One Day In Auckland

My flight arrived into Auckland before 4:30am and I had plans to join a tour at 6pm that night, so that meant I had more than 12 hours to explore the city.  But first, as I’d just been on a plane for 14 hours and travelling for a total of almost 18 hours, I was in need of a shower to wake up.  There are 2 stalls of free showers in the arrivals hall at the airport (many more in the departures hall).  Aside from the shower itself, there is nothing else provided, so you need to make sure to bring your own towel, shampoo and anything else you may need.  The shower room was large enough for me to open up my mid-sized suitcase inside, and there were a few hooks on the door for you to hang your towel and clothes. 

The shower pressure was actually quite good and there was plenty of hot water.  There are bathrooms across from the shower rooms, and if you are desperate, you could try and dry your hair with the hand dryers there, but I don’t think it would work that well, as you can’t turn the dryer up to point towards your hair.

After dropping my bags off at the hotel and grabbing a quick breakfast, it was close to 8am and I decided to take the bus to the base of Mt. Eden to climb up for a view of the city.  As it was a Sunday that I landed into Auckland, the first bus wasn’t set to depart Britomart until 8:15am, but I was surprised that the bus ride only took about 10 minutes and I was already on my way up the hill by 8:30am.

One thing that I found a bit confusing with this hike up to the summit of Mt. Eden is that there were a number of paths along the way, but no signs to tell you which one led to the top.  I realized after I reached the top that all of the paths would eventually lead to the top, it’s just that some are more winding, and some are more direct.

The views from the top of Mt. Eden are really nice and I particularly liked that you only need to spend about 15-20 minutes walking up to this summit in the middle of the city for this perspective.

I spent the afternoon walking around the CBD and eventually made it Viaduct Harbour.  Unfortunately, the weather was taking a turn for the worse and it was a bit windy and cloudy by the time I got to that area.

I was also able to take an obligatory photo of the Auckland Sky Tower.

I really enjoyed my day in Auckland and it turned out that it was the only day that I would have in New Zealand where the weather fully cooperated, so I’m glad I got to make the most of it.