Jared Lee - Photo Album - Auckland

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I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, stayed a night, and then checked out some vistas of the city from a couple of the 40-some-odd extinct volcanoes that surround the city
December 17-18, 2004

01-PaeroaCountryside The countryside near Paeroa on Friday, December 17, 2004, on my way from Matamata to Auckland ... those hills are on the Coromandel Peninsula

02-FirthOfThames Looking across the Firth of Thames from the Coromandel Peninsula to the other side, where Auckland lies a bit to the north (right)

03-FirthOfThames Firth of Thames

04-Thames Thames

05-Pohutakawa Pohukatawa, also known colloquially as the North Island Christmas Tree, for its red blooms every year at Christmastime

06-FirthOfThames Firth of Thames at low tide

07-FirthOfThames Firth of Thames, with the hills of the Coromandel Peninsula visible across the way

08-FirthOfThames Firth of Thames

09-FirthOfThames Firth of Thames

10-BurgerWisconsin After getting lost entering the Auckland suburbs, I finally found my way to my hostel in Mt Eden, an inner ring suburb ... just a few blocks' walk from the hostel was this restaurant, Burger Wisconsin, which, when I saw it, I knew I absolutely had to eat at, being from Wisconsin and all, even though I was to be returning there in three days or so ... I ate there a couple nights later, on my last night in New Zealand, when I came back to stay at the same hostel again, and both burgers that I had were quite excellent, a couple of the best burgers I've ever had, I must say

11-MtEdenLookout On Saturday, December 18, 2004, I decided to do a little sight-seeing around Auckland, first visiting Mt Eden, the tallest (191 meters) of the 43 extinct volcanoes that surround Auckland

12-OneTreeHill Looking at One Tree Hill

13-Auckland Auckland, from Mt Eden

14-MtEdenA Mt Eden

15-MtEdenB Mt Eden's extinct volcanic cone

16-MtEdenC Mt Eden

17-MtEdenD Mt Eden

18-Auckland The weather was annoying, but apparently typical for springtime in Auckland: sun for five minutes, then a shower for ten, sun for five, shower for five, sun, rain, sun, rain, ad nauseum

19-MtEdenCrater Mt Eden crater

20-Rangitoto The mountain in the distance across the water is another extinct volcano, taking up an entire island, Rangitoto ... if I remember correctly, Rangitoto is considered just dormant, not extinct

21-Auckland Auckland

22-Auckland Auckland

23-Auckland Auckland

24-ViaductHarbour Viaduct Harbour in downtown Auckland

25-AucklandSkytower Auckland Skytower

26-QuayStreet Quay Street

27-MtVictoriaLookout The view of Auckland from Mt Victoria, just north of the city ... Mt Eden is the small hill visible at the left side of the picture

28-Auckland Auckland

29-WaitemataHarbour Waitemata Harbour, from the Mt Victoria lookout

30-Jared-Auckland Enjoying my second-to-last full day in New Zealand, in Auckland

31-Skytower-HarbourBridge Skytower and the Auckland Harbour Bridge

32-Auckland-WaitemataHarbour Auckland and Waitemata Harbour

33-Auckland-OncomingStorm By virtue of staying on Mt Victoria for a couple hours (while writing a couple final postcards and eating lunch), I was able to see a good deal of rapidly changing weather, and oncoming squalls like this one, which made for some beautiful colours

34-Auckland Auckland

35-Jared-Auckland Auckland and me

36-Auckland Auckland

37-WaitakereRanges I had been waiting around in Auckland to meet up with CJ, but when it became apparent that he wasn't gonna be calling, I decided to head four hours north to the Bay of Islands, pausing first at the Waitakere Ranges just north of Auckland

38-WaitakereRanges Waitakere Ranges

39-Auckland Auckland, through the Waitakere Ranges

40-AratakiVisitorCentre The Aarataki Visitor Centre, in the Waitakere Ranges

41-NaturalPortrait Natural portrait

42-WaitakereRanges Waitakere Ranges

43-WaitakereRanges Waitakere Ranges

44-ScenicDrive A scenic road through the Waitakere Ranges

45-ParkinsonLookout Parkinson Lookout

46-ParkinsonLookout Parkinson Lookout, with Rangitoto and Auckland visible in the distance

47-ParkinsonLookout Parkinson Lookout

48-ParkinsonLookoutA Parkinson Lookout

49-ParkinsonLookoutB Parkinson Lookout

50-ParkinsonLookoutC Parkinson Lookout

51-ParkinsonLookoutD Parkinson Lookout

52-WaitakereRanges Waitakere Ranges

53-WaitakereRanges Waitakere Ranges ... that was the rental car I had on the North Island, a Corolla

54-WaitakereRanges Waitakere Ranges

55-Clouds An interesting cloudbank on my way up to the Bay of Islands