Staying in a city might sound like a dream to some and like a nightmare to others.
Most would agree though that when you think about a country as beautiful as New Zealand, dull grey cityscapes and busy, noisy streets are not the scenic thoughts that come to mind. Yet for us... it was perfect. No, we’re not weirdo’s and no, we’re not boring but honestly it was everything we needed, and here’s why:
Auckland had it all Despite not really being city people, we found Auckland to be a perfect base for our first 11 days in the country. Everything was on our doorstep. It’s all compact and everything is within walking distance which made sorting our lives out upon arrival that much easier.
It was cheap to stay in Auckland Ok. By “stay” we literally mean to stay there. To do virtually anything there is expensive, but in terms of cheap places to stay with a good location, it ticks all the boxes. We found an amazing (emphasis on amazing) airbnb apartment for $76 a night... that’s private room in a hostel price.
Auckland has good weather Well it’s in the North, and therefore has some of the best weather in the country. Who want’s to be greeted by rain when they arrive to travel a new destination? For us this really made a difference as it helped us feel like we were actually on holiday.
It’s not like we couldn’t leave Once we had a car we were free to go wherever we wanted, and in NZ there’s something great around every corner. Auckland is very near some great places to visit.
They have good coffee Alright, not important and to be fair it seems like everywhere in NZ has good coffee, just we thought we’d mention it.
We stayed in Auckland for a total of 11 nights. We figured that would be long enough to get our bank accounts, insurance and other stuff sorted. It was also nice to be able to relax as soon as we landed without having to stress about anything. Turned out we didn’t have to stay for quite so long, but on the other hand we had enough time to both get ourselves organised and also enjoy the city at the same time. We’re glad we chose Auckland and overall we think we made a good decision.
One thing to note though: Auckland is very busy, and very noisy. There is construction going on everywhere.
With that said however it’s not hard to escape the madness. One of the best places to go within walking distance of the centre is AUCKLAND DOMAIN. After buying a car (see last article) we had some time to kill in the afternoon, and a visit to a park seemed like a nice lazy answer to this... Yeah, we were wrong.
We didn’t expect the place to be so huge and were surprised when we had suddenly spent over 3 hours wandering about between trees on various tracks. Turns out Auckland Domain is one of the largest parks in the city (if only we knew before) and is also not just the oldest park in the city, but also happens to be in a volcano. We honestly didn’t notice, but if you have time, definitely go there.
If you want to make the most of your visit to Auckland Domain, there is a winter garden there and also the Auckland Museum. We are not big fans of museum (and we were totally late for a visit) so we didn’t go in but only checked the museum out from the outside. The building and its surrounding looks lovely during the golden hour.
Halfway through our stay in the city, we moved out of our beautiful apartment and in to our new accommodation - Grand Central Apartments. Even closer to the city centre, this unique historic building was once a busy railway station. Today it serves as a hotel but you can also find some rooms privately advertised on Airbnb.
When I entered the room I was amazed, it was so much bigger than it looked in the photos. The bathroom smelt like sick - something I immediately pointed out to Sabina, although she refused to admit the place wasn't anywhere near as good as the last.
The reason for the move was that we wanted to stay in a private room/studio, without a host. The photos made the room look quite small, complete with a little kitchenette … the kitchenette was in fact really small but the room was surprisingly spacious. It had everything we needed, and a good shower too. One major downside though was the communal kitchen, where almost nothing worked, and the smell of the permanent resident’s oriental cuisine washed away our appetite for anything we actually managed to cook in there.
So after moving our luggage into the room in the morning, we were ready for another one of Auckland’s highlights in the afternoon – Mt Eden. Mt Eden is Auckland's highest volcano, it’s located in Eden, funnily enough and about 5km from the city centre.
It takes roughly an hour of gentle hiking to reach the summit before the 360 view of Auckland city opens up in front of you. Once again the Sky Tower dominates the skyline. Mt Eden is a very easy walk which is definitely worth dedicating an afternoon to visit. It’s a nice place to spend some time and chill out. Go on a sunny day as the clouds can block the view of the city.
We were lucky with the weather for the climb but it rained as we left the volcano. Our second rain in New Zealand, this time the rain was quite heavy and we were glad to have our raincoats, unlike a few other tourists we saw who were hiding from the downpour under a shelter. To summarise, Mt Eden is absolutely worth a visit if you are staying in Auckland. Best of all, it’s free! But like everywhere on the island, be sure to take a raincoat.
We also took a trip to Point England Reserve, which should actually probably be named ‘Pointless England Reserve’ as there is nothing to do there and no nice views. In fact, we were pretty disappointed upon arrival but at least made use of a table and benches to get some video editing done.
The thing about Auckland is, It was nice to be stationed in such a good location with plenty to do on our doorstep, but visiting New Zealand isn’t about staying in a city... We were eager to see what’s out there and as a result, didn’t really see much of the city itself, except for the occasional trip to the gym or supermarket. So with our car finally ready for an adventure, we decided to get out into the open and explore the local area as soon as possible. Turns out we were missing out on something amazing...
Up next: Writting a blog under a waterfall
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