Exploring Auckland

My dad has a schedule at the tepids bath for his physiotheraphy session. Its near the harbour area in town. So, early in the morning at about 9am, my brother dropped my parents including me and CT at the city area. We planned to meet at the Ferry Building for lunch at about 12 noon.

So, CT and I went off to explore the town area. We first made our way on foot to the Sky Tower- the landmark of Auckland.



We then purchased tickets to go all the way up to the sky tower to see the magnificent view.

Here's the lift that took us all the way up! It is at 328 metres tall. The tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.



Once we reached up, we could stand on the floor made of glass. So, we could see all the way down just below our feet.



And here's the view..



Aside from the $25 each we need to pay to go up this tower, we paid an extra of $3 to go all the way up to the sky deck.



Here'a CT doing a free fall from the tower!



Yeah..right! He is just putting his trust on the strength of the glass.


We spent about an hour in the sky tower before making our way to Victoria Park Market.

On the way to the market, we passed by this building with an interesting advertisement banner.

It could not be anymore plain..


And here's Victoria Park Market. A place with small shops selling souvenirs.






Time really passed so quickly. Before we knew it, we had to rush to meet my family for lunch at the Ferry Building. We were actually late! And moreover, we also didnt expect the place to be so far. We walked for about 20 - 25 mins!

Here's an apartment by the harbour. So nice!



We had our lunch at Harbourside Seafood Bar and Grill Restaurant- Auckland's Finest Seafood Restaurant in the Ferry Building along Quay St. The reason we chose this place was that I was craving for fresh oysters. So, I was looking for good seafood restaurants and this was recommended in the NZ tourist magazine.



We first had "harbourside seafood platter" which consists of Sashimi, Sushi, Oysters, Prawn Mayonnaise, Smoked Salmon, Scampi, Grilled Fish, Scallops, Steamed Mussels, Thai Fish Cake, Pipi, Cockle, Garlic Prawns, Chilli Squid





Aside from that, we also had sashimi and sushi platter


as well as dozen of fresh bluff oysters.




To clarify here, bluff oysters doesn't mean fake oysters. Bluff oysters is the most valuable species of oyster found in New Zealand. It is a flat oyster (as compared to a cupped oyster) that grows up to 10.5 cm. The texture is much smoother than the usual oysters.



We had an enjoyable time eating the delicious food.

For our mains, CT ordered Seafood Risotto that includes King Prawn, Scampi, Fish, Mussels, Clams, Squid, Scallop, Aborio Rice, Bouillabaisse. If you are wondering what a Bouillabaisse is, it is actually fish stew. So, this risotto dish was cooked with fish stew which made it very tasty.



As for myself, I ordered the Harbourside Linguini that includes a generous serving of Prawns, Scallops, Mussels, Squids, Fish, Clams with Tomato Herb Sauce. Very very delicious. I really enjoyed all our dishes!

After that filling lunch, we bought a ferry ticket to go to another place called, Devonport.


Its only about 10 mins ride there. It's like a small, quaint town with lots of shops just for viewing as its not that cheap!

Here's my dad taking a ferry for the first time since the accident. It must be exciting for him.



As usual when I enter the ferry, I would quickly go up to the deck to catch the breeze and view. So, here's the ferry leaving the port. The brown building is the ferry building where we had our lunch. If you can spot the canopy at the second level of the building, that was where we had our lunch



At Devonport, you can still see Auckland city as it's not that far away.



When we first entered, Janine was captivated by the flowers! So colourful!




Here's the small town of Devonport.



We spent some time walking along the row of shops as well as climbing this hill to catch the view. Oh boy, CT and I took this short cut that instead of walking on the road up to the hill, we actually went on the grass patch, on fours, and started climbing up the hill in a rock-climbing stance. It was tough. I almost did give up because it was tough and steep and my hands were all covered with soil. I was perspiring like crazy.

If you look at the grass patch in the picture below, that was where we managed to climb up from. You cant really see the bottom because it just drops down 90 degrees...well, almost!


My brother's family took a short cut as well, but a different one as while climbing up ours, we advised my brother not to join us.

But Janine still had her share of rock climbing! No problem for her since she is so active!


So here's how high we climbed and we finally made it!



Wanted to soak in the atmosphere and the nice breeze after such a tedious climb.


As we were preparing to make our way down, take a look at what Janine is doing. She is trying to be a cow - eating grass!



Janine is at the inquisitive stage where she would frequently ask, "what's this?" and she would want to touch and smell things.



After our climb, we walked back down to meet up with my parents who were waiting for us at this cafe as they ordered some drinks.

Then, we took the ferry back to Auckland. My brother sent my parents back to the motel first while CT and I stayed on to walk around. We first took the free bus to the Auckland University, where my dad used to study. And we roamed around and walked down Queens St- the main shopping street.



Then went into an Electronics shop to check out computers and games. I ended up playing Guitar Hero 3 on XBox 360 in the shop.


We also managed to catch a bit of a street performance, playing some sort of New Age Tibetian tribal music. Quite interesting.



What a busy day we had in Auckland City!