We awoke with alarm, showered then went downstairs to meet the Mercedes mini bus taxi that we had ordered the night before. Our luggage came to 49.5kg, but that was OK because they said there was an extra 10kg allowance for skis. We had breakfast at Bar Coluzzi. For Greg this was a bucket of coffee. We sent this SMS Hi Maree, we are at the airport and found what we forgot. Greg's phone. Please use this no instead. Larry

There were virtually no queues at emmigration, though there were miles of barriers ready for the APEC week.

While in the gate lounge Larry tried to use his new iPaq to connect to the Internet but found that all services required you to pay. So he started the trip diary while learning how to use the iPaq, while Greg went shopping. We boarded the plane 40 minutes late. It taxied all the way to the Botany Bay end of the runway before taking off to the North then doing a sharp right and passing over Eastgardens before heading out to sea for the 2160km trip.

Greg watched the in-flight movie about a blind young man while Larry reas Gardens of Spain which was set in Auckland. We think we saw Mt Egmont sticking up through the clouds. Before landing the plane did a loop over Auckland. We spotted the Sky Tower in the distance.

The official stuff was easy so we headed for the taxis. We boarded a shuttle bus because it had trailer that fitted our skis, but we waited 15 minutes for other passengers before departing. The route took us through all sorts of suburbia, not that different from Australia. Larry spotted ANZ Newtown (where Greg used to work) but it was actually Newton. We eventually arrived at the Heritage Hotel after two drop offs. One of these was at a backpackers down a narrow dead end street where the bus driver managed an impressive 3 point turn.

We were dropped at side entrance of the hotel, lugged our luggage to reception and checked in. A porter took us to our room on the 7th floor. We walked along seemingly endless coridoors, up and down small ramps. Larry had organised the room on points from Amex. We were impressed when we were shown into our room. It had a lounge with sofas and large TV, a bedroom with view of hotel's pool & Auckland's Harbour Bridge.

We had deliberately chosen a hotel near the Sky Tower, so that's where we headed once we had dropped our luggage off. It was just a block away. We stopped at the traffic lights to look up. The casino Skycity was next to it.

There was a big queue snaking through the foyer and out onto the street. They were there to see Miss Chinese New Zealand. We walked around them and entered the foyer only to discover the entrance to the Sky Tower was on the other side of the queue. We went out, around the queue and back into the foyer. The entrance was downstairs.

The lift had a glass floor so you could look down. There were also slits in the side where you could catch glimpses of the view. We had a look around on the main level before heading to the upper level. This required another ticket. As we were waiting for the lift a sign said "Jumper 30 seconds", but the lift came before the jumper.







After taking lots of photos we decided to settle down. SMS to Maree: Having a drink at the top of Sky Tower watching sunset. Greg



Once it was dark Greg started taking photos of the lights of the city. There were all sorts of reflections from inside so he tried going taking them from under the table. That didn't work, but other positions around the floor did.



The Auckland Harbour Bridge, so I discovered, is one month younger than I am. It was opened in May 1959.

Back downstairs inthe gift shop Greg bought a t-shirt. We then took time to examine the foyer with its carvings and fountains. The central carving went up for three or four floors.



We had seen a Westpac from above so we checked it out, but there was no ATM there. We went back to the hotel then headed out for dinner. I looked up the phone book and kew vaguely where a bank was, but we stumbled across one before I thought we were there. It only had $20s available.

We headed away from the harbour along Queen Streer looking for somewhere to eat. We were soon out of the shopping district. There was a large triangular square with a jazz band playing. We then walked past a lovely old building that was being restored which we later discovered was the town hall.

The hill started to get steep and there was a group of asian restaurants on the other side of the road. None really appealed.

We kept going until we got to the top and suddenly discovered we had reached Karangahape Road, or K Road as the locals call it. We wandered along here spotting gay bars and other landmarks that Maree had told us about.

We stopped for wonderful dinner at a turkish place Blue Caspian. Larry had a tangine, Greg has a shish kebab and something evil for desert.


After dinner we continued along K Road across the motorway. We walked past another restaurant where they were watching a drag show. Suddenly the drag ran out into the centre of the road, stopped the traffic and scared a couple in a taxi.

We headed back to Family Bar where we stopped for a couple of drinks and crowd watching. We decided to head home just as it was starting to fill up.

We walked back down the hill, past the casino, and to our hotel. Greg couldn't resist a few more photos of Sky Tower on the way.