Auckland, New Zealand, February 24, 2023

Today we arrived in New Zealand. Unfortunately, it is very rainy, but temperature-wise it's okay.

Auckland is a proper big city with around 1.7 million inhabitants. But it is a pleasant city, generously designed, with many parks and green spaces. The center is dominated by high-rise buildings and there are only a few older buildings left. The residential areas are in an English style.

We didn't want to do an organized tour from the ship and tried to book something online. On the one hand, a cyclone has caused considerable damage recently, and on the other hand, we were a bit late. So we just visited the attractions and set off on our own.

From the port, we walked through two beautiful parks to the Auckland Museum. It is a combination of an archaeological, historical, natural history, social studies, and war museum. We mainly looked at the Maori sections. Once again, it is impressive how developed the South Sea culture was here.

From the museum, we took a taxi to Mount Eden. Auckland is located in a volcanic landscape and Mount Eden is the highest crater here. From here, you have a beautiful view and the hill is surrounded by a wealthy residential area with correspondingly beautiful houses.

Since it continued to rain, we then went to the SkyTower and took the lift up (both of us!). It is a total of 328m high and the upper viewing platform is at a height of 220m. You can also walk around the outside of the tower while being harnessed or do a kind of bungee jump from a height of almost 200m.

Since the weather was not inviting and we had become a bit tired from walking around, we left it at that. Actually, we wanted to take a ferry to Devonport or Waiheke, but we wouldn't have seen much.

Instead, we were able to watch an excellent folkloric performance on board with the well-known staged Haka war dances and love dances.

Despite the weather, we really liked Auckland. It is a beautiful, generous, and very clean city.