27th October 2009
After a good night’s kip at the SKylodge we walked 5 minutes up the road to a cafe to grab some breakfast. The weather is a bit of a shock here this morning, quite cold and windy, and by the time we’d had breakfast and got back to the hostel to get our bags it was raining - just like home. We caught the bus into Auckland downtown before switching to the the Link bus service to get us out to Parnell where we are staying for a few nights.
It had only just gone midday but our room was ready so we were able to check in and offload our bags before heading back into town. We had bought a one day travel pass which also allowed us to use some of the ferry services so we decided to make our way over to Devonport, a quick ten minute ferry crossing across the Bay.
Once there we called into the visitor center and picked up a self guided walking tour map which took us right around the volcano cone pointing out buildings of interest.
The rain had stopped by now so it made for a pleasant hour walking around, bringing us back to the ferry terminal we headed back to Auckland downtown where we stocked up on some food supplies and headed back to the hostel. Despite the weather it’s not been a bad first day in New Zealand.