We got into New Zealand at pretty much midnight there time and still had to get to our hotel. The website said it was a 5 minute walk from the terminal so we start walking with this hotel no where in site... Long story short after wandering around 25 minutes we found it. It was close... but not that close. haha good thing we wanted to stretch our legs.
The next morning we got up and got some groceries from the supermarket and then walked back to the air port.. yep in order to get bus passes for the day. (There was a lot of walking involved this day) We took the bus down to the ferry port in Auckland and caught a quick ride over to Devonport! Here are some pictures! Right outside the ferry terminal was this AWESOME tree! I loved it.. and while I feared getting caught/ falling out and hurting myself.. I couldn't resist geting up there at least.
The picture to the right is whilst on the ferry of the Auckland bridge connecting it to Orewa and Northern Auckland (we drove over this bridge quite enough) and above and below are pictures from North Head fort in Devonport. AKA my favorite hill in the world! It was an old military fort and a lot of the old tunnels are still open. You could explore for hours (in fact I almost did) and they just had some nice memorial pieces.
Above is a picture of North Head from below..
and to the right- on the ferry
This is how Auckland looks like riding back into the city. This literally may be my favorite city in the world.
Above are more pictures around North Head. The top one is from my favorite little beach area where I ate lunch and enjoyed views of the amazing Rongarriro Volcano which has only been there about 600 years. The second picture is in front of Auckland. And the water seriously is that color! I was just blown away with how beautiful this whole area was and Devonport itself was extremely charming.
The left and below are pictures from the lesserknown part of North Head... which I had to explore. From the left they would drape huge metal nets across the channel in order to catch any U boats trying to enter the habour.
The other path leads along the water and all the way around the hill. I felt like I was breaking rules at some point but there weren't ever any signs.. just no people. haha
While I didn't get to swim at the beach (forgot my suit :/) I did at least wade in. The water was VERY cold but at least it was a nice day in the sun!
Essentially this is a view of Auckland from the Devonport ferry terminal... Not too far away. I would definitely recommend this as a day or half day adventure!
Featured to your left is the main train station by the ferries. We left our big bags in a locker at this station so we wouldn't have to lug em around all day. Definitely a great choice! I don't think I could've walked 20 miles with my main bag.
So I definitely had some fun exploring Devonport. After congquering this hill with Laura, I took a walk along that entire beach down there and had to double back all the way through some neighborhoods. Then I climbed the second hill, Mt. Victoria! Which was a lot more just walking up. There weren't nearly as many fun little things to explore and paths to take.
One of my favorite eating experiences in New Zealand was Burger Fuel. We went there twice and essentially it's similar to like our Red Robbin or those other gourmet burger places. Above: They give you little hamburger holders to keep everything from slipping out the back side of your burger.. To be honest I never really have this problem since I avoid salad (vegetables on a sandwich are still called salad) like the plague and rarely give in to sauce.
The sandwich to the right however was quite good! It was essentially a Thanksgiving Dinner, with roasted chicken, a sweet potato mash mix, gravy, and cranberry sauce. It was a tad weird but I did enjoy it.
To cap the first day off in Auckland, we ate at a nice restaurant that had Chocolate Soup! (glorified hot chocolate that was fantastic!) And a trip up Tower Hill which was unfortunately in the dark and raining so I didn't get any good pictures up there. The views of the city were really nice and you could drive up! Score. (Not to mention we had our first sighting of WILD SHEEP! in New Zealand... They're everywhere)
Above: Is a view from Mt. Victoria looking out at the volcano in the city and little North Head which looks like a small stump in comparison... It is smaller but I don't know about that much smaller... It's cooler. Trust me.
Over- Amanda Rehak
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