Auckland

We left Christchurch at 7:00am on Air New Zealand. Upon arrival at Auckland at 8:20am, the sky was overcast and it was raining. I made a call to our car rental company and within minutes, their representative arrived and took us to their office near to the airport to sign the contract, make payment and to collect the car. We were made to wait and were told that they were checking and servicing the car. That would take about 10 minutes, we were told. Ten minutes came and gone and another ten minutes and another…

With the gloomy weather and the wait, our extended holiday seemed to get on to a ‘bad’ start…

Finally we were told that one of the lights was not working and that they did not have spare units. We were given an alternate car (not equivalent of what we have paid for). We asked if there would be any compensation for all the inconvenience and was told that they would refund us for the first day rental. And they did. We were told that we could get the car (of what we had paid for) in the afternoon.

With that we drove off, heading for our motel. With the GPS, it was not difficult to locate it.

After checking in and having unloaded the luggage, we were all ready for some exciting time in Auckland and beyond. By then, the rain had stopped and things were beginning to look better and brighter. Our first stop was Mt Eden, followed by a visit to the Victoria Park Market.

While Mt Eden (Maungawhau) gave us a spectacular 360 degree superb view of Auckland, the Victoria Park Market was a let down.

(Auckland is punctuated by some 48 volcanoes and Mt Eden, at 196m, is the highest volcanic cone in the area.)

Mt Eden area (above and below)


View from Mt Eden (above and below few)

Harbour Bridge across the Waitemata Harbour in the background




The crater at Mt Eden

Sky Tower – the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere


Victoria Park Market – there were not that many stalls
and things sold were nothing really special or exciting.

Newmarket area (above and below)