After a good breakfast we continued our adventurous Auckland theme by climbing to the the very top (nearly) of the Sky Tower.

We had to wear fetching orange suits, a harness and a helmet. The first part to the observation deck is done in lifts, one of which has a glass section in the floor. The last 80m of the climb is up ladders inside the communications mast.

The climb was hard work but not too bad. We stopped half way up for a drink and a video about how Auckland was formed by volcanic action - the last volcano only appeared 700 years ago and is expected to erupt again in the next 400 years.

The views from the top were stunning.

You can see how Auckland is nearly an island and how curvy the coastline is - as the result of volcanoes.

You can also see how large the city is and how far it spreads - though you don't get the crowded terrace 2 up 2 down housing here that you get in England. The climb down was harder than the climb up, but I worked on the principle that the quicker you get down the less it would hurt and then had to wait for Andrew at the bottom.

After that we had a well earned drink before meandering back down to the harbour and then up to Albert Park. Albert Park looks very British, with a central fountain, ornamental flower beds and a bandstand. The palm trees definitely wouldn't be seen in a British park though. There is a definite nip in the air to remind you that this is winter in this part of the world.

We meandered back to town, stopping to browse in bookshops and get some postcards and backpack patches. After writing postcards and brief rest we decided to forgo the free meal and celebrate our last night in Auckland with a nice meal out. We ended up in a nice place on the seafront. I combined the two main foods of Auckland by having seafood skewers to start with followed by lamb shank - this is the only restaurant I've known that gives you the option of having one or two lamb shanks. I then followed this up with an extremely good and large cheeseboard. It had Brie, cheddar, blue Stilton and a smoked cheese, 2 decent sized slices of each, a huge pile of assorted biscuits, grapes, orange, apple, pear and kiwi fruit. Andrew had vegetable soup, salmon and chocolate brownie.

We then called into the Fox for one, but they were having a quiz night and were quite full. At the bar some bloke asked me to help him name cartoon characters. Andrew reckons he was trying to chat me up. We then had a nice relaxed pint in the Loaded Hog before heading back to the hostel for a couple. On entering the bar I thought that someone was having some sort of fit, waving their hands wildly about and suddenly ducking to the floor, then I realised that they were doing virtual boxing.

Day 16    Day 18