Today is our last full day in Auckland. I think today we will go up to the SkyTower to see some good views. It is lit up red for the firefighters climb on Saturday for leukemia. Victoria from the last 2 days told us for $4 more you can go up as much as you want in 24 hrs.

So we got ready after breakfast and walked about 4 blocks to go down into the Skytower. That’s where you catch the elevator that takes you up 50 floors to an observation deck. The elevator has a glass floor so you can see the shaft as you go up as well as cut outs in the walls to see how high you are.

The doors open at the 50th floor and it’s a beautiful view this morning. It hasn’t rained yet though. We were able to see all the islands we visited as well as the rest of Auckland. They also have glass floor panels in 4 places to look out below. One floor above here (on 51) is where they do bungee jumping and Skywalks where you are harnessed and walk around a platform outside.

We saw a beautiful rainbow over the city and surprise! it started raining while we were up there. You could see the rain moving in from over the water. Then we preceded up to the 60th floor for even better views. Here is where we could see the workers getting the harnesses ready for the day below us. There is a restaurant and café up here that turn once an hour and at the bottom of the tower is a casino, night club, 36 more restaurants and 2 hotels.

Once we saw our fill we went down to the bottom where they play a movie of how it was built and a gift shop. We found a fern ornament and a pin for CurbCrusher’s collection. Then we were off to Albert Park to walk around and then through the campus of the University of Auckland.

After that we walked over to the Domain which is a large park with a rain forest trail, Winter Gardens (a conservatory) and the Auckland Museum. We took the coast to coast walk and ended up at the Duck Gardens which had geese as well.

Then onto the Winter Gardens that had a beautiful hot house (and it was hot and humid!) then on to the fernery which was a mini rain forest inside (it was 3 floors with winding paths). Then we walked up to the museum and walked around it and looked at the views. We went inside to see the gift shop but you had to buy a ticket to access it so we left again.

On the way back we walked the Auckland rain forest Lovers’ Lane path which was winding and had a stream with a small waterfall. Then we retraced our steps to the University of Auckland where we ate lunch from a food truck on campus. Then we finished up with hot donut holes from another food truck.

We went to Countdown grocery to look for Manuka Honey. We can’t afford 100% (it’s around $75!) so we bought a blend at the grocery along with New Zealand coffee. Then off to the souvenir shop near the wharf for Rugby Lambs and CurbCrusher’s pin.

We stopped to look inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral that we can see from our window. The inside is beautiful, they have beautiful pipes for the organ in the balcony and the ceiling looks like the inside of a ship. It was built around 1905. Later today near sunset (5:15pm) we are going back to the Sky Tower to see the lights of the city.

We went back later to see the sunset and were able to make out some of it but as usual in Auckland it started raining again. It was cool to watch the rain move across the bays and into the city. After watching for awhile and seeing all the lights of Auckland we left to go to Subway and get dinner. We took it back to the apartment and ate and started packing to leave tomorrow.

Total step count for the day – 15,288