the adventure can begin!

After almost 10 days on tour, we finally landed in Auckland! The view from the plane was beautiful and we finally felt like we had arrived. By now, we were already experienced travelers, so the immigration and the ride to our hostel went smoothly. Since we arrived in the evening, we just got something to eat and enjoyed it in our room. :)

The next day, we had to check out again and go to the next accommodation. To save money, we decided to walk there. Surprisingly, we were able to check in as early as 10:30 AM and after a shower and a heart attack because of the cute puppy Dobby who lives here, we followed our Uber driver's recommendation and went on an hour-long walk to One Tree Hill. It is located in a beautiful park. We had already planned to have a picnic there, so we bought some delicious food that we could enjoy now. However, we were not the only ones who had this idea, so we ended up sitting surrounded by families with small children and large groups, and we were a little afraid of getting hit by one of the many flying balls. But nothing and no one could ruin our DORRITOS!!!! ;) It's a real problem that we have discovered two REALLY delicious, not so healthy snacks in the last two days... that's why we have now introduced Dorrito Day, which is every second Monday (if we can stick to it... :P). Well, back to the topic: After our lunch/dinner, we started climbing the hill - which could almost be a mountain - and of course, we didn't take the boring tourist path/the road, but chose a hiking trail through meadows and shrubs, like real backpackers do :P

It was already predetermined that we would sleep until almost 12 o'clock the next day, and it actually matched the predicted bad weather. But when we realized after waking up that it was actually nice weather, it was already too late, so we took some more time. After updating the blog a bit more and writing some lists, we wanted to take a closer look at the city center of Auckland, so we took an Uber to the Sky Tower and walked from there to the harbor. After that, we actually wanted to look for a Vodafone shop to buy a New Zealand SIM card, but without any orientation, it's not as easy as we thought... That's why we first had something to eat, as always when things don't go according to plan :P. The employee at our 'restaurant' kindly offered to look for the nearest Vodafone store for us, but it had already closed. So we made our way back home again, and after some time, we realized that we actually had no idea how to get to our Airbnb. But luckily, we passed by a McDonald's where we could steal some Wi-Fi to search for the way home on Google Maps. It's quite complicated without mobile data, especially since we always forget the maps and city plans at home and take them with us everywhere... ;) Well, after about 45 minutes, we still arrived safe & sound at our accommodation, and after someone kindly opened the door for us - because we couldn't type in the door code correctly - it was almost bedtime again! ;)

The first impression of Auckland and New Zealand is definitely very positive! Now the question is how things will continue, because we will be homeless on February 9th... We will see... ;)