Auckland, New Zealand

​Auckland has been a nice spot to hang out for a few days. After a three hour flight we arrived in New Zealand, grabbed our bags and went in search for a taxi to take us to our hotel in the city center. When we landed we called our hotel to see if they had a free shuttle (they didn’t) they recommended we call a ‘discount taxi’ to come pick us up as it would be half the price of a ‘normal taxi’. We still have no idea why, but called the discount taxi anyway. We only had to wait for about 10 minutes before it arrived and we hoped in. It took a 30 minute ride through suburbs to get to our hotel which was pleasant enough. Except of course when the taxi driver almost ran over a couple pedestrian’s crossing the street and slammed on his brakes!! It happened just as we were pulling up to our hotel so Marshall (in the backseat of the van) had just unbuckled his seat belt to start organizing everything to get out. He flew past the row Tyson and I were sitting in and straight up to the front seat! Luckily we were all fine, but lesson learned on trying to save a few bucks on a discount ride (and keeping your seat belt fastened…Marshall!) After checking to make sure we still had all our body parts and hearing the driver apologize about 100 times, we grabbed our stuff, paid him (no tip), and checked into our room.

Our room has a separate living room area and kitchenette which is so nice to have the extra space for Tyson to run around in. We were starving when we arrived because we hadn’t had lunch so we were on a mission to find something quick and easy near the hotel. We started walked to the main drag and saw a Domino’s Pizza across the street. It wasn’t even a question, pizza sounded amazing so we ordered it and walked around the area for a few minutes while we waited for it to cook. There happened to be a hair salon next door that sold the kind of hair gel Marshall uses. I had actually bought some for Marshall in Sydney the day before we left. It was about $20 (outrageous, I know), but it came with like 30% more free gel so it was in a slightly larger container than usual. Well, when we went through security at the airport they asked us to take out our toiletries and said that the container was too big and just tossed it in the garbage (or rubbish as they say here). You’ve got to be kidding me! The funny thing is that they let us take two full water bottles through. That makes a whole lot of sense….not!

The next morning we didn’t get out of bed until 9am. Auckland is two hours ahead of Sydney so we hadn’t yet adjusted to the time change. By the time I had gotten ready it was almost time for Tyson’s nap so we just hung out at the hotel until he woke up. When we finally ventured out around noon we headed straight down the hill and to the marina. We found a little coffee shop called Seattle Espresso so we had to stop in there to get a coffee. Wasn’t any good, but we got a pic out of it. We then headed down the water then over to the Sky Tower which is Auckland’s version of the Space Needle. This place is actually cooler because you can free fall from the top of the tower all the way down while connected to two wires. It looked awesome but it was around $150 per person so we decided to skip it and plan to eat dinner at the top instead. They have a revolving restaurant at the top and Marshall and I have this thing where we try to hit up every revolving restaurant when we travel. We’ve been to like 7 since we met and were excited to add this one to the list. When we tried to make a reservation the only time available was 8:30pm which is way past Tyson’s bed time. Dang it! Oh well, maybe next time. We were pretty ‘knackered’ at that point and decided to head back to the hotel to relax for a little bit.

Later in the afternoon we walked over to a nearby mall to look for a new hair straightener. I dropped mine one too many times and finally broke it. If only it could have lasted just three more weeks until we got home. I had to buy a straightener made only for New Zealand outlets so I’ll have to buy another one when I get back. Oh well, what can you do? After the mall we walked back over to the marina to eat dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water. For once, this place actually had healthy options on the kid menu which was great, but when I ordered a lemonade they brought me a clear carbonated drink that tasted suspiciously like Sprite. Strange. Good views though!

After dinner we walked across the street to get a scoop of chocolate chip mint ice cream to bring back to the hotel. Tyson wanted to eat the whole thing himself although we just gave him a few small bites while we were trying to teach him manners (i.e. no screaming for ice cream). We did the whole bed time routine with Tyson and put him to sleep a little early and spent the rest of the evening working on the blog and watching movies in the background.

Today was a pretty chill day too. None of us got good sleep last night because Tyson rustled around all night. Marshall took Tyson to a local café for breakfast so that I could sleep in a little longer. They were so sweet and brought me back French toast in bed. Yum! We hung out in the room watching TV for a bit and then Tyson and I took a nice nap together.

This afternoon we walked over to a nearby park which ended up being part of Auckland University which is situated on the top of a massive hill. There were lots of college kids basking under the sun and then here we come squeaking through the park with a toddler in a stroller. We felt a little out of place until we saw another baby walk toward Tyson. She was only 10 months old, but Tyson was happy to play with her and threw a ball at her nearly hitting her upside the head. Ooops! He then started picking a bunch of little white flowers and Dada showed him a convenient spot to store them…in my boots. Silly boys. Once we were over the park we headed back to our hotel and Marshall went out to grab some take out for dinner so we could start the packing process so we could head out early the next day.

Tomorrow we’re renting a car and heading about three hours south to our next destination.

Next stop: Rotorua, New Zealand