Day 46 - Auckland, Sky Tower

Day 46 – Tuesday 25^th February 2014 – Auckland, Sky Tower

Queen Elizabeth

We arrived alongside at 07.00 and we breakfasted in the Britannia Restaurant, looking forward to a busy day ahead.  The berth could not be better situated at the bottom of the main street, called Queen Street with most of the main attractions, within walking distance.  The 328 metres (1,076 feet) Sky Tower can be clearly seen in the background.

Queen Street

Ashore by 09.15 and a 10 minute walk brought me to the Nautical Museum and the America’s Cup racing yachts and I booked myself in for the 14.00 sailing.

Back along to Queen Street and found myself a coffee shop and sorted out this blog site and emails. There was a buzz about the city with people busy at work, shoppers, and sightseers all mixed into one.

To get a better view of the city, I headed up the hill to the Sky Tower a magnificent structure which dominants the city.  You go up to level 51, the main observation level which is 186 meters high (610 feet).  The lift in which you go up, part of the floor is made of glass and did not stand anywhere near it.

New Haircut

For someone who is a little apprehensive about heights, I felt very comfortable in this totally enclosed 360 degrees viewing platform, and of course, the views were fabulous on this clear day.

Auckland Harbour

The view of the harbour with the farthest away hill, Rangitoto Island, which is Auckland’s largest (yet youngest) volcanic landmark, and marks the entrance into this magnificent harbour. In front of the island is Devenport, home to the Royal New Zealand Navy with Mount Victoria volcano and North Head volcanic cones.

To the left of the previous photo can be seen the West Haven Marina, one of the largest marinas in the Southern Hemisphere and home to over 2,000 boats; beyond is the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Don't Look Down

This observation deck also has glass panels in various parts of the walkway and here I am bravely stood on one looking down 610 feet.  Going up to the top level Sky Deck which is 220 metres (722 feet) high is still more wondrous.

Sky Walkers

  New Zealand is the country where they began the craze of bungee jumping, and form this level you can see people getting ready to jump off the Sky Walk platform 194 metres (636 feet) high.  Here are three sky walkers in the orange suits with the instructor in blue, putting them through their paces before they are allowed to jump off in a specially rigged descent harness.  I watched this lot eventually jump off, they all seemed to be Oriental girls and are all nuts.

Queen Street

On leaving the Sky Tower found a supermarket for some essential toiletries and moved back to the yacht harbour.

I was amazed at the hustle and bustle of Queen Street, as when I was last here over forty years ago.  Auckland city centre closed at 17.00 on Friday afternoon and opened again at 09.00 on Monday morning. Those days have long gone and it is refreshing to see the centre will never close.

A last pint on Queen Street, reliving old memories before going back on board at 17.00 and we sailed at 17.45.  During the day 400 passenger left the ship and 400 joined, so full again.

"Whenan"

Passing down the harbour, we went by this ship ‘Whenan’, this is owned by the China Navigation Company, part of the Swire Group, and it was on the ship ‘Hupeh’, owned the same company which first brought me to New Zealand.  It is good to see the trade is still continuing, and I hope all on board are still enjoying it as much as I did.  The magnificent building on the hill side overlooking the harbour is the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

I wish we had been able to stay here overnight, but we made the most of the time available, and thoroughly this fine city.