New Zealand Travel Diaries #1 | Auckland

Well, blogging certainly took a back seat after finishing my degree, getting a full time temp job to pay for travels, setting off on numerous travels and somehow nearly 12 months have passed since my last post. I still exist on all my social medias, although Twitter also took a back seat and I could only really be found on Instagram. I really wanted to make sure I had documented my travels somewhere other than my pictures over on Instagram and I'm also in the process of making a travel scrapbook but I thought I'd come back to blogging with a series of posts about my trip to New Zealand even if it's just for my benefit.

After a very teary goodbye at Heathrow where I couldn't quite believe I was going to the other side of the world on my own for a month I hopped on my first flight to Dubai! I managed to work my way through so many movies that I'd been desperate to see including Moana and The BFG (and an obligatory 3rd viewing of La La Land obviously).

I arrived in Auckland after travelling for over 30 hours, running on about 2 hours sleep I picked up a NZ sim at the airport and then hopped on the SkyBus to the centre and practically collapsed once I arrived at my hostel. I stayed at Attic Backpackers, a convenient 5 minute walk from Queen Street which is basically the main street in Auckland. The hostel was super clean (the showers were fab!) and the bed was pretty comfortable, I did have to move rooms for my second night as they were so busy but this wasn't a problem and the staff were super helpful with everything. It wasn't fantastic for meeting people as there wasn't a very large communal area or bar like a lot of other hostels have but I was so jet-lagged most of my time there I didn't really mind.

I started off my first day with a brunch recommendation from a guy on reception at my hostel. Tucked away on a buzzing street of foodie destinations, one street from Queen Street I found The Shelf (with a little help from Google maps) it offered so many different brunch/lunch options and wasn't ridiculously expensive either. Possibly the best french toast I've ever eaten and my first taste of an authentic New Zealand flat white.

I then settled on the most touristy thing to do whilst in Auckland and headed up the SkyTower to see the city from above. There were some impressive views as it was a pretty clear day, however this is where I managed to mess up my camera settings and therefore ruin the photos on there for the rest of my trip. Luckily I had taken my iPhone for photos too so all was not lost! If you're feeling a bit nuts you can also do the Skywalk or a bungy from the top of here - I was saving my money for some adrenaline activities later on in my trip but it was something you can consider!

I spent the rest of the day just wandering around the city and had a bit of chill time in Albert Park before crashing ridiculously early - the jet lag was real! I had to be up super early the next day as I was getting on my first Kiwi Experience bus. 

I certainly didn't see everything Auckland had to offer. Although it didn't blow me away with having a tonne of things to do, some things I missed out and would have loved to have done were:

1 | Waiheke Island - apparently great for gorgeous beaches and wine tours, many people I met whilst in NZ highly recommended it!
2 | Mt Eden - Auckland's tallest natural point and I'm not totally sure how I didn't manage to get here - I have a feeling I was heading here in my jet-lag haze but got lost.
3 | Paihia & Bay of Islands - you can do this as part of Kiwi Experience but I only ended up getting the base pass so I didn't get up any further North of the North Island than Auckland but everyone I met that had been said it was beautiful.

Stay tuned for the rest of my travel posts!

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