I began my round-the-trip in Auckland on April 24. I arrived very early in the morning and was pretty tired but headed out immediately into the city. I spent my first day wandering around Auckland. I walked through the city center, to the wharf, through several pretty parks and around Auckland University and also walked to the Domain, a large park that also contains the Auckland Museum. It had many great exhibits on the Pacific islands and lots of great Maori artifacts. Auckland is the most populous city in New Zealand but still seems pretty small. It is hilly and has several volcanic cones scattered throughout.
April 25 I visited Hobbiton which is near Matamata (about 2 hours from Auckland). It was really neat and many aspects looked just like the Lord of the Rings movies. Unfortunately I'm not supposed to talk about it since they made me sign a confidentiality agreement (they're starting to work on The Hobbit movie). I'm not allowed to share any of my photos here either :(
April 26: I took a ferry to Waiheke Island (45 min from Auckland) this morning and then took a bus tour of the island. The island is ~26 km long and is known for its great wineries and nice beaches. I went wine tasting and met a couple of nice locals who were retired. They suggested that I start saving after I begin working for Shell and buy property here in a few years. You can get a house for $400,000 NZ if it doesn't have an ocean view. They gave me a tour of the island and it seemed like a nice community. It was very hilly and pretty and had great views of Auckland from the hilltops.
I've enjoyed my time in Auckland although there wasn't really that much to do in the city. There's also a bit of a drought going on here and the locals have said it hasn't rained in 4 months so everything is a bit brown instead of the green I was expecting. I'm excited to head out of Auckland tomorrow toward the Coromandel Peninsula.
