02/10/16: Mount Eden & the search for money (II)

It took about 50 minutes with a light backpack and cameras to climb up the small giant in the middle of the city.

So there it was. The reason why I was really out of breath (if that was even possible with a stuffy nose). Just a few more meters to climb up and see what's up there.

What stands out are the many Asians (I won't mention it often in the next few days 😂) who are being shuttled up the mountain by buses to take their obligatory tourist photos and then take the bus back to the hotel. This was also the case in Norway in June, so nothing new.

Despite the light rain showers and the short but steep climb AND a nasty cold - did I mention that I was sick? 😇😂 - we walked up there, passing the buses with Asians. And for what? For this:

At the top of the platform, you had an (in the truest sense) towering view of Auckland - the first time you saw something truly extraordinary since arriving. This was due in no small part to the distant mountains and islands on the horizon. But we will also get to see those! ☝🏼️

It's getting colder. The sun is setting. We've been waiting for this. It's something special!

At this point, I would have liked to have a few people from home with me, sipping a cool Kölsch and ideally stopping the whole thing. You can't have it all.

Thimo also had to realize that, as he would have loved to have a photo of himself in front of the sunset. He was about to take a shot when a (Asian) woman came running towards him waving frantically. She also wanted a great photo in front of the sunset. As kind as Thimo is, he doesn't take just one, but 2 photos of her in multiple poses. The annoying thing about sunsets is that they disappear quickly - just like this time. Too bad, Thimo, next time! 😅

Now that it's freezing cold and we're damn hungry (we've been out for 3 hours, it's already half past 7), we want to start our way back. But before that, we absolutely have to go to an ATM to withdraw our daily limit for buying the car on Tuesday. Easy 'won't take long', reassures Thimo. 😎

Sh*t, suddenly EVERY freaking ATM we pass by is out of order or has some problem with our cards. We're running like desperate (in our case, more like starving) through a desert. We're in the largest city in New Zealand and you have to walk about 15-20 minutes to the next ATM (if it's working) 🙄 After about 2 hours (!!!) from Mt. Eden, an ATM finally spits out our damn money and we can go back to our hostel and cook our rice - Hallelujah! 🙏🏼

That's enough for the 'typical Sunday'.