Taking on The Big Kiwi

After a thrilling day visiting Hobbiton, glowworm caves and the sweeping hills of the North Island, it was time to explore Auckland! I slept much better that night not having to worry about missing a tour. On the morning of June 12^th, I met up with the team outside our hostel and we walked to the Sky Tower (the tallest tower in Auckland) to go up and see the views of Auckland.

It was a very pretty view from the top and we took lots of photos.

After walking around gazing at the city, we headed back out into the world and met up with my friend Elena (remember her from two posts ago? She’s from Concord). The plan was that she was going to hang out with us today and show us around Auckland since she’s been living there for the last few months. Our first stop was Mount Eden. We took the bus to get there and then hoofed it up the hill. Mount Eden is a dormant volcano and luckily it stayed that way while we were there.

We were pretty hungry so we headed down the volcano and stopped at Ziggle Chicken for lunch. Elena had been raving about this chicken shop since we met up in Wellington so it seemed important to try it. As you might know, I’m a pescatarian but I did made an exception for this chicken (don’t tell anyone). When in The Big Kiwi, ya know…

Up next on the adventure, we visited the Auckland Museum Greenhouse and saw some gorgeous flowers. They were the prettiest flowers I’ve seen in New Zealand.

Then we ventured on to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. This museum was about much more than war and had some particularly intriquing exhibits including one that was just a collection of random interesting things from around the world.

When we finished at the museum, we bopped over to a café and chatted. I got a hot chocolate which was yum. Unfortunately, Rebekah and Autym had to depart for Wellington to sit their exams.

We said goodbye and then Skye, Elena and I ubered over to the The Project studio. The Project is an entertainment and news show and I signed us up to be in the live studio audience because I thought that sounded fun. It was! We also met up with Sophia and two of her friends who had done their own thing during the day.

Basically, our job was to watch the show and clap when we were supposed to. It’s a quirky show where they show silly video clips and make jokes about them. There was one part where they let someone from the audience say what the next segment would be about, and I volunteered to do it but so did one other person. She actually was a fan of the people on the show, and it felt like this would be more of a special experience for her given that, so she did the promo.

After the show which only lasted thirty minutes, Elena’s friend picked us up and we went out for dinner. We first went to a Thai Restaurant called “The Red Elephant” but as the waiter spread our napkins across our laps for us and we looked at the numbers printed on the menu, it became quite clear that this restaurant was way outside of our price range so we left and went to a Turkish Café and got pizza.

Back at the hostel, I talked to one of my roommates and learned that he is from China and is here on a Working Holiday Visa. He’s only been in Auckland for a couple days and is trying to find a job. I sure am rooting for him!

Thursday was another exciting day! Skye and I met up outside the hostel and went to the harbor to take a ferry to Waiheke Island. It is known as a island full of vineyards and wine tours but it is also a gorgeous place so we decided to check it out.

We walked around the island, investigated the town (it’s a big island – people live here. It had vacation vibes). At the end, I flew my drone and got a cool video of us.

When we got back to Auckland, we chilled for a bit at the hostel. My roommate from China was about to head out to a house cleaning job interview and he was very nervous but I told him “you got this.” When he returned, he said he got the job. I was so proud. I feel like I’ve followed this guy on his journey. 

Skye and I grabbed dinner from Sal’s Authentic New York Pizza (I’ve been trying to avoid this establishment in New Zealand for the obvious reason, but we gave in) and I gotta say, best pizza I’ve had in New Zealand. So, in other words, if you want good local pizza, New Zealand isn’t really the place. 

We walked to the Auckland University campus and met up with Elena. Her dormitory was much more like what I am used to at Brandeis with dorm rooms and common areas. However, I learned they don’t ever do doubles (or god-forbid triples) in New Zealand. It is all single rooms. Also, at Brandeis, we have pretty generic common rooms. Here there was a Karaoke room, a theatre room and a yoga room. We hung out with Elena and some of her friends (two from US, one from NZ, and one from NL). We played a trivia game ( I learned I do not know my country flags at all) and a card matching game (I learned I am slow at matching cards). Later on, we hit the town and I got a taste of the Auckland night life at a local club.

We got back to our hostel around 12:30am but to catch our bus up north tomorrow, I’d have to wake up at 5:50am so… gonna be tired.

And that was what we did in Auckland! Next stop, Northland.