Auckland, NZ: Things to do, see, eat and drink in five days

After five months of traveling, we left Latin America and headed with an approximately 13-hour flight to New Zealand. We had been waiting for this because it would be refreshing to not have a language barrier everywhere all the time 😜 Our first stop was Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand.

Auckland from the harbor towards city

We had tried to find accommodation online but everything decent was over our budget. The one’s that were within our budget had ratings around 5 or 6 out of 10. Usually that’s not very good. We had booked an Airbnb close to Mt Eden because it seemed clean and quiet. We had been communicating with the host that our flight lands already at 5 am and we asked whether it would be too early for us to check in. She told there was no problem. We arrived a bit before 7 am and noticed that the place was an acupuncture/Chinese medicine place. We were a bit confused and called the host. Her husband answered and said that they were sleeping and that we should’ve told them if we want to come early. Well, we did. Luckily there was a café close by, so we stationed ourselves there for three hours (because the host didn’t want to come earlier than 10).

Some chocolate for breakfast 😋

We went to the accommodation at 10 and met the host couple. They started to accuse us from coming too early and them being now very gracious and giving us the keys earlier than what it says online. We tried to tell them that this was communicated earlier with them and that it had not been a problem if they had just said that “don’t come before 10”. Then we saw their kitchen. Their idea of a kitchen was one microwave. Sigghh… Then we went to our room and as you can see in the picture below, it was a treatment room converted into a bedroom. It felt a bit weird. We sat on the bed and it was stone hard! We looked under the sheets and our beds were really hard massage tables!?! Let’s just say that it was not pleasant at all.

Doesn't this look inviting and homey...? No.

We decided to go to the city center and try to find accommodation there. We found Queen Street Backpackers that was close to everything and seemed good. We booked it for the rest of our stay in Auckland. In the end this was a good decision because our room was quiet, we had luck with good roommates, their kitchen was relatively clean and they had very good Wi-Fi. Always a plus when you want to keep contact with your family and friends!!

Entrance to Queen street backpackers

Our dorm where we met different people 😊

On our first days we just walked around and tested a few cafés and lunch places. One of the cafés was right around the corner and it looked interesting. Imperial Lane had an industrial look and it seemed to be popular among business people based on the collar shirts we saw there 😉 They advertised they would have the best coffee in town so we headed there. Well, everything else was good except for their regular coffee! They had great sandwiches and bagels, which we enjoyed.

Another place worth mentioning is Tank. It is a chain in New Zealand (we have seen it in many cities) and it has all kinds of juices and smoothies but also salads and wraps. We have tried their wraps twice now and they are delicious. So, if you are looking for a quick, healthy lunch in Auckland, this could be one choice for you! 😊

Auckland’s probably most known landmark is the Sky Tower. There are two platforms of which the higher one is in 220 meters. The entrance fee is really pricey, 29 NZD (~22 €) (Jan 2017). That’s why we were thinking for a moment whether if we would go up or not but then we thought that well, since we are here and this was also Markus’ third time in Auckland, so it was a bit of a must! The views were beautiful, though! 😊

Sky tower

Would you stand on a glass floor like this? 😄

One day we decided to take a ferry to Waiheke island that is located East from Auckland city. Waiheke island is best known of its vineyards and wine tastings. This is also why we went there. 😄 The ferry ride took around 40 minutes and it was nice. We had purchased Auckland’s AT HOP cards, that we used in metros, buses and also on the ferry. Again, the ferry was expensive. It was 36 NZD return, i.e. around 26 €/person. We arrived at Waiheke island and it was beautiful with all green hills and turquoise water surrounding it. There are a lot of cars, though, which somehow surprised us. But the island is big, bigger than we thought, so it’s understandable that one needs a car there if one wants to see more of the island.

Beautiful harbor area at Waiheke island

There are three vineyards within walking distance from the harbor. We decided to visit them as they come. Our first place was Cable Bay. We went to their cellar where their wine tastings took place. There were two couples tasting wines already. It took some time for the personnel (2 people) to even say hi to us. Then one of them just put the list of 5 wines in front of us and told shortly what the wines in question were about. Then she always went back to one of the other couples and talked extremely loudly with them because they had found a connection (all from USA). We felt that they didn’t respect us at all and their customer service was poor. Their wines were not that exciting either… So, Cable Bay – not the way.

Not difficult to navigate on the island

The wines we tasted at Cable bay

Our next stop was at Mudbrick. The scenery was already beautiful and inviting. We got to walk through their grape vines on our way to their tasting room and terrace. Here, we were immediately acknowledged and we got a lot of interesting information about the wines. During our tasting, we thought we would continue our tasting on their terrace and have a bite simultaneously. After all, all this wine tasting with no food is maybe not such a good idea 😜 We ordered some focaccias with whipped feta cheese and it was very good. After Mudbrick we decided that we had tasted enough and headed towards a sculpture walk. There was a sculpture walk on the island with contemporary art pieces along the coast. Some of the pieces were interesting and/or beautiful but some of them were just weird and we didn’t really understand how they could cost so much. 😛 It was a nice walk but again, it cost 10 NZD each and after a pricey ferry we were a bit hesitant to pay it, but since we were there…

Beautiful location at Mudbrick winery!

It's cool how there are many places in NZ where you can fill you're water bottle

Views at the island were beautiful all the time 😍 

Some interesting pieces on the sculpture walk

New Zealand is trying to save their Kauri (a tree) forests because dirt from the boots can spread a deadly fungus. This is why we had to clean our shoes both when entering the forest and when leaving it. So, if you are there, please remember to do this!!

We visited also Mt Eden from which one has views over Auckland as well, but it’s free, hah. We took the metro there and when we were checking the map, and probably looked a bit lost, a man asked if we were going to Mt Eden. He was going there so he invited us to walk with him. It was a funny walk and not too long walk. The last part we walked on our own and the views on the top were nice. But from that angle the city center of Auckland was not very beautiful – looked more like a factory area. But what we think is nice, is that there are many places in Auckland from where you can see over the city.

Auckland city center from Mt Eden

Someone had left a kangaroo on the bench 😮

On our way back to the city Markus spotted a Portuguese café. Edda immediately thought whether if they would have natas. We tried them some years ago in Lisbon and they were so delicious! We went to the café, and its name was Nata 😃 That was promising already! And we were lucky because on that day they sold 2 natas for the price of one. And they were really yammy!

Then, for lunch, we tried a place that was mentioned in Lonely Planet, No. 1 Pancake. It sells Korean pancakes only. One could see how they were made and there was a queue all the time. Well, they cost 4,5 NZD (around 3,3 €), so that’s a good price for a lunch. They were quite good, especially when we added some spicy sauce on them 😜

We were just the right time in Auckland! It was Auckland’s anniversary weekend and a lot of things were happening in the city (Anniversary 30 Jan). We visited a Maori festival where we could see some traditional weaving, wood carving, tattooing with bone, Maori games, etc. But the most entertaining and interesting part was a one-hour-long show from a Maori dance group. The group was big and they even compete in different competitions. That explained how they were so good!

Some detailed wood carving

Check the eye balls!

On Auckland’s anniversary eve Auckland’s symphony orchestra gave a free concert in the harbor. It was about 3 hours. Many people had come to the harbor with picnic chairs and food and drinks. It was a beautiful day and we were happy we got to be there at that time. At one point the concert organizers shot confetti in the air. Right away a guy behind us said to his wife “I wonder whether if that is bio degradable?”. And then within 30 seconds, the presenter said “And don’t worry, the confetti is 100% bio degradable, we don’t want to pollute our oceans.” And after that we could see many people clapping and cheering! That was so cool. Go Auckland! The concert’s final number was four pieces from different Star Wars movies accompanied by a laser show and fireworks. It was quite amazing! We were just sitting there and thinking “we are listening to a symphony orchestra, watching a laser show and fireworks simultaneously, how cool is this?”

During our stay in Auckland we met two Finnish girls, Taru and Meri. It was fun to talk Finnish with fellow travelers and we decided to go for a drink in the harbor area on their last night before they flew back to Finland. We went to a bar and the bartender wanted to see our passports. After traveling for five months in Latin America, we had learned to never ever have our passport with us. So, we didn’t have it this time either. We asked whether if a driver’s license or a photo of a passport would be enough, but no. The bartender told that if an inspector comes in, the bartender could get a fine up to 40,000 NZD (around 30,000 €)! That was crazy. We walked back to our hostel and just laughed that this is too funny – Markus is 36 and Edda 30 and the age limit for buying a drink is 18 😂 At this point Meri just stopped and said “WHAT?! How old are you?!” She thought we were around 25 and could not believe that we are “that old” :p Haha, maybe traveling does wonders our skin!

Then became a happy day, because Markus’ parents came to visit us! It was 5 months since we had seen them so it was really nice to be able to hug them and see them in person. 😄 First we took a quick lunch nearby their hotel and after that Ulla and Pertti went for a nap after veeeery long flights. Meanwhile, we went to Piha beach. It looked beautiful with its long beach and a majestic hill in the middle of it. We climbed on the hill for some great views. We went to test the water but it was freezing cold so our stay at the beach wasn’t that long. In the evening we went for dinner with Markus’ parents. Markus had been craving for a big steak for a while and he remembered a restaurant (Degree) where he had been for six years ago. There one gets a hot stone with a raw steak on it and one cooks it while eating. Interesting concept! Markus had no trouble eating a 500g steak 😝

Piha beach

Somehow stairs like these always remind us from Inca trail now... 😝