25 May AUCKLAND

We woke up at 7:15 am and decided to leave Verandah's mouldy room as soon as possible.

By 8 am, we were already driving heading to the city, hopefully to get hot coffee and hot chocolate to begin the day. However, same as other big cities in the world, finding a parking space by the road side during peak hour was almost impossible, unless you are willing to pay NZ$8 per hour for indoor parking. After a few rounds of 'patrol', we decided to drive out to the nearest suburb. Soon, we ended up having delicious hot breakfast in a small cafe at Parnell. 

A stroll at Parnell after breakfast was very enjoyable.  Shops are restored by maintaining the heritage architecture. This suburb reminded me of little towns in Europe, just like Salzburg. 

Since the parking ticket only lasted for one hour, we left Parnell and made our way to Kelly Tarlton's.  This underwater world was not in our list but since the sky started to drizzle, we have to find somewhere indoor to kill time.

Despite those bad reviews in Tripadvisor.com, we found this underwater world worth visiting. By presenting our YHA cards, we were given a 10% discount on the admission fees (usual price NZ$ 31.50 per pax). This is the 1st time in my life to see live King Penguin. The bulky body with vivid colours of black and white made them extremely adorable. The clumsy walking style was a big contrast to their smooth arrow-like swimming gesture. I was surprised to know that their chicks are furry and bigger in size than their parents. We took the Antarctica train for 2 rounds just to have a closer look to the 100 King Penguins on the snow ground

Entrance of Kelly Tarlton's

See the furry black chicks?

Other than penguins, like other big aquariums in the world, there were also giant sting rays, sharks and colossal squids.

The giant sting ray with a smiling face.

After spending about 3 hours in Kelly Tarlton's, Bernard suggested us to visit Queen Victoria Market in the city centre.  according to his memory when he visited Auckland 10 years ago,  Queen Victoria Market was just another Chatuchak Market in Bangkok.  It was filled with stalls that sold variety of New Zealand made souvenirs at cheap price. Unfortunately, things obviously changed drastically over a long period of 10 years.  There were very few stalls remained, selling old goods covered with dusts with price higher than the souvenir shops that we visited in the city centre.  The stalls' owners were more interested in watching TV or reading newspaper than greeting their visitors. Also, the hygiene level of the place was very disappointed. The ground was coated with bird droppings and falling leaves.  So, why spent time in a dead city?

We then drove to Davenport and Orewa, hoping to visit sandy beaches. Of course, who go to beach in late autumn? The wind itself froze you into ice.  Anyway, the beach looked like those in Tanjung Bungah in Penang, no white sandy beach nor crystal clear water,  thus not very attractive to both of us.  However Orewa was a clean, neat and low density suburb. If I were to stay in Auckland, this will be the kind of suburb I will choose. We went to Orewa's New World Supermarket to buy canned New Zealand corn beef for Papa.  I began to have the reluctant feeling when I saw all kinds of brands and products that I will not be able to access at back at home. 

Beach side at Orewa

Dinner, we had Subway Sandwich back in the city centre .  The sandwich was tasty but we spent an hour to search for parking before that.  Auckland city is definitely not my kind of place.

Night scene of Auckland Tower from our room, Room # 4, Verandah's Bacpackers Lodge