Chapter 3: In Which Moose and Petunia Train Renee to get High and Naked

Finding themselves with lots of time and not enough to keep busy Moose and Petunia decided that an excursion was in order. In talks with people from Wellington they had heard many places to go but the one that stuck out the most was Auckland - though Wellingtonians tend to speak less highly of it (it seems there is a strange feud between the two major cities on the north island, each thinking they are better than the other) the crew decided they should go experience it and form their own opinions. A brief search revealed three major ways of getting from point "W" to point "A" being: Plane, KiwiRail, or Bus. Wanting to see the countryside and having plenty of time the crew decided to take The Northern Explorer on the way there and a bus back, so that they could be compared and because they took slightly different routes. Although initially they were going to just stay one night they were convinced to stay two so that one day could be spent wandering out Auckland to see the sights and form opinions. Quick plans were made, a hostel booked and a day later they embarked on their first major excursion!

------------------------------------------------ Train ------------------------------------------------

The crew set off very early in the morning to catch a bus to get to the train station and board KiwiRail's Scenic Journey of the Northern Explorer, the red line on the map above shows the path that was taken from Wellington (at the bottom) to Auckland (near the top) with a few quick stops along the way for people to disembark or board. They all stayed on the train the whole of the 11 hour journey, seated in a trio of seats with a table with no one else. There were several passengers but none who were interesting enough to want to talk to; except one little kid and his grandma who kept walking the length of the train and wanted to be introduced to Elgamore, Moose and Petunia :P
The train provided some interesting landscape/historical information during the journey via headset which Renee found mildly interesting most of the time. There was also a "viewing car" which was open air and that would have been super fantastic except that the weather did NOT agree and so most of the journey was rainy and didn't provide the views that were expected or desired. Some good pictures were had though not as many as would have been hoped given the price and pretty factor described in the brochure and along the way.

OH MY GOODNESS SHEEP!!!
This got much less exciting every subsequent time which was almost all the time....

Sometimes we pass over rivers

Other times there's just more sheep

Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Some Other Day

Misty Mountains indeed

Overall they had a good time (because it's a TRAIN!!!) and would say that it was a worthwhile experience and adventure. Upon arriving in Auckland the crew found their hostel with ease and set some stuff down before going out to find a small nibble to supplement the sandwich dinner Renee packed and ate on the train. This short evening stroll was uneventful and a bit short, though it did result in a pomegranate and breakfast makings :) The hostel was filled with annoying girls who were all about getting ready to go out (seriously, it took the 4-5 of them like 3 hours to get ready, madness) and so Renee sequestered herself in her dorm room with the other two (quite and nice) ladies who were staying there and read Frankenstein.

----------------------------------------------- High -----------------------------------------------

Upon waking - fairly early because that's what happens when you go to sleep too early despite loud ladies - the crew ate their breakfast and headed out to watch Auckland wake up! It's pretty fun to watch a city wake up and they discovered that during the weekend they were they it was the "Tall Ship Festival"! So once the city did awake they were able to see very tall ships, there was opportunity to go on the ships as well but the wait was long and there was further wandering to be had so they declined and instead just took some tall pictures and Petunia decided she would like to be a figurehead someday.

That white is a building called "The Cloud" and look at those tall ships!

Petunia wants to be at the top where she could see for miles!

Moose can barely see the top!

The perspective makes these ships look taller than they actually are, but rest assured, they are quite tall. Many of them have sailed (or will sail) around the world, many had advertisements about joining them and while Petunia was keen Moose MUCH prefers dry land.
In the background you can barely see a tall spindily lookin tower, kind of up from Petunia's ear, this is the Sky Tower and it is where they visited next!

It is a VERY tall tower

In the brief research of "The 10 things you MUST do in Auckland" Renee did the Sky Tower ranked on almost every list. Since it is a tourist attraction (pretty much exclusively, I see no real purpose for having a really tall tower with incredible views) it's not free, well except for seeing it from the outside. There are many options for people including taking an elevator up and seeing the views (28NZD), jumping off near the top (attached to a wire so you don't die, 225NZD), walking around the outside (strapped in so you don't fall and die, 125NZD) and eating in a rotating restaurant (which feels very fancy, 30-50NZD). Rotating restaurants make Renee giggle and feel very fancy AND, as it so happens, on the weekends they serve high tea for 40NZD which includes going up the elevator and seeing the pretty sights, so that's what they did.

Elgamore was feeling sick so he stayed at the Hostel

Renee felt very much like a fancy lady, until she had Moose and Petunia join her at the table and then about 5 minutes after sitting down someone jumped off the building (they paid to do it so they were having fun). She very much enjoyed her high tea experience (and got a rose vanilla tea which was quite good, although still not as good as the strawberry vanilla rose tea which has been discontinued <bitter much?>) and in the hour it took her to leisurely drink her tea and eat her goodies the tower rotated all the way around so she got to see the whole city.

All finished!

After eating they went up a level to the first viewing platform where they watched another person jump off and took a few pictures and then went up to the top where they took some more pictures. Overall there was a lot of time spent looking out the windows and taking pictures. All told they spent almost 3 hours looking at the city and the surrounding landscape and quite enjoying themselves.

Some of the floor is glass, don't fall!

This is Scotty the Skytower :D

Stunning views! Really!!

And look, Renee really WAS there ;)

 

The floor of the elevator has a glass insert so you can watch going up and down, on the way up it made stomachs turn in fear but after looking down for so long it was just cool to watch, the little kid on the elevator was TOTALLY digging it too, which helped the enjoyment for once :P 

Grrrr Bus.....

The rest of the day was uneventful, they met some nice German ladies who checked into the hostel and Renee learned the German word for "Five of a Kind": fünfling! It was exciting.

--------------------------------------------- Naked ---------------------------------------------

And you thought this blog post would be full of sketchy behavior, shame on you!

In the morning they packed up the small amount of things they brought and headed to catch their bus run by the naked bus company, mostly because of their name....In order to not get bored pictures were taken every half hour and while most of them are unexciting there are a few that prove worth of being posted.  Overall the bus experience was good and Renee enjoyed short wanderings at the few stops that were made along the way. In terms of comparison the train was nice because there was a bit more space and standing breaks weren't limited to a scheduled stop, but the bus seats were more comfortable and it was WAY cheaper...so bus wins for next time!

Why do you need a corrugated steel sheep dog?

For the corrugated steel sheep of course!

The bus ALSO went over rivers

Cute little tiny towns with adorable town halls

Thus ends Excursion 1, grand excitement and adventure was had, some people were met, tea was drunk, AN AMAZING CAKE BOUTIQUE was eaten at (though no picture survives so mark this delicious endeavor) overall a success.

Congratulations Moose and Petunia! You have points! Including bonus points for reaching the end of quite a long blog!
XP: Number of hours spent on trip in total plus the height of the Sky Tower (in meters): 388