Auckland

I flew into Auckland on Friday. I'm staying in a four bed dorm and typically sharing it with three fellow Brits. On Saturday I spent the day sightseeing in Auckland with my Welsh dorm buddy, Sarah.
The morning was lovely and clear (winter is just ending here, I guess an optimist would say spring is just beginning) so Sarah and I decided to go to the Sky Tower. It was actually a great way to orientate ourselves with Auckland and the surrounding area. I'm not a fan of heights, but managed to stand on the glass segment of the flooring for a little while, well long enough to take a photograph.

Sky Tower

Sky Tower's Shadow

Sarah and I made our way over to the Victoria Park Market, a collection of permanent shops. We both found it eerily quiet everywhere. I'm aware there are only four million people in New Zealand, but it felt like the 1.2 million residents of Auckland where all in hiding. Even the main drag, Queens Street was extremely quiet.
From the market we walked along the harbour (I feel like I'm writing about a harbour in every post at the moment), and decided to go to Parnell. Sarah was keen to see this suburb of Auckland, it has many quaint wooden houses.

View from Parnell Shopping Village to downtown Auckland.

Auckland seems to have a really good transport system, we made our way on the bus and wandered around Parnell before getting some lunch. We discovered a trail running from Parnell to the Auckland Museum, so decided to take a look.
I think I had been warned about the steep hills of Auckland, but like most facts had forgotten it on arrival. Some of the streets are as steep as those in San Francisco. We found we were both ready to collapse when we made it to the Auckland Museum.
We were a bit pushed for time in the Museum, which was a shame as it has so many interesting displays. There are some amazing reconstructions of Maori meeting houses, I'm looking forward to learning more about Maori culture on this trip.

Inside a reconstruction of a Maori meeting house.

They also had a temporary exhibit of Japanese street fashion, in particular Loli-goth. This is a cross between Gothic Victorian dress and school girl scandal. It was pretty interesting to look at, although it made me feel like I was in a gallery in London.
On the way back to the hostel we took a detour around Ponsonby, another trendy suburb with great bars and boutique shops.