New Zealand: Auckland

The first couple of days of the NZ holiday were spent in Auckland. After landing we picked up the camper van and were both really tired from the flight, so we tried to find somewhere to park up for the night. We were in a large city. I say a large city - in fact Auckland has approximately a quarter of the population of New Zealand living within its boundaries. There are probably less than a handful of cities in the UK with a similar population. We decided to go to a campsite since parking up at random in such a large place probably wouldn't have been a good idea. The guy at the van rental place recommended the Auckland North Shore Top 10 Holiday Park so off we drove looking for it (over the impressive harbour bridge). When we got close we spent ages driving around in circles trying to find out which road the massive blob on the map actually referred to. It seems most of the roads in Auckland lead to State Highway 1 so we ended up stuck back on that a couple of times. Eventually though, we found the place and parked up for the night. Next day we caught a bus into the city and did the tourist things. A nice walk around the harbour area was followed by a trip up the Sky Tower. It claims to be the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, although the top third of the tower is a transmission mast which I feel is cheating a bit. Nevertheless, the views from as high as you could go were indeed impressive, though it was really warm and stuffy in there. Also, the glass was really dirty making taking good photos difficult. The quickest way down off the Sky Tower was to slide down a cable off the side, though I gave that a miss as I wasn't feeling too brave that day so we shuffled back to the lift. The lifts have a glass panel in the floor you can look through as they move up and down. The lifts shift at quite a rate. A quick bite to eat and a hot chocolate in a corner café (OK, a Starbuck's) left us refreshed and hungry for more sights. We caught the bus to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World and spent some time being impressed by penguins, stingrays, sharks, assorted marine life and (for some reason) a plastic killer whale eating an equally plastic seal. The underwater tunnel is well worth a walk through and I got some great video and photos there (which I'll post up when I get the time to sort em out). When we left Kelly Tarlton's we wandered up and down trying to find the bus stop back to the city. All they needed was a sign to point you in the right direction but there wasn't one to be seen. I guess once they've taken your money they're not bothered how you get home afterwards. Anyway, tired from our flight we headed back to the camp site and were both asleep by 8pm. Next time, the Bay of Islands!!!