Disclaimer: We absolutely love New Zealand so some of the following blog may be slightly biased. When it became apparent that we’d be able to make a stop in Auckland on our way to and from the Cook Islands we jumped at the chance. We are not sponsored by the New Zealand tourist board, although any posts relating to New Zealand may seem that way ?!
We landed early on a Friday morning in Auckland and headed to our hotel at the airport (the Naomi Airport Hotel). It was a welcome relief that, despite arriving at seven in the morning and check-in not really being until later that afternoon, the hotel were able to sort us a room so we could freshen up and relax after the long flight from Santiago. On this note, we have to say throughout our stay the Naumi was awesome, we’d loved it to bits – it’s a bit quirky (see the photos below) but the staff and service is incredible. Definitely would be a recommendation from us.
After a slightly longer than usual shower and a quick nap, we hopped in an Uber and headed into town for a little bit of a restock of clothes as we both were a bit fed up of wearing the same things all the time! We grabbed a nice lunch at Amona near the waterfront feeling very out of place in our sports kit with everyone in business get-up.
Although we had every intention of coming back into town for some dinner, we decided to head back to the hotel for a quick rest. We got back to the hotel to find that the hotel had left a load of gifts for us to celebrate our honeymoon. Unfortunately we both fell asleep the moment we got back to the hotel and dinner went out of the window!
The next morning we’d arranged to meet our friend Courtney and being the pain I am, I’d insisted that we met to do the Parkrun so I could tick off an international Parkrun. We discovered quickly that running with jet lag in heat you’re not used to and on hills (Cornwall Park is basically a big hill) is pretty grim but we were pretty proud of completing the run. We even had the energy left to head up to the top of One Tree Hill afterwards which gives a stunning view of the whole of Auckland.
Our flight wasn’t until the evening and to help fill the time we hopped on our first ‘Courtney Tours’ (the half day car tour ?). First stop, post ParkRun, was the stunning Michael Joseph Memorial Park with its view across the harbour.
Next up was Mission Bay, starting with a really nice lunch at Moretons on the waterfront.
If you’ve been to Auckland recently, you can’t have missed the electric scooters sat around everywhere called Lime scooters. They’re like Uber for electric scooters or like the Mobo bikes you see around London – you connect to an app and access the electric scooter and then get charged for the time you have it. You can just drop it off wherever you want in town when you’re finished. We had a great time zapping along the coast on them!
Unfortunately after what seemed like no time at all, our short stop in Auckland was over. Luckily Courtney Tours included an airport transfer ? so with very little hassle we were on our way to Rarotonga.