Part Two: Auckland

Most people who come to New Zealand will arrive via Auckland’s International airport and end up spending at least one night in the countries largest city, around 1.3 million people live there, that’s one third of New Zealand’s entire population. Some people love it, there are some really nice places to eat, galleries to look at, the harbour with its many boats, however, me and Amy really didn’t enjoy it very much, but to be fair we did get off to a very bad start with our New Zealand adventure.

We caught a bus from the airport and got off at Queen Street, right in the city centre, and found our way to our accommodation for the next 7 nights, the ‘Base ACB Hostel’. It was a hot day and we had just flown in from Tokyo and hadn’t slept much on the plane and were both very unhappy to find that our room, booked by ‘Real Gap’ was a 6 bed dorm with no windows, no form of ventilation and the lock on the door was broken, rendering our card key useless. After a stroll down Queen Street, in the rain, which only seemed to dishearten us even more, we stopped and talked and came to an agreement that the Base hostel was shit. Aside from the aforementioned gripes, it was under staffed, unprofessional, unfriendly, even the other travellers staying there seemed like miserable buggers, within an hour we had checked out and booked ourselves into a cheap student apartment for the next 2 nights. We checked in there only to discover that this was also a complete and utter dive, but at least it had windows!

That night we ate at a Mexican café / bar to cheer ourselves up, I ordered a burrito, the waitress asked if I wanted beef or chicken then asked ‘Spicy?’, ‘Yeah, sure’ I replied and soon regretted it as I found myself guzzling coke and munching ice cubes in an attempt to quench the flames roaring within my mouth and spreading around my lips. Later on I called my cousin Phil who lives in Auckland and after a good chat he had offered to pick us up two days later and offered us his spare room to sleep in, I couldn’t say no, and when I thought he couldn’t possibly be more generous he offered us the use of his beloved Land Rover + started talking about day trips, I don’t need to say this as I’m sure you already realise but the man is clearly a legend. We would later discover that his wife Fee is equally as legendary and generous.

We woke the next day determined to enjoy ourselves, I was particularly determined to make sure Amy enjoyed herself as it was her birthday. First thing in the morning, while she was in the shower I stealthily jumped out of the window and fetched her some fresh fruit + yoghurt for breakfast. Yeah, I know, I’m an excellent boyfriend. After taking care of some business (setting up a New Zealand bank account, mailing some gifts home and registering with ‘Job Search’ which was located within the dreaded Base hostel) we went out for a bite to eat at the harbour and had a lovely meal at ‘Wildfire Churrascaria’ a truly excellent Brazilian barbecue all you can eat restaurant, if you end up in Auckland make sure you eat there if your budget allows, the food and service were great, the bill…. well… it was Amy’s birthday so I didn’t mind, I wanted to take her somewhere special. As it was her birthday I told her it was entirely up to her what we did next so we went up to the top of the Sky Tower, it cost $25 each to go up and see the view, a bit of a rip off I thought as it was free to see the view in Tokyo, but I guess it was worth doing as this was the only place in the centre of Auckland where we took any photos. To be honest, at first we hated Auckland but by the time we left we realised that for a city it does seem to have a very chilled out vibe, there are so many different cultures all mixed together, a large number of Polynesians and Asians of all varieties, even some Amish guys but everyone seemed to get along just fine.

I knew that once we got out of the city centre we would begin to experience the ‘real New Zealand’ and I was right, as soon as Phil picked us up and we arrived at his lovely house we were both so much happier, ‘Beach Haven’ where his house was located seemed like a lovely area, close to the sea with lovely friendly neighbours, we settled down and chatted for a long time as I hadn’t seen him or Fee in many years and soon we were introduced to their Alaskan Malamute ‘Onewa’, truly one of the nicest and most magnificent looking animals I have had the fortune to encounter. After devouring two helpings of Fee’s beef stew + some cakes we chatted some more and they decided rather that lend us their Land Rover that they were going to buy us a car, help us sort out the insurance and then sell it when we were done with it.

The next day we caught a ferry to Waiheke Island, we found a café to have breakfast before setting off for the local farmers market where we encountered ‘Ken the cowboy’ a charming local, dressed like a cowboy and singing country songs while people perused the lovely fresh food, he did an awesome version of ‘She taught me to yodel’ and I wished our friend Ady could have been there to hear it, I know he would have loved it! After stopping to take pictures of the amazing views we made our way to a local vineyard and tasted some wine, I thought they were all quite disgusting but the location was beautiful. We drove from there to the secluded ‘Pearl Bay’ which required some trekking up some steep steps and through wild tropical plants but we were rewarded once again with some great views and photo opportunities, from there we went to the beach where me, Phil and Fee went sea kayaking, something I had always wanted to try. We all had a laugh at the kiwi who gave us a very brief safety briefing and didn’t ask any of us if we had kayaked before of if we could swim (It was my first time and I am not a strong swimmer) and then got us to (literally) sign our lives away when we signed documents which he explained were to agree that if anything went wrong such as drowning, being swept out to sea or getting caught in the path of one of the ferries (the route took us right though where the ferries come in and out of the island) they would not be held responsible. Kayaking was a lot of fun, fairly demanding physically when paddling against the tide but slightly embarrassing as according to Amy I looked like a dweeb in my life jacket with my pasty milk bottle white flesh and lanky figure. We ended our visit to Waiheke with a lovely meal at one of the local cafes where I had some of the best fish and chips I have ever tasted.

The next day was very busy and incredibly hot, we spent the morning driving around Auckland looking for a car and eventually negotiated a price for a white ‘Mitsubishi Lancer’, the sun was beating down on me so hard as I walked around in my black t-shirt soaking up the sun (schoolboy error no 1) and jeans (didn’t pack shorts when I left the UK) (schoolboy error no 2), I decided it was time for a whole new wardrobe and soon left the mall at Takapuna with a pair of jandals, sunnies, some t-shirts and shorts and suddenly found that i fit in a little better and was ready for a New Zealand summer. Once we got the car home, Phil and Fee’s neighbour Isobel offered to take me and Amy down to the sea for a swim, she was lovely and asked all about our trip and told us some interesting facts about the area, I decided to walk to the beach in bare feet (yet another schoolboy error) and found that the route to the beach was very sharp and rocky, once we were there it was great, the view was amazing and we had a lot of fun swimming around in the bay, it was soon time to head back for an awesome barbecue.

We had one more night at Phil and Fee’s before it would be time to set off on a road trip to the bay of islands so we took the car out to Takapuna beach got some food and attempted to top up our tans, I caught the sun pretty well but somehow managed to burn my feet and my receding hairline which was now glowing bright red, something which Amy took some pleasure in pointing out as she reminded me that I am ‘pushing 30’. We ended our stay with Phil and Fee by going to Fee’s sisters house for a barbecue cooked by her husband Pete and were sent away at the end of the night with their tent, sleeping bags, airbeds and maps and we were ready for the big adventure the next day.