Auckland. First impressions… Steep hills. Reminded me a bit of Korea actually… And the city centre was very heavily Korean as well! Although there were some Japanese and Chinese, more Koreans. Yup.
After making some plans, we ‘ran’ to the dock to get ferry tickets to Rangitoto Island… Only to be late by about 5 minutes 🙁 but there was to be another ferry in a couple hours so we went shopping and got some lunch. While Burger King in Australia is called Hungry Jacks, it is actually Burger King in New Zealand 😛
Short ferry ride to Rangitoto Island, the volcanic island! Hiking time! An hour hike to the summit, fun. The trail was very rough and rocky, could have easily tripped if we didn’t pay enough attention. Even then the rocks slipped underneath us a couple times. Our surroundings were of trees shrubs and so much black volcanic rock, fields of it.
On our way up to the summit we took a short detour to ‘lava caves’ as the name describes, caves created by the lava flow so long ago that they are littered with trees and vines. Despite the constantly familiar surroundings throughout the hike, we had a great view of the coast of Auckland, complete with the Sky Tower, not too different from Toronto!
Arriving back in Auckland we continued to do some shopping… Whee. Rosanna has been looking forward to purchasing some necklaces with aboriginal symbols with deeper meanings to them such as the Koru and Tikiman… There’s a list somewhere that I can’t seem to find. Some symbolize a everlasting bond of friendship, good luck and fortune, protection from evil, safety to travellers, etc. We have encountered several different variations as well as differences in the quality of the pieces. They can get… pricey.
Tomorrow, more shopping on Broadway, Parnell and some culture from the Auckland Natural History Museum.
Rangitoto Island trail
Whitcoulls, Mother’s Day
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