Thursday 24 March 2011

This is what memories are made of

On our second day in Auckland we decided to take the ferry over to Devonport, a popular area only about a 12 minute ferry ride away across the harbour.
We took a stroll up the main road, with one beautiful Victorian building after another, had a nice lunch (oh, how it's nice to sit outside and eat without being drenched in sweat..!) and took it all in.

Then we decided to walk out to the Mount Victoria and North Head, both extinct volcanoes. It was a good walk out there and the sun was actually really warm. The kids complained a bit until we finally made it up to the top, and could enjoy the amazing views back onto Auckland's central business district and over Rangitoto Island and the Corumandel.
There was also a old cannons to check out and an old tunnel system underground where the kids had a blast running around exploring. Very cool!


As a reward once we had tramped all the way back into town again, we all had some nice ice cream (Mmm, Hokey-Pokey!) and the kids got to blow some steam off at a big playground.
Then back to the wharf and back to central Auckland.

Of course, a visit to Auckland is not complete without going up the Sky Tower - it would be like going to Sydney without seeing the Opera House, to London without seeing Big Ben or, like Nathan would say - going to Singapore without shopping..! :)
We chose to go up in the late afternoon, to have dinner up there and watch the sunset. It was quite spectacular! We made it just in perfect time and could look back at the North Head where we had been earlier, and admire the 360 degree view. Later on we enjoyed when all the lights of the town came on while we had our buffet dinner and chilled NZ wine, mmm!

The kids liked the glass floors, both in the elevator (!) and on the observation deck, and as the Sky Tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere - it was quite some distance down to the ground; let's just say I didn't enjoy those glass floors just as much..!

(A lot more photos to follow)

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