Look at the view!

 
November 4th & 5th
After a sleepless 12 hour journey via sunny Brisbane, I arrived in Auckland, moving another 5 hours forward on the way. I’d booked cheapish accommodation on the internet and was surprised and delighted to find myself in a 25th floor city centre apartment with stunning views of Sky Tower and the harbour. It was 5pm, the sun was shining, so I had to get out and explore. It’s spring in New Zealand and doesn’t get dark until 8.30pm, giving me plenty of time to take look round and enjoy my first glass of Sauvignon Blanc

If the views from my apartment were impressive, they were nothing compared to the 360 degree panorama from the viewing decks of the Sky Tower, which on a clear day show off the City of Sails to its best advantage. The super fast lift had a glass floor panel for those inclined to look down the lift shaft as it sped to the top. The first of the two indoor viewing decks also features a glass floor so you can look at the people-ants on the ground. Or if that’s too tame, you can take in the view by walking around the tower’s1.2m external platform, but don’t expect to hold onto a handrail! Or why not throw yourself off the platform, down a fixed cable to the ground? Amazingly, people do this; I saw one from the apartment, for a second horribly reminiscent of the Twin Towers.

Flying in you can see that New Zealand is very, very green; a sure sign that it rains - a lot. The next day it rained all day. Instead of my planned trip across the bay to the vineyards of Waiheke Island, I had to be content to visit the maritime museum and hop on and off the excellent city loop and city link buses, taking in the atmosphere of the city and inner suburbs. The link bus screens its very own soap opera – Laguna Beach. Shame I’ll miss the next episode!

Auckland may be an old city by New Zealand standards, but NZ is young country, and a bus trip gives a good sense of its development – from the 19th century white clapboard store fronts in the old suburb of Parnell, through the early 20th century’s one and two-storey frontier-style buildings in K-Road and Ponsonby, to the early American industrial and Art Deco influences downtown, topped off with late 20th century glass fronted commercial blocks and, of course, Sky Tower.