So as predicted jet lag kicked in about 5am and we were both wide awake and ready to go, but we managed to lie still long enough so we dropped off to sleep again. Chris woke up just before 7am so as he promised me coffee I let him get up. After a shower we had breakfast in the room then set off down to the waterfront area to see if we could get a map and a copy of the heritage walks we had seen online back in the UK. Unfortunately tourist information didn’t have a paper copy, they mentioned a website that we could download a smart phone version but we don’t have a SIM card yet so that isn’t really an option. They did suggest that the maritime museum might have some but they don’t open until 10.00 so in the end we decided to set off for the hop-on hop-off bus which also left at 10.00. There are 2 circuits both an hour long and it finishes really early so we thought we could go to the museum later. We started on the red route and at the war museum swapped to the blue route this meant that we could get off at Mount Eden, the highest point in the area. The bus doesn’t actually go to the very top but gets quite close, we were the only ones that got off to walk up the last 300 or so metres which was actually quite steep but not too hard, and as we were joined by children in what looked like school uniform and a woman jogging pushing a pram, we decided we must be able to make it. The views from the top were spectacular and you can see for miles, it is a very different landscape, from this viewpoint it really looks like a collection of islands. We had originally planned to do some walks around the Mount Eden, but we decided we would finish the hop on hop off circuit as it was getting late. Next we planned to visit Alberton House, but unfortunately it wasn’t shown on our map so although we knew it was 30 minutes walk from the bus stop we didn’t know in which direction! We decided we would head back to the war museum and use the free wifi to get directions which we did then got back on the blue route and got off at the St Luke’s Westfield to start walking, unfortunately although we had the directions we didn’t know which side of the shopping centre we were and therefore we set off in the wrong direction! Finally after about an hour of walking we found the house, nestled in the middle of a housing estate and the only signpost directing you to the house we virtually outside! Anyway it was well worth the walk, originally the house had been built as a farmhouse and sat in 600 acres, now they have less two. The house was left to NZ Heritage in the 1970s but hadn’t been changed much so seemed as it had been during the Victorian times, after a brief introduction we were left to walk round on our own which was great. It was then time to set off back to the bus which actually only took us 25 minutes rather than the hour it had taken on the way there. We jumped on the bus back to the museum then got onto the red route back to the city. Our last stop of the day was he sky tower which is 328 metres high and has a viewing platform on level 51 which is (186 metres, 610 feet), you can do a sky walk – around the outside, or a bungee jump from levels 53 but Chris didn’t seem keen so we decided not to bother! The lift up was interesting as it had a glass panel in floor and a glass door so although Chris was fine for the first few floors he adopted a ‘look at the wall’ position for the final floors. Luckily the windows were some distance away so Chris did get to look at the views, they had a walkway all around the windows and some parts of the floor were glass so you could look straight down to the ground. We walked round a couple of times but didn’t bother going up to the very top floor then came back down and decided to have an early dinner before going back to the hotel. We went to our local Italian restaurant and had a really nice pasta and a couple of beers, as today all took a bit longer than expected we planned to go back to the room and re plan tomorrow but we are still fighting the jet lag so although I managed to stay awake for an hour or so, Chris crashed almost straight away so we were both in bed by about 8.30 – hopefully we are now over the jet lag.
