Arrived in Auckland late last night. Got the hostel booked already in Christchurch times ago, but forgot to ask for the exact address. Luckily I got the travel guide - or so I thought :) Well I do have the travel guide and I managed to navigate to the address where the hostel is supposed to be, well surprise surprise, it is not there anymore. Helpful people guided me to the correct location - it had moved a year ago :) Anyhoo, got all checked in and to bed by 11:30 so all good!
I hadn't done really any research on what is there to do in Auckland. But I did know I wanted to head out of town for Rotorua and Waitomo - so got all that set up with help of locals. About an hour of sorting and booking and checking and set it was. Now I had a day to look around in Auckland. Figured that it should be easy - pick up couple of booklets, grab a map and head to town. Wrong :). All the booklets tell you are the museums and islands. Oh well, so I picked one of the islands. At least the ferry ride should be nice.
Ferry took about 40 minutes to get to Waiheke island. It was a beautiful little place. Great views, nicely marked hikes and beautiful beaches. Did about 3h walk covering Ocean View Road, Oneroa Bay, Beach Parade, seaside walk up to Newton Road, walk through the streets to the opposite shore, The Esplanade and way back through Oneroa to Matiatia Bay. It was great. Apparently the millionaires are quarreling over the best pieces of land here - I can see why, the place has wonderful views and nature.
Once back from the island walked around in town. There is not much to do in Auckland it seems to me, other than visiting the museums as it looks like. As I have another half a day there before I fly to California I did quite a bit of asking around of what is there in Auckland. 75% of people said that they could not find much to do either :) So my conclusion is that this really is a dump as described by people in south island ;) One of them actually gave me a question in this format: "why you going to Auckland? It is a dump. And there is nothing to do in north island - you should spend the time here instead!" :D :D :D Funny people! As I see then Australians really don't like New Zealanders, then again south island people in NZ don't really like north islanders. Now the question is who the north islanders despise :)
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