After a very pleasant flight I landed at 4am on Friday 2nd September. I had completely missed the 1st September as we flew over the international date line. I went to collect my bag and mine was one of the last out. Next was security and New Zealand are very tight on security. I had to declare I had hiking boots that may have soil still attached to them. So that meant queueing for a bit longer. The lady inspected them and took them to be cleaned. I bet she wondered why I still kept them as they are tatty and torn, but they came back clean. I made my way out of the airport. I stopped at the ATM to get some New Zealand dollars out and caught the free airbus to the city centre.

I arrived at Nomads Fat Camel Hostel at 7am. I wasnt allowed to check in until lunch time so I put my bags in the luggage room and hung out in the common room until it was a reasonable time to go exploring. It was just after 9am when I ventured out. The hostel was just off the main shopping street. I walked down the street slowly looking in all the shops, some were'nt quite open yet. Most of them had something to do with the world cup in the window. I spent the wholemorning just walking around. I bought a hot chocolate in a cafe at the ferry port. When she gave it to me I said "Gracias!" I couldnt help it, it just came out. At 1pm I went back to the hostel to check in and put my bags in my room. The layout reminded me of university. There was a small kitchen and seating area with a corridor with 5 rooms coming off it. My room had 8 beds and I managed to get a bottom bunk. By now it had started to rain so I stayed in the hostel and went in the common room. By now I think the flight was catching up on me so I went for a short nap on my bed. At 7pm I went downstairs for my free dinner before going back upstairs to bed. I was so tired!

The next day I woke up feeling very refreshed. I went into town and bought myself a new camera, a nice pinky purple one. I walked to the Sky Tower and went to check out the tickets. I dedcided not to go up that day as I wanted to get my new camera working first. So instead I went for something to eat and had a quick play with my camera. After lunch I went to the information centre and saw a leaflet for Kelly Tarltons Antartic Adventure and Aquarium. I decided to go. There was a free shuttle bus to the aquarium every hour so I went to find the bus stop opposite the harbour and waited there. I only had to wait 5 minutes before it came and I didnt need to worry about getting on the wrong bus as when it turned up it looked like a shark! It had a big sharks mouth at the front and a big fin sticking out the top. It was about 10 minutes drive to the aquarium. Once inside the first thing you see are the penguins. They had 2 types of penguins, King penguins and Gentoo penguins. At the centre they have to make fake snow and ice for them and a computer simulates the temperature conditions to be the same as Antartica so their moulting cycle stays normal. You could ride in a snowkat car around the penguins enclosure. There were bits where you could see them on the ice and swimming under water. After the penguins there was a recreation of what Scotts Hut would have been like. It showed how they slept, the clothes they would have worn, their kitchen and the equipment they had. Next was the sting ray tank. There were 3 big rays in this tank with lots of big silver fish. You could see them from above and below the water. They were pretty big. After that was the main aquarium where the sharks were. There were lots of sharks of different sizes swimming over your heads. From the underneath you could see their teeth.The next tank had some starfish in and turtles. There were many types of fish all differentcolours and sizes and even an eel. The last thing to see wascalled Fish Alley. This is where the tropical fish, crabs and seahorses were. I then caught the us back to the city centre and went to my hostel.

The next day I went back to the Sky Tower with my new camera fully charged. I got the ticket to go to the highest viewing level. The lift only took 40 seconds to get to the main observation level at 186m above the ground. There was a circular walkway with glass windows all the way around. We were above all the other buildings in the city. There was an excellent view of the harbour bridge and volcano island. After a while I went up to the sky deck which was 220m high. Here there were more glass windows giving an even better view of the city. It is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere. After spending about an hour at the top I got the lift back down to the ground. I went for something to eat and then went back to the hostel to hang out there for the rest of the day.