Auckland – Where to, Gumshoe?

May 29, 2016

Being two hours ahead, we were all clearly jetlagged as we woke up at around 10:45am. By the time we got ready to go, it was around 11:30am and Howard had already gone out and come back home. He had a good start to his day as we were just starting ours. He had recommended a French Market to us yesterday, so we thought we’d start our day there.

The French Market is in a suburb called, Parnell, which is located just outside the CBD and is apparently Auckland’s oldest suburb. The market is called, La Cigale French Market and is only opened on weekends. The market is a food market that was filled with a lot of delicious food options. The prices at most of the stalls were very good/reasonable and a lot less than what we thought they would be. Tim and Robin got sausages in French bread and Jess and I got a Turkish gozleme (like a quesadilla). Inside the market there was a French bakery which had fresh croissants coming out so we got a chocolate croissant since it was piping out. It was awesome!

While at the market, the rain started coming down pretty hard. Luckily, all the vendors had tents up so we didn’t get wet. After we finished lunch, we headed to the Auckland War Memorial Museum which was close by. The museum is free for Aucklanders, by donation for New Zealanders and $25 NZD ($21.80 CAD) for everyone else. Tim asked if there was a Commonwealth country discount, but unfortunately there wasn’t (Tim: I was joking, but the guy seemed apologetic that they didn’t).

The museum was quite large and you could easily spend a long time there. The museum includes exhibits about New Zealand’s history (Maori and Pacific Islander), military history, natural history, geology, etc. There was an event going on in the WWII Memorial Hall for American Memorial Day (Tim: note the American flag on top of the building in the picture above. I asked and they said it was up only for Memorial Day). I thought the Maori exhibits were the most interesting since they were uniquely New Zealand. New Zealand is the coldest place that Pacific Islanders live, so when they brought their own plants and vegetation from other islands, they didn’t grow well here. So, it was actually beneficial (Tim: from one specific perspective) when the Europeans came because they brought over plants that grew better in New Zealand.

We stayed at the museum for about two hours before making our way to Auckland’s CBD. The rain started to come down quite hard as we were driving around. There wasn’t much parking available and the parking signage in Auckland is a bit confusing. After driving around Queen St. (which is like their Robson) and around the wharf we decided to just pull into one of the 15 minute free street parking and take a couple of pictures of the Sky Tower and walk up Queen St. for a bit. Overall the CBD wasn’t too lively because of the weather and most locals probably don’t live in the CBD.

We got back into the car and went to Mount Eden, whose summit is the highest natural point in Auckland so it has great 360 views of the city. Mount Eden is also a dormant volcano so it was neat to see the crater, which is now covered in lush green grass. When we got to Mount Eden, we had to walk about 10 minutes to the summit. Before January of this year cars were able to drive to the top and park but now cars are only allowed to park below and you have to walk up. I think it’s much nicer that cars are not allowed to go up any way and the walk isn’t really that hard/far. We were lucky because as we were driving to Mount Eden the sun started to come out, so when we arrived we had clear skies and even saw a rainbow.

Mount Eden was my favourite part of Auckland, it was really beautiful up there and I loved how vibrantly green everything was. It’s been a while since we’ve seen such lush greenery like this. As mentioned yesterday, I expressed how much New Zealand reminded us of home and seeing Auckland from the summit of Mount Eden reconfirmed that.

We saw some pretty cool clouds in the distance that made for some really awesome pictures but we also knew that those clouds were headed for us. Unfortunately, we were too slow and we were caught in the downpour. Luckily we all had our rain jackets and we had our umbrellas too. Vancouverites are always prepared for rain!

We headed back to the house to rest up and change for dinner. We all sat around for about 30 minutes looking up restaurants to go to. It’s hard to decide when there are too many options. We wanted to have seafood since the green lipped New Zealand mussels we had yesterday were really good. Robin found a place called Swashbucklers, near the Auckland Fish Market close to the CBD. The menu and reviews were good so we decided to give it a shot.

Swashbucklers is located in a pretty industrial looking area. It reminded us of the trek to get to the Cannery in Vancouver (before it closed). It’s located close to the water and a few blocks from Auckland’s Fish Market. Tim and I shared a seafood platter for two ($70 NZD = $61 CAD), which had green lipped mussels, oysters, battered fish, king prawns, shrimp, smoked salmon, and breaded scallops. I was super hungry so I was really excited to eat. Everything was really tasty and it was the perfect amount. New Zealand mussels are very plump and sweet. I’m sure I’ll be having more before we leave.

On the way home, we stopped by a grocery store to get some snacks for our road trip tomorrow and dessert for tonight. While looking up restaurants, Tim found a list of New Zealand only snacks. So when we got to the grocery store he was on the look out for a bunch of snacks. We managed to get the majority of them.

We got back to the house and had the Hokey Pokey ice cream we bought. Hokey Pokey is a flavour which is basically just vanilla ice cream with crunchy honey comb chunks. It was actually really tasty, I enjoyed the crunchy bits. We ate our ice cream while we watched the season finale of “Fresh Off the Boat” together. We’re planning on leaving Auckland by 9am tomorrow, so we set our alarms. We’re heading to a town called Coromandel for some hiking and some beautiful scenery.

Steps today: 11,000

May 28, 2016

Early morning flights are the worst. For the most part we’ve been avoiding early morning flights for that very reason. Today, our flight to Auckland was at 7:50am from Sydney, which meant we had to wake up around 5:00am and leave the hotel around 5:30am (to be safe) and walk to Central Station to catch the train to the airport so we could get to the airport around 6:10am. Sydney’s Airport train line is really easy and efficient from the city. It took around 15 minutes from Central Station and it cost $13.96 AUD, a couple of dollars cheaper than leaving the airport for the city (Tim: not sure if the cheaper fare was because of direction, or time of day).

It was our first time traveling with Emirates so we were excited to see what it would be like. Tim booked this flight specifically because it was an Airbus A380 (world’s largest passenger plane). The flight was coming in from Dubai and stopped in Sydney (likely dropping off a lot of passengers) en route to Auckland. Part of the Sydney International Terminal looked like a fancy mall with a lot of high end stores. We also noticed that at many of the duty free and souvenir shops they had loads of instant milk powder for sale. Apparently Chinese tourists have been hoarding instant milk powder from Australia and bringing it back home.

We boarded the plane and were quite excited about this flight. The ceilings were a lot higher than they are normally and there was even more leg room in economy (not like I need more given my short legs). However, I didn’t think the service was that great. They were fine but weren’t as friendly/warm as Singapore Airlines.

The flight was about 2.5 hours and was very smooth. They served us breakfast, which was tasty. I had a vegetable frittata and Tim had more of a traditional scrambled eggs breakfast. We landed in Auckland at 1pm local time and it was 19°C and sunny. As soon as we walked out of the plane, we looked out the window and all we saw was green. We overheard some Aussies saying they haven’t seen so much green before and they don’t have to worry about poisonous insects in New Zealand!

After we crossed customs and got our bags, all passengers had to go through another screening to make sure you weren’t bringing any prohibited foods into New Zealand. You have to show your customs form to another officer who asks you questions and then you have to put your luggage through a scanner. While we were waiting for our checked luggage, I’ve never seen so many customs officers with dogs sniffing around. Since they are a small island nation, I can see why this would be very important to screen. When we flew into Australia, they weren’t as strict and didn’t have mandatory secondary screening.

We had about 3 hours to kill while waiting for Jess and Robin’s flight to get in from Melbourne. They also had an early morning as they had to fly to Melbourne from Adelaide to connect to Auckland. We found a seat upstairs in the departures food court and had lunch. The Auckland Airport only gives you 30 minutes of internet per day for each device. This wasn’t ideal since we were there for so long so we rationed the internet over our 5 devices. While looking around at the people waiting for family members to arrive. There were a lot of Polynesian-looking families and it felt like we were in Hawaii for a little bit (Kia Ora is like their “Aloha” in Maori). New Zealand’s population is mainly of European decent but they have a large population of Pacific Islanders (2/3rd of all Pacific Islanders live in New Zealand), Asians, and Maori (their Aboriginal population).

At around 4:20pm, Jess and Robin finally arrived. Their flight was a bit delayed but we were happy to see them in Auckland! We picked up our rental car, which they upgraded to a SUV (good for leg room and space but probably not ideal for gas) and made our way to Jess and Robin’s friend’s house which is in a suburb of Auckland called Epsom (5km south of the CBD).

When we got to the house, Jess and Robin’s med school friend’s brother, Howard, was home to greet us. He was very hospitable and made us feel like we were at home. Howard is also Taiwanese and grew up in Auckland, so he was great for telling us more of where the locals would go and eat. We settled into our rooms and then headed out for dinner. Howard gave us a few suggestions and we picked the New Zealand comfort food chain restaurant Lone Star.

Howard drove us to an area close by called Newmarket, which is south east of Auckland’s CBD. The area we parked had a lot of Asian stores and restaurants and then on the main shopping street they had a lot of branded stores and a Westfield (mall). We got to Lone Star and they said it would be about a 45 minute wait for a table so we walked around the neighbourhood. All the stores by this time were closed, but Howard said during the day the Newmarket area is quite busy. Even at night it seemed like a nice area to walk around.

Howard treated us to a really delicious and filling meal. Tim and I shared a really large plate of ribs. We didn’t know it would be that large, so luckily we shared!

After dinner, Howard drove us to Dominion Street, which has a long strip of Asian restaurants and businesses. Driving around Auckland, we thought it actually felt a lot like Vancouver. The trees and landscape were more similar than they were in Australia, and maybe it was the fact that it was starting to rain out that reminded us of home. We went to a Taiwanese dessert place that is popular in Taiwan but now has locations in Australia and New Zealand. The restaurant is called “Meet Fresh” and specializes in desserts with red bean, taro, and tofu pudding.

At this point we were all pretty tired and very full from all the food. We headed back to the house, showered, and went to sleep. We haven’t seen much of Auckland but got to experience more of where locals would go and all four of us Canadians agreed that New Zealand definitely feels like Canada (even more so than Australia). I was told by someone from Auckland that it is like Vancouver and Hawaii mixed together and I could definitely see that. Maybe more so when it’s a bit warmer.

Steps: 15,000

Tag: Auckland

Auckland (Day 90): French Market, Auckland Museum, Mt Eden

Auckland (Day 89): Kia Ora, New Zealand!