New Zealand: North Island

Leg Five: Auckland to Paihia and back again (4-9 April 2010)

Auckland (4-6 April 2010)
Arrived in Auckland exhausted after our action-packed week and thoroughly nonplussed to be in yet another city. By way of protest, we spent the whole afternoon sitting in the TV room watching bad made-for-TV-movies.

Got up the next morning still feeling uninterested but willing to give New Zealand's biggest city a shot. Headed down to the harbour and wandered along the waterfront browsing the menus of restaurants we couldn't afford to eat in, ending up at Victoria Park which, incidentally, did nothing to cure my dislike of this city. It is just one big scruffy brown playing field hemmed in my some lifeless trees. Despite our better judgement, we tried to sit down and read our books but so many bugs kept feasting on us we were soon forced to admit defeat and head across town to Albert Park which turned out to be a lush green oasis in the midst of this oppressive urban sprawl. It's the perfect suntrap, with manicured lawns, huge tress providing shade and beautifully-maintained flower beds. Spent a lovely afternoon basking in the sunshine, reading and just generally being lazy. Just what we needed after such a hectic few days of "activity". Besides, it's not as if we have the pennies left to do anything exciting! I still refuse to like the rest of Auckland though, it's just so uninspiring, a city built on functionality with no concern for aesthetics, a city where lovely waterfront restaurants stand side-by-side with huge container units. We were definitely pleased to head north to the Bay of Islands the next day.

Paihia, Bay of Islands (6-8 April 2010)
Paihia is a charming little seaside town situated in the Bay of Islands, right at the northern tip of New Zealand. We passed a couple of days here doing not much at all really other than sleeping in, sunbathing, walking along the beautiful coastline looking out at the little forested islands bobbing in the bay and relaxing in the hostel hot tub. Idyllic. The perfect precursor to two weeks of island hopping in Fiji.

Auckland (9-10 April 2010)
Back to Auckland on Thursday evening in time for our free Kiwi Experience day trip the following morning. We were collected at the entirely acceptable hour of 10.15am and taken out to the Harbour Bridge where we put on little harnesses and trekked out under the traffic to watch the bungy jumping.

After enough people had flung themselves from the bridge, we headed north out of the city to Devonport, one of Auckland's oldest suburbs. Here, we had lunch - fish and chips served not on plates, but appealingly on a huge tablecloth of newspaper. Tried hoki for the first time, a delicious white fish with meaty flakes and a delicate flavour. I must admit that I missed the British classic of mushy peas though.

We then headed up the ancient volcano Mount Victoria for panoramic views of the city and surrounding gulf. This distance did much for the city's appearance and it turns out I quite like Auckland when viewed from afar! We arrived back into the city centre mid-afternoon and walked straight to Albert Park. And so I spent my last afternoon in New Zealand sitting in my favourite spot in Auckland, despising the city a little less, writing my blog and reflecting over my time here. It really is the incredible country I was hoping for - a real land of opportunity, where you can do everything from hiking up a glacier and trekking through a volcanic national park, to jumping out of a plane and white water rafting, to sunbathing and surfing. I'll definitely be back. But for now, it's on to the next, and final, stage of our adventure. Fiji.