Suzi's Travels

Well it's 6 sleeps til Christmas as the radio keeps playing to me. I got in to Auckland last Tuesday and met a couple of crazy chicks who I hung out with for a few days - Andrea and Cassie.

We (Andrea and I) went on a free tour of the city ... which included a stop at the Sky Tower. It just so happened that I was in a bit of an adrenaline junkie mode and was seriously coming round to the idea of bungying or something similar. Our tour guide started building up the Sky Jump - a 192m controlled descent from the top of the Sky Tower... everyone else was a bit sheepish, and there was me, grinning and totally up for it. And the dude knew that. But he still put everyone's names in a hat and pulled out a name that wasn't "Sue". I was gutted.

We also had a couple of drinks in a bar in the Viaduct Harbour among all the posh working people...





We spent the rest of the time shopping... we found an outlet shopping centre which really didn't have any good deals, plus a few other places but managed to contain ourselves. We also spent an evening at the Sky City complex... a bit of time in the casino (came out evens - result!) and in a really nice bar there. This is the Sky Tower at night.




Then last Saturday I headed up to the Coromandel. I picked a really nice day to travel up there. Left is a picture from the top of the coast above a place called Cathedral Cove. Unfortunately the other two days that I stayed up there were rather disappointing. I went there primarily to get some beach time, and I did get about half an hour or so, but it was really cloudy and rained a wee bit. :-(


I came back to Auckland today and have been shopping for my trip to Asia, picking up a few necessities in preparation. And here we come to the fear factor as per the title. Now apparently this is practically an Auckland institution, it's been there in one place or another for about the last 25 years... but it's just plain scary... in a creepy "kids don't look at that" kind of way.

Yes, it's a three-storey high Santa, that winks and beckons you to him with a bandaged finger. (Apparently it fell off a couple years ago.) You just want to stop every little kid who walks by you and say "no, don't go to the dark side". It is just plain creepy!

That's about all for now, I'm off up to the Bay of Islands tomorrow... hopefully the weather will be better so I have a few plans which require good weather for while I'm up there.