Auckland from the bay and above

This morning the sun was doing and in a country where you are never more than 80 miles from the sea it was easy to decide on a day on the water with a cruise the nearest islands within the Bay. As we left
Auckland Harbour we cruised up river to the harbour bridge (not a patch on 'the bridge' in Sydney).

Gutsy punters can bungee from Auckland's bridge and we stopped off briefly to cheer on a nervy jumper that was in need of some encouragement. Then it was onto the West Haven harbour, the biggest
harbour in NZ. She had 1854 berths with a 5 year waiting list to acquire a berth!

With a hours cruising under our belts we stopped off at the Rangitoto Island, a 600 year old now dormant volcano.  Rangitoto forms part of the Hauraki Marine Park a significant Auckland landmark. Not so well known on the island are the three small cottage like buildings known as Bach settlements. Built back in the 20 and 30s they have now been lovingly restored and the next stage was going to be to rent them out as holiday lets. The interiors were just great. The finish detail was just excellent.

Across the bay is Devonport which boasts pretty Victorian villas, sandy beaches and strong cafe culture. We easily killed a few hours wandering around here. NZ so far is really impressing us.

High above Devonport cafes is Mount Victoria. 283 ft above sea level its Devonports highest volcanic cone of which you can walk right in to. From the top it gave some great views back city and other surrounding islands. The mount was last fortified by the infamous 'disappearing gun' basically a 8 ton gun that used to rise and then fall to be reloaded once fired. Prior to this 4 x muzzle guns from HMS Nelson did the job. Long before the arrival of the Europeans though the Maori also used to man this point high above the Victoria Harbour.

As it was our last evening in town just couldn't resist a quick trip up Aucklands 'Sky Tower'. The tallest man-made structure in NZ standing at 1076 feet. That's taller than the Eiffel Tower. To walk up it takes just under half an hour but a quick 40 seconds ride in the glass bottomed lift and your up top at the Sky viewing

deck perched at 722 ft. As noted in our hotel guide, NZ is known for it's earthquakes and the tower has been built with this in mind. The tower should be able to with stand a 8.0 on the Richter scale. In high winds up to 125 mph she sways around a metre at the revolving restaurant level! Hmmm. From the best vantage point in the city it gives some great of the surrounding volcanic mountain cones stretching right out into the

Hauraki Gulf. Normally it's possible to see for 50 odd miles in any direction. Tonight though there were a few storm clouds hanging around but these gave some great photo shots.