Auckland, New Zealand

Date: February 11, 2019 – February 12, 2019
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

We took an overnight flight from Taipei, Taiwan and landed in Auckland, New Zealand on the morning of February 11, 2019. We then took a bus from the Auckland airport to the center of Auckland where our hotel was. After dropping our bags off at the hotel we walked around Auckland. This is the Auckland Town Hall.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

This is the Sky Tower, a telecommunications tower. There is an observation deck at the top. The Sky Tower is currently the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere at 328 meters, about 1,076 feet. There is a planned residential building, named Green Spine, that is scheduled to be 356.2 meters, about 1,168 feet, high. Green Spine is to be built in Melbourne, Australia with construction planned to start in 2020 and be completed in 2023.

In addition to the observation deck at the top of the Sky Tower you can also walk around outside with a harness or jump off and have a controlled descent. We saw some people walking on the outside but we never saw anyone jump off.

With Brian’s birthday coming up I took him out to dinner to celebrate. We went to the restaurant Eight.

The restaurant has 8 kitchens each with a chef that specializes in a different cuisine. It was served buffet-style, so you could go to each area as many times as you wanted and have as much as you wanted.  Three of the areas not pictured were Wok & Dim Sum, Indian Tandoor, and pasta & pizza. This is the salad area and there were fresh oysters.

Seafood – some cold and others that they would cook in front of you what you picked out.

Sushi and sashimi:

New York Style Grill (meat) that they cook in front of you.

We tried alpaca and ostrich meat. One we liked more than the other as it was very tender but unfortunately once they were cooked we didn’t know which meat was which.

Last but not least, dessert with a chocolate fountain, cakes and ice cream!

Brian also got a special dessert with Happy Birthday on it.

All the food was really good!

The central area of Auckland with shops and restaurants is smaller than I expected. The day we had in the area was just right to see the main attractions.