Wanderlust Wednesday - Auckland

I have been so lucky to have had the opportunity to travel so many amazing places, and I can't wait to get all of my pictures and words in albums some day.  Until I do (and before I forget all of the details of these adventures), I'm going to document my travels here most Wednesdays.

I'll start with one of my earlier trips - the two(ish) weeks Jason and I spent visiting my friend in New Zealand.  She was living in Auckland for 6 months, and graciously let us stay with her and took some vacation time with us to explore the islands of New Zealand.

The Sky Tower from Ponsonby

My friend's apartment was in the Ponsonby neighborhood, and this is definitely the place you want to be if you are young, want to eat, drink, and dance, or simply can stay up past 11pm.  There are a ton of restaurants, both cheap and expensive, along the main street and plenty of bars.  It was your typical downtown scene, but it was in New Zealand.  So, different.  When you're out and about, I recommend sticking with wine and beer - liquor in New Zealand is expensive, so you may end up paying more than you bargained for if you order a cocktail.

All those yachts in Waitemata Harbour

Despite the fact that we flew in and out of Auckland, we didn't really spend a lot of time there - probably about two days in total, most of which were spent either on Waiheke or Rangitoto Islands (more about those in a separate post).  I love cities and urban life, but there was so much to explore in this country that I wanted to make sure I got to a lot of it.  And with two big islands to explore, we had a lot of ground to cover.

Rangitoto as seen from Auckland

Public transport was pretty easy to figure out, including the ferries, and one of the best things we saw is that at certain crosswalks, you can walk diagonally from one corner to the other at certain times.  Why don't we have that?  It makes so much sense!

We were easily able to get downtown by bus and take a stroll around Waitemata Harbour at sunset.  There are a ton of things to do there, including shops, restaurants, and gazing longingly at the giant yachts you will never, ever be able to afford.  Jason ended up doing the relaxing thing by taking advantage of these oversized lounge chairs.

I scrapped a little bit about the harbor here, but I have a few other pages to do until I consider Auckland completely scrapped.

I've also completed the title page for my New Zealand album, so you can see below all the places I'll be taking you over the next few Wednesdays!

Created with the Studio Calico Roundabout Kit - see more details here.

I'm looking forward to reliving my travel adventures of the past few years over the coming weeks!