prior to halting the felling of these massive trees, as in California with the Sequoia, is how much of the land was covered in forest and the scale of deforestation over the ages this place has seen. Go back two of three hundred years the landscape would be completely different.
Finally we move on to Auckland, hoping to find a campground close to Devonport on the Northern side of the harbour, only to be disappointed, we did however get some good intel on a campground close to Auckland centre in Avondale so we trundle in The Bullet over the harbour bridge to Auckland centre, initially to park up to get on the tinterweb, which has been sorely missing recently, but also to get up into the Sky Tower - very similar to the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas but smaller.
We managed to get up the Sky Tower (On a glass fronted lift 232 metres above ground level with a partially glass bottomed lift car) on backpackers rates which was great as it saved us 30%!, but just in time to take pics of the skyline before the sun set, and there were plenty of people waiting for that!! Finally it went down against a clear sky, and we watched dusk descend upon Auckland centre. Jesus the sun goes down slowly in this neck of the woods - 45 minutes later its still not dark!! We meet a Brazilian that's here to learn English, he speaks it better than I do! Sure as eggs are eggs the day turns to night and we get our pics, before leaving, getting some supplies (Sauvignon Blanc) and heading back to the van and a tour of the city looking for the Avondale Motor camp.
