What We Saw In Auckland

A Trip Down Under 2019
Qantas 747 Business Class San Francisco - Sydney
Qantas Business Class Lounge, Sydney Airport
Qantas A330 Business Class Sydney - Auckland
Holiday Inn Auckland Airport - Review
The Pavilions Hotel, Christchurch - Review
What We Saw In Christchurch
Hilton Queenstown Resort and Spa - Review
What We Saw In Queenstown including Doubtful Sound Tour
Avani Metropolis Hotel, Auckland - Review
What We Saw In Auckland
Oceans Mooloolaba - Review
What We Saw On The Sunshine Coast
Brisbane Marriott - Review
Qantas 787 Business Class Brisbane - Los Angeles

If I had to plan this trip again I'd do things differently.  I made an assumption that we'd pretty much have to fly in and out of Auckland to get to and from Australia.  While it's true there is a bigger selection of flights out of AKL, we could have flown directly from Sydney to Christchurch or Queenstown on the way down and that might have been smarter.  But we booked our outbound flights into Auckland.  When we started looking at how to get from either Christchurch or Queenstown to the Sunshine Coast sometimes there was only one non-stop per day or we'd have to go via Auckland anyway.  So we decided to do the one-night stop at the Holiday Inn on the way down and two nights at the Avani Metropolis on the way back.

Before we left the US we'd booked a tour that took us outside the city to do some hiking, biking and beach-viewing.  While in Queenstown we realized we'd never received confirmation from the tour company.  We emailed several times and finally enlisted the help of the concierge at the Hilton Queenstown.  We learned that the tour company had gone out of business!  We'd booked through Viator and they refunded our money quickly but we were not pleased to see that the tour was still listed for sale!

So all of that to say that we arrived in Auckland with no plan.  On top of that it was extremely windy on the day we landed.  As it threatened to rain all afternoon and evening, we stayed fairly close to the hotel while doing a bit of walking around the area.

The next day it was slightly less overcast but still gray outside.  As we looked for a breakfast spot we walked right past the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 1076 feet high.  It was built in the mid-1990s and although it has a bungee jump-type adventure available, we decided to pass.

Walking around the CBD we stopped at whatever caught our fancy.  While we didn't go in, I loved the look of this building, the Parnell Baths.  It's home of the largest salt water pool in the country and has been around for over 100 years.

I enjoyed the harbour area which gave us a great view of the city skyline.  There was some sort of festival coming that weekend so there were booths being set up as well as pop-up displays and stages.

The Maritime Museum is, appropriately, right on the water and gave us insight on boats and tools used by the original inhabitants.  I really enjoyed an interactive display that put you on ships that had sailed from Europe to New Zealand.  It was interesting to see how much more comfortable the accommodations became as the ships grew more modern.  Living in this time of COVID-19 we think it's been tough to remain home-bound but it's a piece of cake compared to some of these cramped living quarters that were endured for months on end!

Decorative Oars at the Maritime Museum

Shells used as rattles for shark fishing

We learned that a replica of Captain Cook's ship would be arriving in the harbour just after lunch so we stuck around to see that.  Unfortunately none of my photos of that came out, which is very odd.

With the wind picking up and the temperatures cooling down we weren't inclined to stay out very long.  We ended up eating at the Italian restaurant in the same building as the hotel and watching a movie in our condo.

Final Thoughts

I know we didn't see the best of Aukland, which gives me a reason to return.  New Zealand is a lovely country and there's still so much I didn't get to see!  I feel like we did not give Aukland a fair shake and I'd like to correct that one day.