Ally & Suzy's Blog

A Pepperoni Twist

On Saturday we agreed to meet up with Symon again, and we went into the city again on the bus. We met Symon at the Britomart train station which is at the bottom of Queen Street (Aucklands equivalent to Princes Street, although a lot bigger!). Symon is a big fan of a Gourmet pizza place called Sal’s Pizzeria, so we went round the corner and got a few slices of that as well as something called a Pepperoni Twist. It’s basically a pepperoni pizza all twirled up. Tastes delish.

Suzy & Me at the Quayside

After stuffing our faces we went down to the Quayside, which is indescribably beautiful. It’s hard to believe that there are people in Auckland that don’t have a boat, because there are so many lovely yachts there. As well as there being plenty of boats, there are lots of great pubs and restaurants there. Symon pointed out all the good places to go so I made lots of mental notes to go visit them at a later juncture!

We moseyed up the hill to the Sky Tower after our stroll along the Quayside. Sky Tower is awesome. First, we got inside the main lobby which is huge in it’s self, and we rode the escalator up one level to the Casino. This is a -proper- casino folks, nothing like the shabby Circus casino in Edinburgh, it’s much more Las Vegas than that! I played a little roulette with Symon and Suzy

played the slots and doubled her winnings so we decided it was time to leave there before we started spending money! Then we went back down the escalator to the entrance of the Sky Tower it’s self. Going up Sky Tower’s 60 or so levels in an elevator is scary enough, but some visitors to the tower are crazy enough to bungee off the side of it! At the top there are some truly remarkable photos, which no camera can do any real justice, you just have to go up and see it for yourself.

The Sky Tower

Lying on the edge!

After leaving the Sky Tower it was starting to get dark, so we headed down to the Quayside and went to a swanky bar called Buffalo Bar & Grill, it cost around £6 for a 330ml beer, so we moved on after a pint!

Next up, we went to Danny Doolan’s pub which is an Irish bar. The beers in New Zealand I found, to my misery, are all way more expensive than they are in Scotland. It cost £4.25 for a proper pint of beer in Doolan’s which Symon tells me is about average. Regardless, we had a few pints in there whilst poor Suzy supped on her Soda and Limes . It was fairly ironic at the bar – the folks that served us were either Scottish (the barman I spoke to was from Aberdeen) or Irish.

Breakdancing in the street

Some American tourists got a massive big plate of food beside us which made us hungry, so we moved on again and headed up Queen Street, then on to the high street in search of Wagamama, a favourite Japanese noodle bar of Symons. I had a Miso soup concoction that had chicken and noodles in it, Suzy had a Teriyaki Chicken which was very nice. Just before we left we watched some Japanese kids breakdancing on the street just outside of the restaurant, which was pretty fun to watch so I touristed up and asked to take a photo. There is a lot of Japanese, Chinese and other Asian cultures here which we find really fascinating, as there is tons of different varied cultures added to the fold of the community here. Another benefit of this makes for a really varied selection of foods, so no doubt we will be tasting the delights of more Japanese, Malaysian, Polynesian etc foods very soon!

Going Maori at the Museum!

Mission Bay

Finally, on to Sunday.  Symon picked us up in his car around 1.30pm and we headed out on a day of sightseeing. Firstly, we went to the Auckland Museum. There were some really cool Maori artefacts there and some great artefacts of the last 100 years of Kiwi history too.

After the museum we went on a nice drive along the coastland of Auckland. We visited Mission Bay and looked out on the wonderful views there. It made us so happy to know that there is a beautiful beach less than 10 minutes from the city centre with stunning views. Even on a winters day like today, the car park was full and people were making the most of the sun. We trekked along the road and looked at the other beaches, including St. Helliers and Karaka bay.

Finally, we went up One Tree Hill which had some awesome views from the top. Sadly, the tree no longer stands at the top of the hill, but a large memorial is there. When we went up it was pretty windy so we didn’t spend too long up there, but here is a photo of the views over Auckland. Enjoy!

Symon drove us back to Ponsonby and we went to Burger Fuel for dinner. Their burgers are certainly unique, the one I had contained peanut butter, and others had mango and beetroot and all sorts in it, but they were pretty decent. Burger Fuel is beside ‘Murder Burger’, which has a picture of a kitten with red-death eyes that looks like it’s going to claw you up! Interesting marketing, but that’s what it’s like over here!

Views over Auckland from One Tree Hill

Old Shitty Chip Oil

Well, it’s been a busy week for sure and Suzy is currently curled up in a ball on the bed going to the land of nod. I’m off to see Bill Bailey with Symon on Tuesday which should be fun and I’m really stoked about moving into the new apartment on Friday. Maybe Suzy can blog next week’s news!

Until then, noho ake rā (goodbye for now!)