Days 24-29:
Arrived in Auckland, New Zealand to a rainy day and it hardly stopped until the morning I left...of course. In Singapore it was 20-30 minutes of rain showers, in Auckland it was only 20-30 minutes of sunshine. Because I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, it's the start of their winter season, so I guess I should have expected it. I knew this when planning this "round the world" trip, but wanted to make sure I hit New Zealand and Australia.
Lots of rain, and it's cold! Because of the rain/cold, my plans were all shot to "heck." I originally planned on playing golf one day - nope, course closed due to rain. Planned on bungee jumping off the Sky Tower - nope too windy but "come back tomorrow!" Got a decent shot of the tower on the morning I left for the airport...
Also a good shot of my hotel right after a heavy rain:
I stayed at the Hilton which is at the end of a wharf - pretty cool hotel and I had a great corner room with a huge deck...too bad I could only spend a few minutes enjoying it. Video of deck:
I was hoping to take a ferry to Waiheke Island (an up and coming area for wineries), but spending an hour each way on a ferry in the rain and touring vineyards in the rain didn't sound like a lot of fun. So basically, Auckland was a bust. It's a nice city and I'd love to come back in the summer when the weather is better.
Next stop was Wellington which is on the southern tip of the north island. Again I arrived to rain, more rain, with a little bit of rain mixed in.
Since anything outdoors was basically out of the question, I decided to check out the National Museum of New Zealand - wow, very impressive!
I'm not much of a museum kinda guy, but spent 3 hours inside this one...the rain outside might have had something to do with that too. Very high-tech, extremely interactive, and not just a museum on New Zealand but spans multiple areas (geology, animals, the ocean, art, culture, history, etc.) This is going to sound weird, but the "star attraction" is the world's largest squid ever found (accidentally caught on a fishing boat). This picture of it encased doesn't do it justice, but it really was cool. When it was alive, the eyes were the size of soccer balls (believed to be the largest eyes of anything still living on earth!)
Overall, I really liked Wellington but like Auckland, I would like to come back in the summer. There's a pedestrian mall called Cuba Street Mall, that felt exactly like the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. I half expected to find Potter's around the next corner (those of you that went to CU know what I'm talking about). Great funky coffee shops and cafés, old school record shops, awesome bars and restaurants, young crowd.
If you ever make it to Wellington, check out Matterhorn on Cuba Street - great food (I had the venison) and I found my new favorite wine: Passage Rock Syrah from Waiheke Island. Fantastic!
On the morning of my last day in Wellington, of course the weather was beautiful. I only got to experience a couple short hours before having to go to the airport, but captured a few pictures of my hotel (the InterContinental) and took a quick cable car ride up to the top of a nearby "mountain".
The original plan was to start in Auckland and take trains, ferries and buses to get to the South Island, however it's a good day's worth of travel between each of the major cities (Auckland and Wellington on the North Island and Christchurch and Queenstown on the South Island). Since I've only planned on spending eight full days in New Zealand, I decided to look into flights between the cities and spend more time in each city rather than traveling between them. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) I found flights for $49 NZD ($33 USD) between each of these cities, so I decided to book them. I say unfortunately because I've since heard from several locals that the "on the ground" traveling between the cities is where you get to see all the beautiful scenery of New Zealand. Next time!
I'm hoping the South Island delivers a little better weather, but I'm traveling further south which in the Southern Hemisphere means I'm getting closer to the pole and unfortunately it will only get colder. Next stop: Christchurch.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Auckland, NZ and Wellington, NZ
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment