Today would be a free day… sort of. We awoke a bit late in the day for a 9:55 checkout from the hotel, packed our bags, and headed to the lobby. Today SuperShuttle would be picking us up again and we were headed back to the airport (only about 25 minutes away). I think we’re all a little tired of airports by this time, and we’re all dreading the flight and stuffed seats after our recent airline adventures as well. Jen’s tired of the middle seat between her brother and I, and I don’t blame her one bit! We’re excited to see one more city, though, and get a taste of New Zealand’s northern island. This is our first trip further North here! It’s supposed to be warmer here, much like Sydney, and I think I’ve made it past the chilly mornings and evenings at this point. I really didn’t want to buy a coat this trip… so I’m glad for that!
Our shuttle was just a few minutes late, causing us all to be a little bit worried, but just about the time we called the company they were pulling around the corner, and we were on our way! Once at the airport, there were no seats available for upgrade, so once again we settled in for the shorter flight (about two hours) knowing it was one of the last ones for the trip. We fit acceptably in this plane, I wasn’t quite as cramped as the last one, and we enjoyed some time to listen to music, and relax before we landed. It really didn’t seem like too long before we were heading to the ground again and touching down in Auckland, New Zealand.
We traveled to Auckland primarily to see the North Island, and after loving the wine tours that we had in South Africa we have booked one the following day on Waheke Island, a nearby island known for its wine, olive oil, and honey exports. Today however, after we land and get settled into the hotel, it should only be late afternoon so we have a good chance to get some exploring in and find the character of Auckland. We arrived at the hotel, straightened out our room arrangements (for some reason they only thought we had two people traveling), and dropped off our things. We discovered internet was not included in our rooms, and would have to be purchased as well… which was disappointing. We quickly turned around after dropping things off, asked the lobby staff where the good restaurants were located, and headed out from the hotel in search of adventure.
Almost like a default on this trip, we headed toward the water, and downhill. Auckland rises quickly in almost all directions from the water and the hill to our hotel was no exception. Much like our stay in Queenstown, except still being in the city and being lined with high-rises, we’d be climbing a long road back uphill to get to our hotel after our explorations. I was okay with it, though, my feet are mostly healed or healing and the hill was a lot more gradual than that in Queenstown and there was so much still to explore! We made it first to the Ferry Building, where tomorrow we would be catching our boat to Waheke (this was unintentional, but hey it’s always good to know the plan!), and then walked along the water to see what was there.
Ferry Building, where we’d meet our bus tomorrow!
It’s a good time to mention that during meeting with Jon’s coworker back in Sydney… he spoke very lowly of Auckland as a city. He said the city itself was very boring, and that we should head out of the city as much as possible because the most fun was to be had around the city in things like the Hobbiton expeditions to film sites from the Lord Of The Rings movies, and the wine tour that we already had booked. We tried to keep an open mind, but already his words were proving right… we walked for about a mile or two before all admitting we were sort of hoping for the same type of vibes we found in Melbourne, or even Sydney, with back-alleys full of small restaurants or hole-in-the-wall places packed to the gills that smelled amazing. Auckland, it seemed, was just a big city. Most of the restaurants were closed until later in the day, and most were just regular bar fare with little more to offer. The ones that were open didn’t wow us at all… and even on the wharf there were so few people that the city seemed somber. We joked about it being the wrong time of day… but really the entire afternoon was mostly disappointing as we tried to find something in Auckland where we felt we were finding its soul, its features, its way of standing out. This wasn’t something we would find on this outing.
We walked all around, even seeing the Auckland Sky Tower, but finding that the restaurant had a dress code we dismissed it pretty quickly, let alone that you can’t really get close to the base unless you head inside the hotels and casino surrounding the tower. Reading the website, it does appear like it has a cafe and that I wish we had done… but we did not. We walked all around the city, though, eventually settling for dinner at an Italian restaurant that smelled simply amazing. My meal of a margherita pizza was good, but nothing amazing, and soon we were headed back to the hotel to tuck in early. We may have stopped for one more beer along the way, I can’t remember if I’m honest. I know right after we left the hotel we stopped in a diner-style shop to try our luck at some public Wi-Fi because we mistakenly thought if we signed up for our hotel’s Rewards program we would get access to the hotel’s internet, but in the end it was just another part of the day that felt unremarkable. I’m still hoping for Auckland to impress me… maybe tomorrow!
** Updating to Add: I remembered the the bar! It’s below! ***
On our way back to the hotel, we did find Industry Lane, a bar a few streets in from the wharf. It was dark, and playing old Disney cartoons from a projector onto a bare brick wall over the bar. I think at one point it was a back-alley that, since covered by a building that covers the Lane, was converted into a coffee and bar area. We sat at the table, enjoyed a few glasses of beer and wine, and spent some time on their internet before continuing on to the hotel. That night we took it easy, knowing our boat tomorrow was not until 10:30 the next morning and so we could prepare at that time. It would be a late start, and we were grateful. We were all starting to feel the length of the trip and the constant “on the go” attitude we’d had along our entire trip so far, and went to bed early.
Not the best picture in the world, but it was dark, with old Disney cartoons on the wall
