Landing on my feet

My first week in Auckland has been full of new impressions. To take it in at a steady pace I have been walking around a lot. The first days I walked in circles, but with my new AT hop, bus card, I can walk farther away and then take the bus home. Now, let me take you on a tour of Auckland as I see it with my curious, unknowing eyes.

The place I call home
Is the Attic Backpackers hostel. It's a not a great place to live, but it's cheap and free from commitment. It's what I need right now, but it's not a place I will stay long term.

Welcome inside

Let's go to my room

Top bunk is the way to go

My closet has immense storing space

The neighborhood

I live in central Auckland, so the street outside is always full of people. I made a small video to show you what they look like. The video is from Queen Street just 100 meters from my home.

The street closest to my home looks a little dull at first glance, but it is stuffed with hidden gems. While I walk on it every day, it continues to surprise me with more stores I had not noticed.

Elliott street is 210 meters long and must houses a hundred shops

I found this shopping mall behind one of the small shop entrances

Saturday I found this multilevel arcade

Parks of Auckland

When I get the chance I usually walk through parks instead of following sidewalks.

Albert Park is beautiful and near my home

Victoria Park is a good place to play cricket it seems

Auckland Domain is a large park just outside the inner city ring

A winter garden is found in the middle of Auckland Domain

The Victoria lily pads, named for the queen, are huge

The Parnell Rose Gardens fits the somewhat boring suburb

This sidewalk turns into a jungle path

Had I known that the jungle path would lead me to a wide open park, where a bee was lying in wait for me, I would have stayed away. The sting hurt like hell and my foot was swollen for three days. In that time I Googled bee sting twice to make sure my foot wouldn't fall off.

It's not all parks

While I prefer to walk in parks, most of my time walking is spent on sidewalks. In Denmark that would be a uniform experience, as completely regular sidewalks run next to our roads. Here it is somewhat more challenging as the city has clearly been planned for cars only. Walking or riding the bicycle is much more cumbersome and you will often need to take long detours compared to the direct path of the cars. As a result of that, my map is an indispensable ally, as I zig zag towards a destination.

I keep my map with me at all times

Long, curvy detour

Nowhere to cross the road for miles

From the top of Mt Eden you can see the city center just above the crater

I wonder where the kiwis go to the beach

Becoming more kiwi

My first attempt at becoming more kiwi was sadly unsuccessful. I ate a Kiwiana thinking it to be a magic kiwi fruit. It turned out to be only a horned melon, which had been aptly renamed for it's taste. It tastes like a combination of a kiwi and a banana.

Not a magic fruit