Auckland is for Anniversaries

The wife and I decided to spend our 4th wedding anniversary in Auckland, purely because neither of us had been there before and because we got cheap air fares.

My impressions were generally positive, although I do have a few observations to make.

The Britomart is not a vacuum cleaner store, although exactly what it is, I'm not sure.

I'm also pleased to announce that Grunge is still alive and well on the streets of Auckland.

New Zealand has some unique public insurance scheme that leads to sights like skateboarders rolling down the middle of the busiest street in Auckland. It's almost as if people are daring drivers to run them over in order to be horribly injured and collect the Big One. The town planners of Auckland have also decided that the busiest streets require the least number of lanes. The more popular a street is, the narrower it generally is. Red lights are treated by drivers as merely a suggestion to stop. The little green walking man sign is animated and actually walks, quite jauntily I might add. They also have a countdown timer telling pedestrians how many more seconds they have before the Auckland Formula One recommences, which at first sounds like a great idea, but is actually a bad idea as it encourages people to step on the street at the last possible second. These two traits lead to entertaining interactions, so if you are bored in Auckland on a Sunday afternoon (entirely possible) the best spot for a laugh is a busy intersection. Especially as no one cares about being injured, see insurance above.

Despite appearing to be made of scaffolding and scrap metal, the Hilton is actually finished.

You can't get Smiths Crisps, but you can get Wendys and Carls Jr.

The TV is rubbish, but that's true no matter where you go theses days.

The winter casual dress code for middle aged men is gumboots, stubbies and a woolly jumper.

Roughly half of all restaurants in Auckland are Korean or Japanese.

Enjoyed it. The wife and I want to hire a camper van next time and tour the South Island.