Auckland: City of Sails

We arrived in Auckland after a very tiring and sleepless day. We flew from Sydney very early and had to get up at half four in the morning to get to airport. After arriving at Nomads hostel in centre of Auckland, we went for some food at a nearby cafe and checked out the surrounding area. It was a bit cold in the evening but we didn't expect NZ to be hot so no disappointment. After a well deserved siesta, we went to the top floor of our hostel and chilled in the sauna and roof top hot tub, which had views of the city...nice!

Our first trip was to Devonport which is only a short ferry ride from Auckland. Devonport is a lovely seaside town. Its very pretty with a little high street with small shops, cafes and bars. We sat down in one of the cafes and had some much craved fish and chips, they were better than back home!

It was a gorgeous day so we took a lovely walk along the coast of Devonport. There's clearly a lot of money here it was like something out of Grand Designs! Every house was unique in its own way some traditional, others ultra modern. Some of them even had their own funiculars as they were on steep hills. Lots of healthy types around too we passed loads of bike riders, joggers and power walkers on the way. In the afternoon we climbed the volcanic hills of Mount Victoria and North Head again, to see the stunning views of Auckland city, suburbs and beyond. Devonport looked like a model village laid out perfectly, all the houses having little green gardens with fences round.

So far we are enjoying every minute here and absolutely loving the place that we're already talking about being a good idea of coming to live here it's such an appealing country. There are apparently plenty of jobs available and I am sure they are not short of Tourism ones so it's very tempting indeed just wish it wasn't so far from home!

Back to the city we took a walk along Viaduct Harbour, full of lovely bars, restaurants and some very expensive yachts. They call Auckland the 'City of Sails' which it is without a doubt but Al joked that 'City of Kebabs' sounds better as there seems to be an abundance of kebab shops in the centre. We walked across to the Sky city which housed the famous Skytower, the tallest building in Southern Hemisphere, which looked quite impressive from up close. That evening, we took another walk around to see the city all lit up at night.

Time to move on from Auckland, though we will be passing through again for our flight out to US.