Hiring a car & the Sky Tower

Today´s morning started bright and clear, so we headed across the street to Starbucks which is where we, once buying a coffee, are able to connect to the internet. That at the moment seems to be the problem, finding somewhere to connect without having to pay up to join a specific service. Once we had managed to finally post some things onto our site, we then headed off down the road for Dani to have his hair cut! Tiring of long locks, he decided to have a lot chopped off for ´easier management´

Once this had been done, it was off to the chemist as he is now starting to feel like he is suffering from flu like symptoms, probably due to the fact that after taking so many flights with recycled air, some bug has been picked up. The local Irish bar across the street was already seeing its first influx of St Patricks Day revelers, with Guinness already being supped at 11am….Hurrah!! (yes Mel, they are consuming in large quantities here!!)

We then walked down towards Beach Road, a road which seems to house the majority of car hire companies within the city. We tried about five companies in all, each offering similar quotes but we finally decided to take our car from a company called Explore More, which to us, seemed to cater for the traveller. They offer an option of including, at a small charge, camping equipment. This means we will now have along with the car, a camping set including a tent, sleeping bags, a stove, cooking utensils etc, which made more sense than actually buying anything ourselves which would no doubt have cost more and then, once it is time to leave, we would then either have had to bring it back with us or try to sell it before we left. The additional camping equipment package worked out at 200 NZ dollars for the whole time we needed the car (approximately 100 euros). The car we have booked is a Toyota estate car, with a 2 litre engine, so plenty of room for out luggage and any additional things that we may pick up on the way (excluding hitch-hikers, only due to lack of space!) I must say however, that Jucy Cars and Ace Cars offered just as good a deal, but the camping stuff swung us.  We pick the car up in the morning.

We were told by all car hire companies that in New Zealand it is not compulsory to drive with insurance, which to us seemed a bit strange, and with ´standard insurance´the only thing that seemed to be covered was ´panel damage´. So, paying for full insurance worked out better meaning that you are covered for tyres and windscreen damage etc.

Once the car was sorted, we then walked into the city itself, only about a 20 minute stroll, to source a few more bits that we needed before we leave Auckland tomorrow. Kathmandu is a large store here in New Zealand where you can buy outdoor pursuits equipment, so we aimed here to pick up for me, waterproof clothing and for Dani, a new Gortex jacket. The prices are extremely reasonable, so we managed to get some good bargains. They have stores all over NZ, Australia and a selection of stores in the UK. Buying a ´loyalty card´for 10 NZ dollars (5 euros ) gives you a load of discount too.

Being our last day in the city, we decided to walk to the Sky Tower and take a ride up to the top, with it being the tallest man made structure in the southern hemisphere measuring 220 metros (722 feet) at its highest Sky Deck.

Quick trivia…..it took 33 months to build, it is as tall as 37 buses laid end to end, it weighs the same as 6,000 elephants and has views of up to 80km (52 miles in every direction). At a normal pace, it would take someone about 24 minutes to climb the 1,029 steps to the main observation level….

….and so to the lift……the Sky Tower lift travels at 18km/hr, so the main observation deck in 40 seconds, what they failed to say was that part of the floor of this lift is made of transparent perspex so you could actually see that under your feet as it shot up as well as the view through the windows as it carried you up!

All in all though, it was worth it as we had breathtaking views across Auckland and its surrounding suburbs. We walked around here for a a while, where you can actually watch people, who have a cast iron stomach, do the ´Sky Fall´from 192 metres. They dangle the kamikaze jumper outside the observation window, before letting them free fall to the ground! No thank you very much!!! As you walk around the observation deck, again, there are thick, transparent perspex areas where you can walk over if you feel the need, to see the street passing below you….I took a photo, but didn´t walk over this

After our time here, we headed back on the bus back to Parnell, where we have just had had dinner in a nice Italian restaurant, very popular, with lovely fresh pastas. It is called ´Non Solo Pizza´and is located behind a bar almost opposite where we are staying. A little bit on the pricey side maybe but for our last night in the city…why not?

Tomorrow we will have breakfast before picking up our car to ready to start our journey northwards……….until then