Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

Auckland - New Zealand
Round The World Trip Journal

(25th - 26th May) New Zealand - Auckland
We both plunged into mega depression at leaving Australia and had to really work hard at picking ourselves back up and getting out there to get the most out of our two days in Auckland. We arrived just before the first day of winter so it was quite cool, overcast and we had rain. We thought we'd gone home to the UK! As with many cities, Auckland looks best from a distance. We went up the Sky Tower (the tallest building in the photos) to the revolving restaurant and had lunch overlooking the city which is surrounded by water. We did have some sunshine that day as you can see from the photos and the views were fantastic. We also went back up again at night to see the city lit up too. There are not so many high rises as in Sydney and even in the suburbs there are few blocks of apartments. There are 1.3 million people in Auckland which is one third of the population of the whole of New Zealand. We walked along the Viaduct which is the waterfront area with restaurants and bars. We also went to see Fiddler On The Roof here with Topol playing his famous role. He brought the house down – it was brilliant and Mike couldn't stop singing If I Was Rich Man for days afterwards! We drove to the viewpoint at the top of One Tree Hill: a dormant volcanic cone which was once the site of the largest Maori settlement in the region. Unfortunately it doesn't have a tree any more because activists kept cutting them down but it did give us panoramic views around the area.