Welcome to New Zealand

As part of my contract, the Supreme Court paid the amount equivalent to a return ticket home. I used that money to route my trip home through New Zealand and have two and half weeks exploring the land of the kiwis. Everyone that I had talked to about New Zealand had raved about it and being a big Lord of the Rings fan I was excited to tour the country. As an added bonus, after a little prodding my father decided to join my tour of the South Island and would meet me in Christchurch. The first week I was on my own to tour the North Island, starting in Auckland.

After leaving Palau Friday evening, I travelled first to Manila for an overnight layover and then an overnight fight to Sydney. After a few hour layover in Sydney, I flew to Auckland and arrived in the early evening. Nothing exciting happened en route, it was pretty standard traveling and happily everything went smoothly.

I took a bus into the city centre and found my accommodations. I decided to stay at hostels my first week and first up was the Auckland International YHA within walking distance of the main attractions. After not really sleeping Saturday night, I was tired so all I did was walk around a bit and get my bearings. For my first meal outside of Palau I had a hamburger, something few places in Palau did well.

I got a good night of sleep and on Monday set off to explore central Auckland. I walked down Queen Street, the main street downtown, and then explored a few of the small offshoot streets. I caught a free city centre tourist bus that took me over to Auckland University. From there I walked the short distance to the entrance of the Domain, a large park area. At its entrance, they have a cherry tree path donated by Japan. It is spring in New Zealand and the cherry trees were beautifully blossoming. The path wound uphill and as I climbed I was rather warm with temperatures in the mid-60s. After the shock of the cold when I arrived in Australia, the Auckland spring weather is a good transition for the cold I anticipate at elevation in the South Island.

At the top of the Domain is the Auckland Museum. On the ground level they have an impressive collection of Maori artifacts including a large meeting house and war canoe. I found it very interesting to compare Maori culture to Palauan culture and the differences between West Pacific and South Pacific dwellers. The museum also had other interesting exhibits on Auckland in the 1800's and New Zealand's war contributions in the 20th Century.

Leaving the museum, I retraced my steps back through the Domain and back to the university. I hopped back on the tourist bus and it whisked me across town to the Sky Tower. Completed in 1997, the Sky Tower is the largest structure in the Southern hemisphere at 328 meters. I took the elevator ride to the top to check out the view of the city. Even on a cloudy day I could see miles and miles all around. NZ is a extreme sport playground and one of the attractions is jumping off the Sky Tower. It is not a true bungee jump in that they don't bounce, but they just let gravity take them from the top to the street. I saw a handful of jumpers whizz by the windows, including a few that they let pause at our level before resuming their plummet. The main observation deck also had cut outs in the floor with reinforced glass so you could stand and look straight down, which I found very nerve-wracking at first. I stayed at the Sky Tower for a while watching the city below.

From the Sky Tower I walked over to Albert Park and climbed another hill. There are many small hills in Auckland that are actually ancient dormant volcanoes. It gives the city wonderful character and the city was well planned to take advantage of the hills. I had dinner at a small Italian restaurant off of Queen's Street before heading back to the hostel. A long day of walking and lingering jet lag kept in for the night watching DVDs before going to sleep.

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