Photos: Auckland (North Island, New Zealand)

Okay, I'm finally posting photos from my New Zealand (NZ) holiday last August. Despite my horrible cold and cough, I still managed to do some sightseeing with my parents, thank goodness! I'll be putting up the photos over four posts, according to the areas we visited. So this post will be about Auckland, the largest urban area in NZ, located on the North Island. The reason we went to NZ was to visit the host family (the Sheahans) my dad stayed with while he was studying there about 40 years ago. And this is the first time he's met up with them since that time. He lost contact with them after he left the country, and was only able to find them with the help of the NZ online yellow pages. Ah, the wonders of modern technology, especially the interweb! ;D

Anyway, we met up with the Sheahans twice, once for dinner (Photo 1) at Pat's and Desiree's apartment (Pat and Desiree are the parents of the host family), which overlooks the Domain (one of the largest park in the city) and then for lunch (Photo 2) at the restaurant (Hammerheads Seafood Restaurant and Bar - an award-winning restaurant located on Tamaki Drive) where Paula (Desiree's daughter) works as a manager. Desiree is the lady with glasses sitting next to my mum in Photo 2 and Paula is the lady wearing black! I'm going to take this opportunity again to thank the Sheahans for their wonderful hospitality!!! THANK-YOU VERY MUCH!!! :D

The rest of the photos are of various landmarks of Auckland. Photo 3 shows Sky Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere and this year, it's 10 years old! :D We were actually living almost next to this structure. This photo was taken from Queen Street, the main street of the city. Photos 4 and 5 just show the tower in the distance, the first taken from Tamaki Drive and the latter from Mount Eden. Mount Eden is a volcanic cone with a grassy crater (Photo 6), which is the highest natural point in Auckland. You really have to be there to realise how extraordinary this site is. You can take a 360-degree view of Auckland from Mount Eden, which is why you can see One Tree Hill in the distance in Photo 7. There is no longer a tree on this other volcanic cone, instead an obelisk has replaced it. Finally, Photo 8 is of part of the circular disc located on Mount Eden, which marks the direction and distance of principal cities from that point - I took a photo of the part that indicates the direction and distance (17748 km) of Berlin, hehe.

So that's it for my photos of Auckland. I actually didn't see as much of the city as I would have liked due to my bad health. Ah, well, it's an excuse for me to visit again, hehe! ;D