Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 17 Hikes and Dizzy Heights

After a mammoth sleep we woke up at 4.30 am so had plenty of time to plan things to do and see today! The Auckland War Memorial Museum, where the Pacific Islands and Māori tribal collections are displayed, had been recommended to us so that’s where we headed this morning.

Of course, on google maps the route to the museum looked lovely….through a couple of parks…a nice gentle stroll to get there. The reality was that Auckland is very hilly and although we did have a lovely stroll through two gorgeous parks, it was very much up some big hills!

The museum was well worth the visit. The Māori and Pacific Islanders artifacts were fascinating. The intricacy they achieved when carving wood was mind blowing and the weaving that they did with bark, grasses and fibres was phenomenal - I loved every bit of it! We also saw dinosaur bones and examples of many species of animals which are native to New Zealand (all be it examples in cabinets which were dead and stuffed!).

We decided to have a bite to eat and for the first time ever, we were served by a robot, much to our amusement. The restaurant was called “Andy’s” and all the robots were also called Andy - very efficient they were too!

In the afternoon, we went up the Auckland Sky Tower which is 328m high and has viewing platforms near the top on level 60. The lift was quite something, it had glass panels in the floor so you could look down and see yourself shooting upwards as the ground below fell away. Once up the tower, which is circular, you have 360degree views around Auckland. You also have views of the bonkers people who are hooked up outside the windows doing something called a “sky walk”! There is a small walk way of grating that runs round the outside of level 53 and if you so choose, for the sum of approx $200, you can opt to get hooked up in safety harnesses and walk all the way round the tower on this grating walkway - 300m up in the air. It looked truly terrifying! I much preferred out option of admiring the view from the inside of the tower whilst eating a most delicious choc chip mint ice cream.

In the evening, we returned to the Sky tower which has a revolving restaurant near the top, for a special meal. The restaurant turned very slowly - it took 45 mins to do a full 360degree rotation - the views were fantastic and the food was delicious too.