New Zealand - North Island - Auckland - Day 2
December 18, 2005

After a crappy night's sleep and awakening to a sore throat we chugged our way up Mount Eden, which is actually one of several "potentially" active volcanoes dotted across Auckland, so I was ready to "potentially" run and scream like a girl at the slightest tremor. We reached the top and found what you would expect of any potentially active volcano smack bang in the middle of a metropolitan city...cows... grazing on the volcano's crater, accompanied by thousands upon thousands of annoying little bugs.


Auckland
Beautiful one day, cows and erupting volcanoes the next.
After ejecting some hitchhiking bugs from the car we grabbed some breakfast from a nearby bakery and drove up to the One Tree Hill Domain to eat it in the gardens there. One Tree Hill Domain got it's name from a large pine tree that sat at the top of a hill overlooking the city...until it fell down. I guess they just haven't gotten around to changing the signs to No Tree Hill.

We drove back to the hostel and dropped off the shitbox car before heading on foot into town. We wandered the wharf area briefly before getting some "fush and chups" from Pompino restaurant which I had eaten at while in Auckland briefly on the way to LA in 2002.

With our stomachs full we jumped on the free inner city bus and did a lap of the circuit to check out all the sites before jumping off at the top of town to check out the town hall and places like the Civic Theatre a 1920's Art Deco design theatre where some interior shots for the new King Kong movie where filmed. We couldn't get inside to take a look but we had a peek through the windows to see the fancy pants foyer which I could recognize from the film.


The Civic Theatre and King Kong (Not Shown)

We then strolled down to the other side of town to the Victoria Park Markets to wade through stalls and shops filled with tacky trinkets and gifts. We stopped by a cheapy warehouse shop on the way back to the city and after asking where the Eskys were and getting nothing but blank stares in return we had to explain what we wanted before being pointed to something the Kiwi's call a "Chilly Bin" which was close enough for our needs.

We took the bus back to the hostel, dropped off the Chilly Bin and took the car out again to the Auckland Domain to relax for a bit in the gardens around the museum. We then drove back into town and arrived at the Skytower where we had planned to have a cheap dinner in the cafe at the top. Inside we discovered that the entry fee for the cafe and viewing deck was $18, but entry was free if you ate at the fancy pants rotating restaurant at the top, as long as you spent a minimum of $25.

Armed with our coupon for the restaurant which gave us free glasses of wine with a meal and our tactic for getting entry and meal for not much more than the usual price of entry we watched the bottom of the elevator shaft fade away below us through the glass floor of the elevator as we ascended to the top. It wasn't until we had ordered our meal (more fush for me and pasta for Fiona) and had our free glasses of wine that Fiona realised that the rotating restaurant was actually rotating!, though only very, very slowly.

A couple of rotations later and we went downstairs to the viewing deck and watched the sunset over Auckland before we grabbed what would be the first of many local beers (Red Lion) for me and an ice-cream for Fiona. After a stop at a supermarket on the way back to the hostel to pick up supplies we lay our heads down for another haunted, restless sleep.


Sunset from the Skytower with diamonds

Posted by WetWired
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