24 May WELLINGTON - AUCKLAND

At 7:45 am, we went down to the hotel lobby to wait for our 8 am airport shuttle, that has been pre-booked earlier via Ibis's reception.

By 7:55 am, the shuttle's driver personally came into the lobby to look for us.  The so called 'shuttle' was actually a van and not a bus which I thought in my mind.  There was a big metal luggage storage dragged behind the van.   

It was drizzling. The sky looked grey and heavy, garnished with dark clouds.  Since yesterday, the news has been announcing nationwide weather alert which indicated thunder storm for the coming one week.  Advice were given to the people especially those who are staying at the rural areas to stock up food, and prepared for floods. We were quite worried about our flight but at the same time feeling fortunate because the weather had been great ( even though the sun was a bit too strong for me) for outdoor activities for the past few weeks.  The clear days in Milford Sound, Franz Josef Glacier and even a day on foot in Wellington.  All the memorable moments was already well kept in our hearts and recorded by our 2 cameras.  We did not plan to do much in Auckland.  It was just a stop for us to rest and relax before our long flight back to Malaysia.

We reached the airport at 8:30am.  We were very impressed by the simple yet efficient self check-in system in Wellington's Airport.  Just after 2 simple steps, we were already able to put our luggage on the check-in conveyor belt.  All done by ourselves!  Wellington Airport was also another small but compact and navigation-friendly airport just like Melbourne's.   Shopping outlets caught your eyes almost everywhere, even just a few steps away from your boarding gate.  So, sometimes airport does not need to be big to be great. 

Step 1 - key in your particulars and print your own boarding pass.

Step 2 - drop you luggage here

Our flight that only took an hour went through a few times of turbulence.  However, we finally reached Auckland safely and on time, making flying with New Zealand Air another satisfying experience. 

Not so good weather

Another delightful experience was there were free Internet consoles at the baggage claiming area.  I took a quick check on  my emails when Bernard was waiting for the our luggage.  While we were waiting for Omega to pick us up to the car depot, Bernard noticed that we did not have the contact details of Verandahs Backpackers Lodge.  I ran in to the free internet console again and just within 2 minutes, I was back with the hostel's address and phone number. 

We picked up our car and drove into Auckland city.  More cars, more people and more highways, so we were back to civilization again.  Somehow, I did not feel good.  

Auckland Bridge

We drove past Verandahs to check out our accommodation for the next 3 days, a 2-storey white house by the main road. From the outlook, it seemed OK to us.  Since it was just 12:30 pm, we decided to have lunch first before coming back to check in by 2 pm.
 Verandahs Backpackers Lodge

  

We drove to the nearby Karangaphy Road.  It was hard to find parking.  We finally found a space by the road side and it costed NZ$ 4 per hour, and we were only allowed to park for 1 hour. 

The city was very dirty.  The streets were wet, filled with fallen autumn leaves and for the first time in New Zealand, I saw rubbish on the pedestrians.  There were also not too many friendly faces, people seems busier and colder here. 

We walked into a Sushi outlet, which was not well maintained too.  The toilet's door was detached from the hinge.  The whole door was just left leaning on the beam.  So, you have to carry the heavy wooden door aside in order to go into the toilet.  Then dragged it to cover the hole as much as possible.  So, while you were doing your 'business', you must keep an eye and get ready to scream : " someone is inside!" just in case someone lift up the door.  The sushi was tasteless and I felt uncomfortable to see the not so clean interior of the restaurant.  To me, Auckland city  is just like Frankfurt city. These two international big cities are obviously not my cup of tea. 

Verandahs Backpackers Lodge was another disappointment.  The situation was totally different from what was shown in their website and my most trusted Tripadvisor.com's review.  The setting of the room looked all right. However, the bed, carpet and curtain was damp and has a kind of mouldy smell.  The whole place was dark, there was only one neon bulb to light up the whole room.   The heater was only powerful enough to heat up itself. The path that lead us through a dungeon in order to get to the kitchen was a nightmare.  Immediately, we decided not to go to the kitchen for the next 3 days. I rather have no hot water to make drinks.  Ironically, this place has been voted with 100% satisfaction and labelled as clean, cosy and 'the best backpackers in Auckland" in tripadvisor. Two lesson learned here:

1. 
   
    When you read a review from tripadvisor or any other websites, you must check who wrote those reviews.  A review wrote by a hippie and an average traveller may show different angle of judgement. For example, there is obviously a great degrees of difference between the standard of cleanliness judged by a hippie and an average traveller, even though they both called themselves backpackers. 
2. 
   
   If you choose to stay in Auckland city and you are not a hard core backpacker, please get yourself a hotel instead of backpackers lodge. You may pay a little bit extra but ensured a basic safe and clean environment.  Things are expensive here, so do not expect cheap and good backpackers by paying peanuts. But if you choose to stay in suburbs, there are plenty of nice and clean guest house that suit every budget.

The only good point of this backpackers lodge was we can see Auckland Tower from our room.

Auckland city is built on a volcanic hill. We took 40 minutes to walk to the city centre, going down the slope, knowing that we would have a hard time climbing up the slope on our way back later.   We did not drive because finding parking in the city was a headache and getting a parking space at Verandah when we were back was another problem.  Since we already secured a space, we thought we better stick to it until tomorrow morning.  

Auckland city centre

Auckland Bay

While walking in Auckland city centre, there were a few moments, I forgot that I was in New Zealand.  Out of 10 people walking on the street, there were 6 Indians, 3 Chinese ( might be Japanese, Hongkie or Korean ) and only 1 Caucasian.  99% of the shops are run by Asian.  After gotten some New Zealand souvenirs from shops run by Japanese and Hongkie, we had an early dinner at Westfield's Food Court.  To our surprise, the price of the food was reduced after 5 pm. A NZ$10 medium lamb roast only cost NZ$7.50.  We were very excited by this little 'windfall'.  

As known earlier, walking back was tough for me.  Walking up hills for almost an hour to go back to a place that you already knew unpleasant really made me feeling depressed.  Anyway,  Bernard and I already had a great time in South Island for the past 3 weeks.  I would not care too much about this little disappointment here.