7:00am - Get to our rental car. I naturally walk over to the right side of the car (thinking it's the passenger-side) to put my things and realise there's a steering wheel there. Hubby makes the same mistake going to the left side of the car to get into the driver's seat. We wait 5 minutes for my GPS to locate us. When it finally stops thinking, it pinpoints us in the ocean. We zoom out and we see we're off the coast of New Zealand. I officially accept my duty as map navigator.
7:15am - First challenge, get out of the rental car parking lot. We circle the lot and find an opening, but are confused because the road has symbols painted on both lanes: an arrow pointing in on the right lane and an upside-down triangle on the left lane. To us, this means we can't take either lane because the symbols are both pointing in. I then realise the upside-down triangle means "Yield" and then remind Hubby we're suppose to drive on the left side of the road.
7:30am - Officially on the highway to Auckland. It takes some getting used to driving on the other side of the road, especially with the round-abouts. Hubby keeps on shoulder checking when he turns right...it makes me laugh. Looking at the map, the highway portion getting to downtown Auckland is pretty straight forward, but looks more complicated as we enter downtown. We hope our hotel, Sky City, is easy to find. Then, off into the distance, we see the tower attached to our hotel (see photo, hotel is circled). Ok, we should have no problem finding our hotel.
8:00am - Arrive at the Sky City Hotel...too early to check-in which is at 3pm. The hotel staff kindly take our luggage into storage and we decide to visit Otara Market since it's open from 6am to noon. We read about the market in our Fodor's travel book. It's an open-air market only open on Saturdays which offers fresh produce and local crafts. Looking at the map, we notice we could have went to the market first before coming to the hotel since it's fairly close to the airport...oh well.
9:00am - Arrive at Otara Market. Hubby makes fun of me when I take out my Lululemon shopping bag. I point out the locals to him who brought their own re-usable shopping bags and punch him in the shoulder for making fun of me. The neighbourhood looks a little bit sketchy, but not particularly unsafe. We note to ourselves to be careful with our bags in case of pick-pocketing. I wish I had taken photos of the stalls of fresh veggies and fruit, but I didn't want to take out my camera and stick out even more as a tourist. We eye a stand that carries only "sweet red strawberries"...definitely picking some of those up to bring to the hotel. The market is reminiscent of the Richmond Night Market back home. After the stalls of produce, they carry knickknacks and souvenirs. They even have a lane of food vendors with similar food you'd find at the Richmond Night Market.
9:30am - Our first meal in NZ...Takoyaki! The moment I see octopus balls at one of the food carts, I'm immediately sold. I tell hubby that it'll be a good gauge of how good the food is because I've had it back home and have a point of reference to compare it too. You get 8 balls for $5 NZD which is about $4 CAD. The girl at the counter is Japanese, which makes me believe it's authentic. The takoyaki is decent, they had the usual sauces on top and a sprinkling of shredded nori...no bonito flakes though. They were OK...because we got 8 balls instead of the usual 6, I felt it was worth the money.
10:30am - Picked up some strawberries and head back to downtown. This time, heading into downtown the traffic was much heavier. We were lucky that our earlier drive into downtown was quite quiet and we were familiar with the streets this second time around. We're still not used to making right turns. I told hubby that sitting on the left-side of the car without a steering wheel feels like I'm in a car that drives itself. At the hotel, we opt for the self-parking option which is $20/exit rather than valet-parking which is $30/day since we decide to walk around downtown for the rest of the day.
11:00am - Discover "Free" wifi at Esquires Coffee. Wifi is free with purchase for up to 2 hours. Hubby buys a coffee and muffin for him, and a cookie for me for a total of $12. Hubby notices there's only sugar at the tables and no cream. He was supposed to order a "flat white" to get cream in his coffee. After that gets sorted out we sit and chill out. I update my blog.
12:30pm - Stroll through downtown which remarkably feels just like Vancouver. We decide to walk towards the water. Everything from the weather to the buildings to the water makes you feel like you're in downtown Vancouver. Even the restaurants are Vancouver-esque...lots of japanese, chinese, indian, and mediteranean food. We even found ourselves walking through a hall of shops that resemble the chinese malls back home. Lots of cute boutique shops too.
1:30pm - Starving! I admit, when I get hungry, I get kinda cranky...add being tired, unshowered, and in the same clothes I was wearing yesterday...not so good. So we decide to hop into a food court for a quick nibble. I get a Vietnamese vermicelli with fried roll and shredded pork. Hubby gets a schwarma (called a kebab here). Both our meals are about $11 each (with drinks)...and unfortunately subpar...but they do the purpose of making us less hungry.
2:00pm - Churros hit the spot! On our walk back to the hotel, we come across an open-air market on Elliot Street. This one is nicer than the Otara market, but much much smaller. We are drawn to a churro cart called "Toro Churro" which is run by a European couple. The pastry looks so good we can't resist. Hubby gets a 3 pack of plain churros dusted with icing sugar with chocolate dipping sauce and I get a jumbo churro filled with caramel for a total of $8.50. Amazingly, after the churros, we're all smiles again...no more crankiness :)
3:00pm - Finally check-into the hotel. We are so exhausted and are looking forward to resting our tired feet.
5:00pm - Passed out and asleep. We don't wake up until the next morning at 6:30am.
