New Zealand Holiday 2014, March 08 (Who Needs That Britomart)

The first stop of the day was the Sky City Convention Centre to pick up the packs for tomorrow's race. Pack is a bit of an overstatement because the envelope simply contained the race bib, not even pins to attach them with. I went back and asked about it but they had no pins at the expo, with the suggestion being to bring your own if you have them (obviously), or there might be "a few" on race day - that's a few for more than 30,000 people.

Next it was down to the bay to the Britomart train station. Sadly I'd learned just a couple of days before the trip that the trains would be offline for the whole weekend for electrification works to continue - what the hell are they now if not electric? This meant we had to get terrific train replacement buses which are almost as bad as normal buses but at least you know where they're going to stop!

McDonalds french toast, why don't we have this!?

Ferry Building downtown.

The destination was Mount Eden so I went to the train ticket office to ask for two tickets to Mount Eden station - since it's a train replacement bus you still need to buy train tickets and pay according to the train ticket fares and zones. The woman at the counter asked if I was paying cash or card, and I said cash but I only had a 50 dollar note. She said I could pay out at the bus for a discount ($1.60 instead of $1.90 I think), and I double checked if they'd be able to take a fifty dollar note, to which she replied "you can try" - really helpful. So I went out to buy a ticket from the attendant, and of course when I said I only had fifty dollars he looked at me with annoyance and frustration, so I had to go back inside to buy the ticket after all, luckily still in time for the bus...

At Mount Eden station it wasn't too hard to find out where Mount Eden itself was (tip: it's the big hill), so we headed in that direction. It was quite a steep walk to the top, but only took about ten or fifteen minutes. At the top of the hill there is also a big crater which you aren't allowed to go into, probably because you'd hard time getting out again as much as any other reason.

After taking in the sights and surroundings it was back to downtown on the bus again. The bus was running late and the driver even went to the last two stations in the wrong order. Passing through the Newmarket area it seemed like there was some good food and shopping options around, so I may have to come back there later, preferably on a day when the trains are running again.

The road uphill to Mount Eden.

A big hole in the ground.

Rangitoto Island.

Me and a big hole in the ground.

Back at Britomart there was a small farmer's market set up, surprisingly there was a Japanese man (with New Zealand accent) selling taiyaki so I had to buy one - the red bean flavour! There was a few other shops around the Britomart transport centre but nothing good, just a high-priced official Nike store. Also nearby was Quay Street, walking through the old Ferry Building just lead to the boarding gates for the ferries and harbour tours, but further along was Mexicali Fresh! They have the best burritos because they load them full of stuff and you get to customise it just like a Subway sandwich.

The Britomart farmer's market.

Taiyaki, why don't we have this!?

Continuing west was Viaduct Harbour, where they have started to try and redevelop the wharfs into a place you would want to visit - so basically not the Melbourne Docklands. There was a small Silo Park made with real silos, and a small market selling useless junk and home made arts, actually that's useless junk too. There was also a fish market which sounded interesting by the description, I thought it might be like the famous Tokyo fish market, but it looked like they were just selling fish...

The walkway across Viaduct Harbour. Pedestrians give way to boats.

A miniature beach at Silo Park.

So we continued on to Victoria Park, not the one where Collingwood plays, which contains a few ovals with some local cricket matches in progress. My feet and legs were crying out for a break so I stopped to watch the cricket for a while and rest.

Continuing the loop around the city brought us back to Sky City and Sky Tower. I took a gamble that the observation level might be alright from the "southern hemisphere's tallest structure", despite a few hits and misses with similar experiences in the past. There are two different observation levels you can visit, one is about five levels higher than the other and requires a separate lift, not really sure why they need both. It turns out that Auckland has a varied and interesting landscape, so it was worth the visit.

Queen Street from the observation deck.

Me observing the observation deck.

The rest of downtown and a soon-to-be running course.

Just across the other side of Queen Street is Albert Park, not the one where they have the Formula One race. It was a nice enough park, situated close to the city if you lived or worked there, but otherwise it wasn't too remarkable. Before heading home for the day there was some time left to walk up Queen Street again and see if there was anything worth looking at in the shops, there was not a great deal of variety though.

Albert Park.

Also Albert Park.

My left knee was killing after so much walking for the day, which is exactly what I had planned not to do with the big race the next morning. Some rehab in the hotel swimming pool and a big dinner of pizza and Tank Juice (not as good as Boost Juice) was a good end to the day at least.

Aotea Square off Queen Street.

Anzac flavour, why don't we have this!?