Phew. Made it to New Zealand, but that isn't the end of the line.
From the airport in Auckland there's a SkyBus, that has various routes. The price is around $20, given that Auckland airport isn't in the city center and the North Shore SkyBus got me halfway to our AirBnB, I wasn't going to complain.
It turns out the SkyBus I needed to take was about to pull out just as I got to the booth to buy my ticket. The lady in the booth called the bus and asked the driver to wait, which is awesome because the bus for that route only comes once an hour. The driver even came out to grab my suitcase while I was paying. I was probably taking too long, but I'm not going to complain.
The ride on the SkyBus was fine. It's a little like the 747 bus in Montreal in that there's a suitcase rack but the seats have taller backs with headrests. I rode this bus to a bus station called Smales Farm, it's small and only had 4 quays. Everything was identified and clean.
There was no one at the desk for me to buy the Auckland equivalent of a presto card (Toronto's public transit system's re-loadable card which subtracts the fee of your journey based on when you beep your card on and off buses or subways), so I paid the bus driver for my next bus in cash.
When she gave me my change, at first I thought she'd short-changed me. The fare for the distance I was going was $5, I gave her a $10 bill and got what looked like 3 looneys ($3 CAD) back. At the time I was too tired and desperate to park myself with my suitcase somewhere before the bus started to bother with it. If she wants to be petty and take a couple bucks off an unsuspecting tourist: Fine. Whatever floats your boat, sweetheart.
Later I noticed that wasn't what happened. I had two larger, flatter coins with a bird on them and one smaller, thick coin with a Kiwi on it. Both sized coins have the same colouring, only the bigger ones were $2 coins and the smaller one was a $1 coin.
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| View from the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Yes Grandmaman, this is that bridge where they added the lanes on the outside of the existing structure. Photo credit: E. D. Meilutis. |
From the airport in Auckland there's a SkyBus, that has various routes. The price is around $20, given that Auckland airport isn't in the city center and the North Shore SkyBus got me halfway to our AirBnB, I wasn't going to complain.
It turns out the SkyBus I needed to take was about to pull out just as I got to the booth to buy my ticket. The lady in the booth called the bus and asked the driver to wait, which is awesome because the bus for that route only comes once an hour. The driver even came out to grab my suitcase while I was paying. I was probably taking too long, but I'm not going to complain.
The ride on the SkyBus was fine. It's a little like the 747 bus in Montreal in that there's a suitcase rack but the seats have taller backs with headrests. I rode this bus to a bus station called Smales Farm, it's small and only had 4 quays. Everything was identified and clean.
There was no one at the desk for me to buy the Auckland equivalent of a presto card (Toronto's public transit system's re-loadable card which subtracts the fee of your journey based on when you beep your card on and off buses or subways), so I paid the bus driver for my next bus in cash.
When she gave me my change, at first I thought she'd short-changed me. The fare for the distance I was going was $5, I gave her a $10 bill and got what looked like 3 looneys ($3 CAD) back. At the time I was too tired and desperate to park myself with my suitcase somewhere before the bus started to bother with it. If she wants to be petty and take a couple bucks off an unsuspecting tourist: Fine. Whatever floats your boat, sweetheart.
Later I noticed that wasn't what happened. I had two larger, flatter coins with a bird on them and one smaller, thick coin with a Kiwi on it. Both sized coins have the same colouring, only the bigger ones were $2 coins and the smaller one was a $1 coin.
 |
| From left to right: 10¢ NZD coin, 20¢ NZD coin, 50¢ NZD coin, $1 NZD coin, $2 NZD coin. Photo credit: E. D. Meilutis. |
New Zealand has a
lot of hills. Considering that Auckland is built on mountains, I was
grateful for my stomach being empty as the bus rode up and down through the
smaller, winding roads of the North Shore.
The hills are so steep, that is isn't unusual for you to be winding down a residential street, the roofs of the houses being parallel to the road on one side, and houses on the other being so far up they look like they're in the treetops. The bus drivers are pros at these routes and whip around the curves of the roads and roundabouts like it's no big deal. (To them it isn't.)
For me, any second looking up was a risk that my suitcase was going to flying or spent panicking that we were about to crash because we were on the wrong side of the road. (They drive on the left in New Zealand.)
Eventually my torture came to an end as I got off the bus. Alex had been in touch, so I knew to grab a transit card at the Four Square BK (like a Pharmaprix/Shoppers) for future use as fares from a transit card are at a discounted price, before walking to the AirBnB. Alex met me partway, helped me stop my suitcase from flying down the street to our accommodation, showed me in and let me freshen up before whisking me away.
At this point it had been a long day, but it was only 9AM in New Zealand. My brain felt foggy but my stomach was empty and that wouldn't do.
Another two hair-raising bus rides saw us to Auckland's city centre. We had brunch at a restaurant in Britomart, a plaza decorated with fairy lights and trendy stores. Then dessert at an ice cream parlour famous for its crazy cones. Their chocolate ice cream is named after Cher because she once ordered it. The ice cream was delicious and each flavour comes with toppings meant to best complement the flavour. They also have atypical flavours and you get to be walked through the experience of choosing a cone and flavour - aka: they let you taste all the flavours. Yay!
The hills are so steep, that is isn't unusual for you to be winding down a residential street, the roofs of the houses being parallel to the road on one side, and houses on the other being so far up they look like they're in the treetops. The bus drivers are pros at these routes and whip around the curves of the roads and roundabouts like it's no big deal. (To them it isn't.)
For me, any second looking up was a risk that my suitcase was going to flying or spent panicking that we were about to crash because we were on the wrong side of the road. (They drive on the left in New Zealand.)
Eventually my torture came to an end as I got off the bus. Alex had been in touch, so I knew to grab a transit card at the Four Square BK (like a Pharmaprix/Shoppers) for future use as fares from a transit card are at a discounted price, before walking to the AirBnB. Alex met me partway, helped me stop my suitcase from flying down the street to our accommodation, showed me in and let me freshen up before whisking me away.
At this point it had been a long day, but it was only 9AM in New Zealand. My brain felt foggy but my stomach was empty and that wouldn't do.
Another two hair-raising bus rides saw us to Auckland's city centre. We had brunch at a restaurant in Britomart, a plaza decorated with fairy lights and trendy stores. Then dessert at an ice cream parlour famous for its crazy cones. Their chocolate ice cream is named after Cher because she once ordered it. The ice cream was delicious and each flavour comes with toppings meant to best complement the flavour. They also have atypical flavours and you get to be walked through the experience of choosing a cone and flavour - aka: they let you taste all the flavours. Yay!
 |
| Display of cone options available at Giapo in Auckland, NZ. Many of them had funky names such as the "Selfie Cone" near the top of the display. Photo credit: E.D. Meilutis. |
One hazelnut ice cream in a wearable cone later, we meandered
to the Sky Tower, New Zealand's equivalent of the CN tower in
Toronto. The Sky Tower is the tallest building in the southern
hemisphere, but only 4 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower. Rather
than making the Sky Tower seem small, Alex and I, neither of us
having been to Paris, realized just how tall the Eiffel Tower must
be.
Admission for adults is
$32 NZD ($27 CAD), though the Sky Tower is adjacent to a casino and
one of the regular casino players was taking people up at a reduced
fee with his card. Thinking that seemed sketchy as heck, Alex and I
opted to happily use our $2 coupons from the free guide to New
Zealand called Arrival we grabbed at the airport instead.
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| View of the Sky Tower from below. Photo credit: E. D. Meilutis. |
The views are
spectacular.
On the one side you can
see out over Shoal's Bay and adjoining bodies of water. One of the
movies I'd watched on the plane over was Moana, and seeing the land
across the water looking like lone islands reminded me of the movie.
On the other side you can look out across Auckland with it's pink
cycleway and beyond.
After jostling with
other tourists for the views on the main deck (50th floor)
and viewing deck (60th floor), we headed to the cafe/bar
(51st floor) for a drink, admiring the views and bungee
jumpers going down the side of the building.
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| Views from the upper floors of the Sky Tower. Middle photo credit goes to A. Beaulieu and features the pink cycleway. Other photo credits: E. D. Meilutis. |
Once we had our fill,
we made our way down and out. Our original plan had been to stop by a
grocery store and grab a premade salad before heading to Torbay and
enjoying it on one of the beaches near our AirBnB. Unfortunately, by
the time we got back to Torbay, the sun was setting on the opposite
side of New Zealand from the local beaches and it was far too windy
and cold to be enjoyable outside. Instead, we had our premade salads at
the AirBnB, discussing our future plans before the jetlag took me
under.
Good food, bright sunlight, great views and a bed to crash in. So far, New Zealand
isn't too bad at all.
Events described took place on February 23, 2020.
Events described took place on February 23, 2020.
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