Touchdown in Auckland

So after 44 hours travel with a stop off in Guangzhou, China, I finally landed in Auckland on the 27th November.
Luckily, for both flights I had an empty seat next to me despite being on crowded planes. Not that it changed much; my lanky legs kept cramping up and I must have slept maybe 2 hours over the course of the journey. So it goes without saying that I was looking forward to reaching the hostel and the comfort of a bed.

After witnessing another passenger attract the attention of a sniffer dog and being taken away to an interrogation room (hahaha), I boarded a bus towards my hostel which is situated just off Mt Eden, a dormant volcano overlooking the city.
Stupidly, instead of getting off at the bus stop 5 minutes away from the hostel, I got off 4 or 5 stops too early and then had to walk for just under an hour with my 100L Rucksack and 33L daysack. Needless to say that by the time I arrived I was dripping with sweat and feeling rather pissed off at myself. Rather than specifying the junction I needed to get off at, I simply asked the driver to let me know when we reached Mt Eden Road which happened to be a depressing 6 kms away.

Mt Eden as seen from SkyTower

Alas I eventually made it to the hostel, dropped off my stuff and climbed Mt Eden before it got too dark.

View from Mt Eden

The next day, my only full day in Auckland, I met up with a guy I'd met on the plane and his room-mates and walked around the city for the better part of the day. In the afternoon we went up the SkyTower where you have a 360* view of the city from 200 metres up. Pretty awesome.

View from SkyTower

Auckland Harbour and Harbour Bridge

Cheeky rainbow

Then went out in the evening for a few drinks and I may have gotten a little too merry as I lost my hostel key. As I reached the hostel at 02:00 in the morning with not a person in sight I started to think I was going to spend the night on the street. Luckily though my bedroom was on the first floor with french doors leading onto a balcony, so I managed to climb onto the balcony and get in through the back doors (thank god they were unlocked) without alerting the police and enjoyed a good night sleep in a bed rather than under a bridge in the pouring rain.

And that's pretty much it for Auckland as the next day I headed off south towards Hawkes Bay, where I'll be staying for a couple of weeks. So all in all quite an adventurous start to this kiwi journey!