End of the World

Auckland

My original plans for New Zealand were to spend a couple of months here exploring and maybe even working before carrying on my trip. Though since I've now used up 11 of my 12 months away, I have been forced to abandon these plans for the time being in order to do some justice to my final few stops before returning back to the UK.

So it was a pleasent surprise that I was able to get so much out of my little 4 day city break in Auckland. On my first day I met up with Flee again, completely unexpected until a few days ago as we realised we would cross each others paths for one last time on these tours of ours. She introduced me to her new mate Dan and soon we were eating at a Gelato on the harbour side.

We had a wander round the city before winding up at the base of the sky tower. Myself and Flee took the high speed elevator ride to the top to take in the sunset from 220metres up. It's amazing that Auckland is home to a third of the entire NZ population yet still remains so quiet. Even rush hour seemed like bliss!

Later on that evening the 3 of us met up for a meal - one I'd been owed for another bet we'd made back in Sydney - almost worth losing the hair on my leg all those months ago!

With Flee making an early morning exit from New Zealand for Fiji. I was left to my own devices. I checked out and hit the pavement armed with my little tourist map and a renewed enthusiasm now some sun was actually shining down on Auckland.

I hit the pavement and found a route that went from coast to coast passing by several of Auclands 40+ volcanoes. The first stop was Albert Park - flowers, fountains, benches, statues and trees - very nice. Then I wandered past Auckland Uni and into the Auckland Domain. The domain is home to the Main museum and WinterGardens that I passed by.

The weather was now warm enough to lose my jacket. I eventually found my way to the base of Mt.Eden - the tallest Volcanic hill - at 192metres that gave me some great panoramas of Auckland, and more impressive, allows you to look 50metres down into the volcanic crater - now very grassy rather than black, smokey and full of lava!

By this point I'd already walked a fair distance and was half way through the walk, so decided to double back into the city. So I picked a different route to get back for a bit of variation. The way back down was nice and was the first real feeling of 'being in New Zealand' - by this I mean, the lush Green pastures coupled with that Lord of The Rings feel; even if I'm actually a long way from where all that stuff was filmed.

I got back into the city and checked out some of the backstreet shopping before it was time for me to go meet Nick. Last time had been Sydney, Perth before that, and Ko Lanta, Thailand before that. Together with Lucy, we wandered back to their apartment and spent the evening catching up.

My final full day in Auckland would be about sorting out the remaining weeks of my trip and planning the next, then getting some culture in me - and we ain't talking yoghurt here. I met with Dan for lunch and then headed to the New Zealand Art Gallery to check out the free exhibits.

The final stages of the afternoon were spent getting the last of my flights confirmed for my route back to the UK and then having a final dinner with Nick and Lucy. We again commented on how weird it had been to bump into each other at all these remote destinations around the world - now, Nick and I have seen each other in Europe, America, Asia and Australasia (though not all on this trip) - but we've become surprisingly blase about it. It's with this that I realise that my final post from as far ahead in time as I can get (+11hrs) will soon be followed by my first post from one of the places furthest back in time (-11hrs)...