Return to Auckland

Hello everyone,

after my laptop unfortunately broke down and was in repair for several weeks due to a physical hard drive failure, I am now ready to tell you all about my experiences in New Zealand in great detail. Since there must be no gaps in my reporting, I will tell you about the day I returned to New Zealand from Fiji.

Sunday, October 2nd

I arrived in Auckland in the middle of the night. Even an hour later than planned, as my flight was delayed. I then took a shuttle to Sandringham, my home for the next two nights. I found Douglas as a host through Couchsurfing, a gay nudist who lives alone. I finally arrived there around 4:00 and fell asleep more or less immediately. After sleeping a bit longer, I went to Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium after breakfast. It started with super cute penguins that had just been fed when I passed by. Perfect timing, I must say ;) You had a really good view of the animals both above and below water. You could even watch some of them brooding. Otherwise, you could see the usual marine animals. Big and small fish, seahorses, corals, etc. The most impressive part was the very well done tunnel area. You stand on a conveyor belt and are surrounded by a huge aquarium where sharks and rays swim around and often come right by you. Overall, it's not a particularly big aquarium, but it's nice. So I recommend it :) In the evening, after a short walk along the beach from the aquarium, I went to Douglas, who had invited a few friends for dinner and games. After a very delicious dinner, we all played Settlers of Catan together, which I have known for many years. I took advantage of my experience and won the game smoothly after about an hour ;) I then ended the evening in the house's own spa, which was very relaxing for me. Just right before falling asleep.

Monday, October 3rd

On German National Day, I unfortunately didn't have much to celebrate. First of all, I had to move to a hostel in the city, as Douglas was going on vacation the next day and no longer had time for me. I really enjoyed staying with him, he really puts a lot of effort into his guests and offers a very comfortable accommodation with a private room. After checking in at Base in Downtown Auckland, I had to take care of my trekking backpack, which had suffered some damage during the flights. It was a real pain - I was sent from one store to another and nobody could really help me :/ I was already desperate and thought I probably needed a new backpack, when I finally found a small repair shop. There I was able to have the backpack repaired for a very good price, after being told at the most famous bag repair shop in town that it would take several days and cost a three-digit amount. Conclusion: the most famous workshops are definitely not always the best! Conclusion 2: Avoid, if possible, causing damage to your backpacks while traveling as a backpacker! It's incredibly difficult to get them repaired and it will cost you hours :/ Other than that, I couldn't do much on that day.

Tuesday, October 4th

After two completely rainy days, the weather was finally acceptable on Tuesday. I took advantage of that and went on a 'trip' to the Skyview Tower. First, I went to the 52nd and then to the 61st floor. You can go higher only if you do the Skywalk, but I think that's a waste of money. The views of the city from up there are already impressive. Everything looks so small. It feels like the cars are toy cars and the skyscrapers are made of Lego bricks. The view from up there is very far-reaching. In perfect weather, you can even see as far as the Coromandel region. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for me. But at least I could see all the important buildings and places in the city :) It wasn't so nice that the lighting conditions made it very difficult to take good photos of myself with the city in the background. In the end, it worked out halfway ;) Later, I picked up my backpack from the repair shop and then returned the umbrella to Douglas' house that he had lent me and that I had accidentally carried around with me for a bit too long :D

Wednesday, October 5th

For the first time since my return to New Zealand, I saw sunshine. What could be better than going on a trip into nature and having an action-packed program at the same time? Not much. That's why I decided to join a canyoning tour. After a longer drive to a canyon outside the city, our group first had to put on our equipment, including wetsuits, helmets, and climbing gear, and then do a short abseiling training in the middle of the forest and then cover a 35-minute mountain and valley hike on a rocky forest path and through a river, which led us to the start of the actual tour. There, the actual canyoning began, which essentially consisted of jumping into the water from different heights and abseiling down several waterfalls. We all had a lot of fun, even though the water was freezing cold and we got soaked. I have to admit that abseiling took some effort on my part, as the waterfalls were sometimes quite steep and high. On the other hand, I knew that I was perfectly secured at all times :) The photos have turned out really beautiful, as you can see. The price for the activity was relatively high, but it was definitely worth paying so much. Canyoning is a great thing to do!

Thursday, October 6th

Despite the rainy weather, I spent a long time outdoors on this day as well. On my way to my main destination, the Auckland National Museum, I passed by Albert Park. It is a beautiful, perfectly manicured formal garden with colorful flowers in all possible colors, monuments, pavilions, and seating areas. From there, I went on to the museum, which, by the way, looks very nice. With its location on a hill and its architecture, it looks like an ancient Greek temple. The view from the entrance is also impressive, as you can see very far into the city center. Unfortunately, I only saw about 50% of the exhibition, but that's okay. As a temporary Auckland resident, I can enter at any time for free. Later, I went to Mt Eden again, where I had already been before my South Seas trip. This time, however, it was much brighter and I had a better view of the city. That's why the photos the second time around are brighter and sharper :D It was a successful day, but in the evening, my mood unfortunately dramatically worsened as my laptop refused to cooperate out of nowhere by not starting up anymore.

Friday, October 7th

There was no thought of doing any activities, as I had to take care of my laptop. After trying and failing a few times to get it running, I had no choice but to look for a repair shop in town, which luckily wasn't as difficult as with my backpack. In the evening, I went to a preparation meeting with my Stray travel group for the next few days. We met Natalie, our driver, and briefly went through the individual stops. Other than that, there's not much to report from this day.

But that's going to change with the start of my Stray trip. More about that as soon as possible. Then the reports will be more exciting and entertaining again ;)

See you soon,

Your Max