With one day down on our round-the-world tour, we started our second day with high hopes for what our future tour of "New Zild" held.
In the early morning hours of the day, as native Kiwis made their way to work (none dressed nicer than business casual, I might add) we watched with excitment as the Stray tour bus approached. We were a bit perturbed as the girls waiting with us were allowed on the bus but we were told there was no room for us...a little disheartening since the girls had made their reservations the night before and we had made ours in September.
But, it played out in our favor. In pentance for their flub, Stray paid for our accomodations for the night and set us up on their free day-long tour of Auckland. This is a little secret that backpackers and tourists alike don't know about but should definitely take advantage of. It tours the entire city and surrounding beaches and gives participants a taste of what Auckland has to offer. Make sure your tour guide is Dribbles...he's smarter than his name might imply.
The tour includes several landmarks throughout the city, including the Sky Tower which is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere, and the fifth tallest in the world. If you're lucky enough to win Dribbles' guessing game, you'll have the opporutnity to bungy from the top of the tower, normally a NZ$195 value.
After the Tower, a few beaches, and some lunch, we made our way to the Auckland Bridge where we got to walk through the sub-structure almost 40 meters (120 feet) above the turquoise water.
Here, Dribbles plays his games again and the lucky winner gets to bungy properly off the highest point under the bridge while traffic whizzes by above them.
The night ended at "beer o'clock" with Dribbles, though we were awoken at around 2 in the morning by one of our dormmates heavily vomiting from his top bunk onto the unlucky inhabitant of the bottom bunk.
Today was a good day.
