Auckland Sights Walking Tour, Mount Eden, Domain Wintergardens
Leaving Taupo, I wasn’t really sure what I’m going to do in Auckland, so to have an introduction to the city and perhaps get a few ideas, I joined a free walking tour. Compared to other walking tours I’ve done in other places, this group was pretty small. We walked around the city and stopped at different places to talk about them, although it seemed to me that at every place we stopped, the guide kept shifting the topic and I didn’t understand the connection of the lecture to the area we were in. Perhaps I was simply tired and couldn’t make sense of it, but to me it dragged on longer than it should have. One valuable piece of information that I did get from the tour was that apparently the only option to ride the bus is with the bus card, which I had no intention to buy. That meant I was pretty much stuck, confined to the area around my accommodations.
After getting some rest, I headed out toward Mount Eden, which was said to have a great view of the city. While there was a bus going there I was not able to take it, and so had to walk for quite a while in the city streets, which overall was pretty boring.
Then there was the walk up the mountain itself, and there was nothing special about it. It was easy, between the trees for quite a while, but soon enough I was under the sun. The trees still blocked the views, but as I got higher up I cleared them and got to a walkway area with some benches that had a view all around, and indeed that was great. I stayed there for a while, enjoyed the hot weather and the views all around me, but there was only so much I could do there before it was time to go back down.
With lack of options, there was one final thing I wanted to do in Auckland. Not too far from where I stayed was the Auckland Domain, and within that park were the Domain Wintergardens, a small botanic garden which seemed like a fun way to end my visit. After getting to the park, I still had to walk for a little while before I made it to the botanic garden.
It was a pretty area, with colorful flowers all around. Beyond the entrance gate, there was a big open area with a small pool. On either side of the pool were glasshouses with some more flowers in them. Straight ahead was an open area which was shaded due to the trees there. There wasn’t much variation to the color, mostly green, but at the center was a little pool with a few fish in it.
As interesting and beautiful as the place was, it didn’t take very long to go all around it. The garden was smaller than I expected and in about half an hour I was back outside. I made my way toward the park’s exit and from there back to my accommodations.
And that was it. It was the end for my time in Auckland, and also my time in New Zealand. Thinking about all that I experienced in this country, there were some ups and downs to it, and overall it was a great experience to have. My New Zealand adventure took me from south to north, with a lot of stunning places in between. The people were friendly and open, the weather slowly started to improve, and the views amazed me more than once.
There were quite a few issues along the way, and the few final experiences had a bit of a bitter taste to them, but there are issues pretty much everywhere. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I came to this country, but what I found was a great place to explore and travel around, without quite a few options even without driving a car.
But as I was starting to get a little tired, it was a good idea to stop and have a break for a while before moving on to the next adventure.