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Adventures Around Auckland
Auckland<, 26th December 2001 - 4th January 2002
On boxing day I woke early to phone home and wish everyone Merry
Christmas. Because of the time difference, it was still Christmas
Day back home, which was kinda strange, but it was nice to be
talking to the family again.
Over the next couple of days we had some fantastic sun. Over the
Christmas period we made brilliant work on our tans, something we're
not used in England in mid-summer, never mind winter! We had to be
careful not to stay in the sun for too long, imagine sun burn at
Christmas!
Over the next few days in Auckland, we divided our time between
going to downtown Auckland by bus and visiting different sights with
Uncle Peter. The bus was really cheap, because we could get a group
day pass between us for NZ$16. Auckland city is fantastic, a real
bustling city. However, the main street was quite limited compared
to other major cities, but there was enough to keep us occupied.
As we were spending no money on accommodation & very little on food
we could afford to treat ourselves a little, so we all bought some
nice souvenirs.. I decided to buy a fantastic special edition pack
of Lord Of The Rings New Zealand stamps. Emily, however, chose to
buy loads of underwear at a sale. She said she was running out of
underwear, but how? Is she losing them? Eating them? Giving them
away?
 We
also decided to go to the top of Auckland's famous Sky Tower. This
is the tallest building in Australasia and it looks like a giant
Hypodermic needle! The view at the top is fantastic, you can see for
miles (or should that be kilometres) around, far into the distance.
On the observation deck, parts of the floor are made of glass which
allow you to see directly below you to the city far below. It's
quite scary, but the glass is 38mm thick so it's as strong as
concrete. It's definitely worth a visit if you're ever here.
We also decided to go up to the next observation level. On the way
up, the lift stopped to pick up two guys in multicoloured overalls.
They looked like very colourful mechanics, but it turned out they
were actually doing the 'Sky Jump'. They were 'dropped' off at the
level below us and we continued upwards in the lift to the next
level. The view was slightly better and we could see more of the
Auckland scenery stretching into the distance. But personally, I
don't think the higher level is worth the extra money you have to
pay to get there. One cool thing about this level is that below us
we could see the level from where the Sky Jumpers jumped. As we
watched, one of the guys in the multicoloured overalls was led to
the edge of the floor, some 200m above the Auckland streets, then
after a moments hesitation, he jumped! But then suddenly after about
1 second, he slowed and he was lowered slowly on a wire to the
ground below. Boring! A bungee jump would be much better! I need
more adrenaline that a short jump from the tallest tower in
Australasia!
We also went to see the Lord Of The Rings film a few days later, and
that was fantastic! We watched the film in awe, it's a brilliant
story line and the director has made an ace job. The film was
awesome and we can't wait for the next one. The only disappointing
thing was Boromir's horn, which sounded more like a little car horn!
We also went to Mission Bay, a beautiful beach not far from Auckland
centre. We sunbathed in the fantastic sun for a while and also took
a dip in the water which was a great temperature, not too cold and
not too hot.
 Uncle
Peter also took us to a number of great places. If you can, spending
time with locals in any place you visit is highly worthwhile. They
know all the things worth seeing, both on and off the tourist trail.
We did a little tour around a few of the conservation spots and
bays. We were almost off-roading in Uncle Peter's Lada as we winded
around the countryside. We saw some fantastic views, proving that
the North Island has beautiful sights as well as the South Island.
We also visited a number of beaches, which were packed full because
it was holiday season. The queues of cars stretched for miles.
Luckily, we found some not so busy beaches and managed to get onto
them.
 Overall,
we had a great time in Auckland. Thanks to Nat's Uncle Peter, we got
to see a lot of great things we would have missed out if we had of
been there on our own. Uncle Peter went out of his way to feed us
yummy meals, show us great places and give us a comfy place to stay!
Thanks for everything!
With our time in Auckland now at end, it meant that our time in New
Zealand was also at an end...Tomorrow, we'll be flying over to
Australia
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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