Sat 7th Feb – Sun 8th Feb

Accommodation: Sebel Auckland Viaduct Harbour

It was a glorious day for our flight to Auckland and we were lamenting leaving such beautiful weather behind us. The forecast for most of our NZ stops was from 6° to 18° C so we were in for a little bit of adjustment. I vowed, there and then, not to book any future travel out of Sydney between late January through to February.

Our flight was delayed by an hour which didn’t really matter but it meant that we missed our Auckland dinner reservation. This didn’t matter either though because we’d had so much food on the plane that neither of us were hungry once we had landed. It was 7 pm by the time we were checking into our hotel and 7:30 pm before we headed back out to have a wander around.

Our hotel, The Sebel, was ideally located in the thick of Auckland’s Viaduct harbour and the area was very busy. Every bar and restaurant looked full and the walkways were crowded. It was quite an international atmosphere with lots of different languages being spoken and loads of family groups. There was an almost festive vibe that just seemed to be missing a headline main event. Monday’s Super Bowl was heavily advertised around the various bars but this certainly wasn’t it.

We drifted back to our room just before 9 pm and continued to enjoy the atmosphere from our balcony as we had a great view out across the waterfront. It wasn’t the start we’d planned for this trip but it had worked out just fine. Tomorrow we head to Queenstown where we catch up with Colleen and David.