Four Days in Auckland

After finally arriving at the highly recommended 'Borders Beyond Backpackers' (https://bordersbeyond.org/wp/), I spent half of the day in bed to catch up on missed sleep. Nonetheless, I managed to motivate myself in the afternoon to walk into the city and gather first impressions. From my hostel, it took about half an hour to walk to the city and also to one of the harbours ( Waitemata Harbour ), which is especially beautifully illuminated in the evenings. I was really lucky with the weather during all four days in the largest city on the New Zealand North Island. Auckland has a population of about 1.3 million people, which is very impressive considering that New Zealand has only 4.6 million inhabitants in total.

Auckland is characterized, among other things, by its many parks and green areas, which is why I did the 'Coast to Coast Walkway' ( https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/parks-recreation/get-outdoors/find-a-walk/Pages/coast-to-coast-walkway.aspx) on my second day with an Australian girl from the hostel. The walk covers 16km from one harbour, through the entire city, to the other harbour, and you hike through large parks, botanical gardens, and former volcanic hills!

These include, among others, the Domain, a 75-hectare garden with many species of plants and small lakes that form an impressive landscape. We also went through Mount Eden, a small former volcano with a 50-meter deep crater and the highest natural elevation in Auckland. From this mountain, you can see the city from above in 360 degrees and have a truly impressive view, especially on a beautiful blue sky day :)

On the next day, I visited the Auckland Art Gallery, the largest art collection in New Zealand (over 15,000 works). The building was originally a combination of an art gallery and a library, but now only the gallery is spread across two buildings on the street (one with contemporary works). Not only New Zealand artworks are exhibited, but also numerous ones by European artists, some of which have been donated by the artists themselves. I also had the opportunity to participate in a small creative project by distributing my colorful stickers in a normal living room with all the other visitors, and soon the whole room and every piece of furniture were unrecognizable :)

In the evening, I visited the Easter Shows in the city with Mandy, the Australian girl from my hostel, as she was traveling with a car. The shows take place every year during Easter and are like a large fair with numerous rides, markets, bands, and food trucks, and it all ends with a grand fireworks display for all visitors. We immediately got along well and had a super nice and relaxed evening with good food and great music, a good balance to the travel stress of the past days :)

On my last day before Miral arrived in Auckland, I went on a longer walk to Mission Bay, one of the beaches in Auckland that is not too far from the city center. In total, I walked about 15km (return) and enjoyed the view of the coast with a blue sky above the horizon. The beach was relatively busy during the Easter weekend, but I still found a nice spot to lay in the sand and write my postcards :)

On Easter Monday, it was time for both of us to hop on the green Kiwi Bus and start our journey through New Zealand!