City of Sails

by Marc on April 21, 2009

AucklandTowerView2

It’s impossible to design a perfect RTW itinerary, and the biggest flaw in ours is that we only got to spend 3 days in New Zealand. We’re actually saving both Australia and New Zealand for a future trip, when we’ll be able to spend the months it would take to properly explore them.

I can’t wait to come back here – even from our brief stay I am absolutely in love with New Zealand. Auckland is a fantastic town – friendly people, lots to see and do, and best of all, everyone speaks English! (with a really charming accent, too!).

AucklandCityLife

We stayed in very nice suite of the Auckland CityLife Hotel, right in the middle of all the action, yet surprisingly affordable. It was great to have air conditioning, though the fall weather was so perfect we hardly needed it.

We took full advantage of the washer and dryer to get our wardrobe back in shape, and we used the kitchen to prepare some homestyle meals we know we won’t see again for months.

But we didn’t have to – the quality and variety of restaurants here are the best we’ve seen yet. There chinese BBQ place right across the street from our hotel was amazing – there are lots of japanese restaurants too (but since we were going to Tokyo next, we didn’t bother).

AucklandFishMktExt

One day we went to the seafood market and drooled over the amazingly fresh seafood (well, not literally).

AucklandFishMkt1

They had some “crayfish” in a tank that were the size of small dogs:

LobsterGirls

Tempting, but instead we picked up some salmon sashimi and a whole pound of salmon roe for dirt cheap and brought it back to the hotel where we snacked on it for 2 days!

HarborCityView1

We loved looking at all the boats in the harbor – I’m told that Auckland has the highest number of boats per capita in the world (hence the nickname, “City of Sails”).

AucklandHarborAerialWS

Yep, of all the places we’ve been so far, this is one I’m just dying to get back to. I want to come back here and stay until I have one of those cool Kiwi accents!

{ 1 comment }

May 11, 2009 G

What a cool city! I think any city w/ a fish market is cool. Crayfish are groovy too.

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