An interesting building I spotted during one of the stops along the route...I wonder if I could still play a piece of music like that haha.
We arrived in Auckland around noon at the Britomart (the main bus terminal). I had already prepaid and booked my stay at the YHA Auckland City (which I made when I initially thought I'd be on the Magic Bus and after I had Rangi as a driver haha), and despite what the name of the hostel might imply (I thought it'd be in the heart of the CBD), it was a 15 - 20 minute walk all the way from the Britomart, and it was all uphill (it got especially steep as we got to the hostel because it's located on the top of a hill - having a big bag didn't help haha)! It was quite possibly the worse location for a hostel, and if I hadn't already paid for it, I would've stayed somewhere else. What's worse, I felt bad that Alex had to pay for a 2-bed dorm since no cheaper rooms were available (and we decided just to stay at the same hostel since we'd be hanging out for the rest of the day). This is where buying bottles became a problem - I had 7 left, and it was task to carry them all that way. It wasn't so much that it was heavy, it was because the packaging was breaking down, so I had to carry it in an awkward way that put extra strain on the muscles. That's one thing you'll rarely see in Canada: poor beer packaging! Luckily, Alex didn't mind carrying it when my arms just completely tired out.
For some reason, Auckland seemed so much better this time (Alex even said the same thing!)! I think it had to do with the beautiful clear skies and gleaming sun (I saw the sun when I was in Auckland before, but I didn't get such a clear sky) - the sun just made everything seem brighter and more attractive haha (it's hard to explain). So after dropping off our bags (our rooms weren't ready yet) and changing into some more casual wear (I was drenched in sweat at this point, so my Crocs seemed like a good idea haha)) we headed out to kill time in the city. I gave my DSLR a rest (and I didn't feel like carrying it anyway), so the rest of my photos in this post are taken with my compact camera (which is fine in daylight). Most of the day actually ended up being a food adventure hahaha - Auckland is probably the cheapest place to eat in NZ.
View of the CBD from the main intersection closest to the hostel.
While waiting for some gyros, we noticed this huge crowd outside The Civic Theatre and were wondering what was going on - turned out to be a graduation ceremony that had just let out!
The gyros was not very filling, so we walked over to this shop that made "Korean pancakes" (by actual Koreans!), which I later found out were called "ho dduk" in Korean. Using, there's a sweet filling inside,but this place made both sweet and savoury fillings. Since it was still around lunch time, we both ended up getting ones with chicken and cheese (probably meant for the non-Korean crowd). It was delicious! The pancake batter was almost similar in consistency to glutinous rice that's often seen in Chinese and Japanese treats - I could see why this shop was so popular in Auckland.
Passing by the fancy bar street, now adorned with Christmas decoration!
Some photos while walking around downtown (we were looking for some souvenirs, which was not very hard considering how there's a souvenir store at every corner). Honestly, the weather was so perfect, it relay just made everything seem so much better. I ended up getting some of that famous NZ Manuka honey for my mom (the most expensive honey I've ever bought haha).
More Christmas decoration that wasn't around in November - they seem to really like the Christmas ornaments.
A passing police car - reminds me of the British police cars (the checkered pattern).
It's a little hard to notice, because I strangely did not take a direct photo of it despite that fact it was a very odd sight, but back in November, there was a giant Santa statue all wrapped up like a mummy (next to the light pole in the 1st photo, which I've reposted from the previous Auckland posts). Now that it was December, they removed the wrappings to reveal Santa and added some reindeer (2nd photo). It's hard to imagine Christmas when it's so warm and sunny hahaha.
A view down the main street of Queen St.
Mrs. Higgins - awesome cookies (I guess it's pretty similar to Mrs. Fields here). I had tried a couple cookies my first time in Auckland, and when we passed by it, I insisted we try some again (Alex had tried them before too haha)...what, they're really good!
Some older brick housing (it was unusual for me to see since I hadn't seen too many brick houses in NZ). That's Alex standing in the middle of the road taking a photo.
I miss the wide angle of my DSLR lens haha.
Back at the gorgeous Albert Park. Even the park looked better under the clear blue sky. With the sun shining so brightly, we spent almost an hour just chilling out here, catching a tan, people and animal watching (like the male pigeon chasing the female for mating in the 3rd and 4th photos, which was hilarious to watch, and the birds strangely nesting in the soil in the 5th photo), and just chatting while Alex worked on finishing some of the huge stack of postcards he had bought. On a side note, I haven't walked barefoot in the grass in sooo long (and it's a wonderful feeling)! Oh, and if you notice the quality is a little worse in the last 2 photos, it's because I took them with my phone.
The Korean pancakes were so good (plus the shop was conveniently located next to Albert Park and we were craving something sweet), that we headed back to get one more, this time with the sweet filling. They used a mixture of cinnamon and brown sugar - it was sooo good (way better than the chicken and cheese)! If it wasn't so fattening and filling, I'd eat them all day hahaha (they were reasonably priced too).
A sweet Beamer we spotted outside the hostel (notice the incline of the building foundations?) - yet another car Alex has driven before hahaha. We headed back to chill out on the hostel's balcony and finish off the rest of my beers while the sun was still out (plus Alex had some laundry to do).
Like I said, the day pretty much became a food adventure - we had a pizza from Domino's (they had a cheap walk-in special with plenty of toppings), a couple pieces of sushi, and miso soup for dinner! We couldn't connect with any of the other people from the Magic Bus who were arriving in Auckland that day (Markus, Corinne, Matteo, and Lisa all got into town the same day as us), so we spent the night just chilling out playing some card games and even a game of Risk at the hostel (the TV got really bad reception haha) while putting down some coolers (I warned Alex not to buy them, but they were on sale and we wanted something to drink hahaha). (On a side note, I had to say this was also a pretty bad YHA - one of the showers was broken and the other had a broken door (luckily no one walked by), and the other bathroom was pretty dirty.) Since it was our last night, we figured we'd take it easy, plus we didn't have much money to go out to any bars even if we had felt like it (I only had about $3 NZD cash left on me). And to be quite honest, it was the perfect way to end my last night in NZ: hanging out with a new friend.
One more shot of the CBD at night - the top of the Sky Tower was all lit up! I know the photo is blurry, that's what you get for using a compact.
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