Kia Ora! (For the last time)
This morning we woke up to a beautiful lake view from our hotel room and packed to head to the airport to fly back to Auckland. After a short hour on our friend, Jetstar’s VH-VGU (which we had flown four days earlier to Christchurch), we arrived in Auckland around noon. We grabbed some grub at a yummy (discounted) buffet at our hotel and then set out to do some exploring around Auckland. Despite it being gloomy and misty/rainy we decided to head to Piha. A little town about 45 minutes from Auckland. Piha hosts a phenomenally beautiful black sand beach complete with rocks and mountain views. After walking in the COLD ocean a bit (and getting our clothes a bit wetter than we intended) we headed over to Mount Eden, the tallest natural point in Auckland to ascend into the clouds and get a look into the crater of an old volcano. It was awesome—in addition to seeing the crater, the 360 degree views around the city were sweet (despite being obscured by the clouds). We then grabbed some takeaway (to-go food) and headed back to our hotel to crash early in order to get up at the butt-crack of dawn for our flight to Sydney.
