Auckland Odyssey

14 hours on the road - with 3 hours spent wandering around in Sydney's Terminal 1 took me all the way to New Zealand.

It must have been the clothes I had on, I was questioned by NZ Immigration for 2 good hours - they went over everything about me - I'm guessing they know me better than my mum does. But it all ended up ok - it was probably just the normal questioning they do to every 1 in, uh, I dunno, 10,000 travellers.

So I reached the hotel at around 1.30 am in the morning, and didn't have much sleep - I still had to do a short meeting and prepare for the morning's events.

Now, work today went alright - Auckland had a really beautiful day - clear blue skies and warm weather for this time of the year. David, our host here did mention that there had been days with 0 celcius mornings - so I guess Amelia's friend hadn't been exaggerating after all.

Besides meetings, which ended early today, I've had a good walk around Auckland's CBD, along the water. Here are some pictures with explanations. Click to see better.

The sun setting over the Harbour Bridge in Auckland. There's this beautiful wharf along the water which was a great place to walk along. In the cool winter evening breeze, I totally enjoyed the place.


Sky City in Auckland is a landmark. It gives identity and instant recognition to the low rise Auckland CBD. Auckland is pretty hilly, with plenty of hills and valleys. My hotel is located just 2 blocks off Queen Street, the main shopping area, also where the NZ office is located. In the winter breeze, it was a joy walking to work. I wouldn't dream of having the same walk in HK. Or even Singapore.


Auckland City Hall (or is it Town Hall) by night. Our NZ office is just across the street from here.


Locals convinced me it's not a very good idea to come to Auckland and not try the Old Style Hamburger. So, like any good tourist does, I went over to Wendy's to get the Double Cheeseburger combo. How authentic .. the entire store was manned by migrant workers (looked like they were from South Asia) and a part time student from Asia. It tasted ok ... but I'm gonna hunt down an authentic Old-Style Burger store tomorrow ...

So, there's my Auckland adventures so far. I have a bit of time on Wednesday, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get some sort of sightseeing squeezed in. The weather is great so far, I can't ask for a better day in winter, and the food and people have been great too. So, it's good so far.

BTW, the top photo is at the Departure Hall in Hong Kong International Airport.