My trip to New Zealand was spent in the Auckland area including some trips to sites outside the central area.  Auckland struck me as surprisingly small until I remembered that the city only has a population of around 1.3 Million.

I stayed in the Auckland City Hotel on Hobson Street which combines an entrance and lobby built in 1912 with a newer building containing the actual rooms.  While convenient and comfortable it had, for some reason, been built without central air conditioning.  As a result a stand alone air conditioner was placed in my room, the result was noisy but not particularly effective - fortunately as the weather was not particularly hot so the unit was never tested to the limit.

I found getting around Auckland by bus very easy, unlike Sydney you just paid as you got on board.  There were a number of “Circle” routes which went to most of the places I wanted to go, for example the Outer Circle took me to MOTAT and the Auckland War Memorial Museum.  Given the weather it was very helpful that  almost every building has some sort of awning that keeps the rain off you.

The weather was very poor given I was there in the middle of summer, all the days were quite cloudy and while it was comfortably warm (though not hot) there were regular rain storms.  Sunscreen was definitely not needed.  My photographs show how the weather changed from day to day.