The calm after the storm

Well, the storm has now passed and it missed Auckland. Some places further East were hit and there has been some flooding, power outages and landslides but thankfully the storm has now moved out towards the sea and is losing strength, so the worst is over. Here, we've had a day of t-shirt weather, cloudy on and off and with a few showers. Auckland is situated at latitude 36.8 degrees South, so it is on the equivalent latitude to places like Sicily and Las Vegas in the Northern hemisphere; hence it has more of a Mediterranean climate.

This morning we went to Mount Eden, the highest hill in Auckland and we walked up it and got some great views out across the city. The hill is a volcano (currently dormant) and, although it is covered in grass, it has a large and obvious crater in the middle - pretty cool to see. There was also a great monument at the top that showed the distances from here to various places in NZ and across the world - London is just about the furthest city listed, 18,339km (approx., 11,400 miles).

After a tasty pub lunch, we went to MOTAT, the Museum Of Transport And Technology. There, we got to see some old transport including trams, info on Antarctic expedition and some 19th Century houses & shops. They also had some craft stuff on for Easter, so Solana (and, if we're honest, me & Laura too!) enjoyed making Easter baskets and puppets. Tomorrow we return our trusty rental car and we're back to public transport and foot power.Read more