Aukland

Whilst it's officially day 2 in NZ, today (12/5) was actually the first day we realised that we are now on the other side of the World! 

The mammoth journey wasn't as bad expected, thanks to good entertainment (thank you Emirates) and sleeping pills (thanks for the tip Liz!).  We also had a welcome stop at Melbourne after 12 hours of flying, where we did some more sitting down (under), went through security, then got back on the plane 20 mins later. 

We landed Sunday afternoon in a delirious state, enjoyed a nice dinner in Devonport with Dan & Sarah then fell asleep watching the worst film ever made - Dollman! 

We woke early Monday morning and took the short commuter ferry from Devenport (where Dan & Sarah live) to the city. 

We had ruled out doing any sight seeing as we had a fair bit of admin to do like  visiting immigration, setting up bank accounts, getting a sim cards and such like, however as the Kiwi's are so used to the backpacker market, we had everything tied up in no time. 

We spent the day doing a city tour on foot, visiting the harbour, obligatory pics if the  sky tower, relaxing walk in the Aukland domain, the winter gardens and finished off at Parnell, the inner city chic area which reminded me of Boston and San Fransisco. 

If I had to sum up Aukland from just a day here, I'd say its a cosmopolitan city with a zen like charm to the place. A nice balance between city buzz and outdoor living.