Bit of a lazier day planned today – so Dave got up for a run and I just read in bed.

Once showered and dressed we decided to head to Mount Eden, another extinct volcano and have a leisurely walk up there, the views of Auckland were amazing. Whilst having a quick snack of croissants and coffee in the cafe I prebooked tickets for the Sky Tower finding an online offer for a duo ticket, we then drove back into the city, parked the car up at the hotel and left on foot for the Sky Tower.

The queues weren’t too bad and we headed straight up. Again amazing views over a very sunny and hot Auckland, you get to go on the 51st floor and then on up to the 60th. Built in 1997 the observation deck stands at 220 metres which was only 24 metres above where we were at Mount Eden this morning.

Feeling a bit thirsty we found Father Ted’s (Irish bar in case you were wondering) and had a quick beer before deciding to broaden our art knowledge by visiting the free Auckland Art Gallery. Any guesses for the artist of the picture shown below? An hour later we were both ‘arted out’ and found a shady spot back in Albert Park to eat the rest of our fruit.

A quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on more fruit, water and crisps and we then went back to the hotel to actually change for dinner tonight. One thing we have noticed is how early restaurants close here (kitchens close around 8.30/9.00) and the same when we were in Singapore. So at 5.00 we left the hotel, jumped on a bus to the Wynyard Quarter to head for 16 Tun, which Dave had spotted on his run this morning.

It didn’t disappoint, with 19 taps to choose from we had plenty of choice, so we got our first beer in, ordered some pork belly bites to share and did a bit of research for our drive to the Coromandel tomorrow.

Another beer and a fab caesar salad for me and a fish burger for him, we eventually left to head back to the hotel by bus to see if we could stay awake long enough to watch some of the stuff we downloaded from Netflix.

FYI our step count in Auckland included the Bay of Islands trip was 83,000.