Goodbye Auckland, Hello Waiheke Island

Yesterday was my last day in Auckland (for now at least) so of course I had to try and make the most of it.

After my wonderful and completely needed 7hrs of deep, uninterrupted sleep I woke up nice and early at 6am ready to go. Because it was still early I decided to take the opportunity of the quiet city to go for a run. My first run in New Zealand took me up Mt. Eden, which is a huge crater caused by a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago.

FUN FACT: Every big bump that you see along the New Zealand landscape was once a volcano.

After doing some housekeeping things at the travel office across the street I went back out into the city to explore with the girl I had met the other day. Our first stop was the skytower where we made an impulsive decision to do the skywalk (NZ version of the CN Tower edge walk). You basically walk around the edge of the Skytower and you can lean over the side and stuff like that.
It was just her and I and one other guy (who was originally from North York but went on a working holiday to australia and never went back). Our guide was super cool and friendly and gave us so much information about auckland and the surrounding islands that we could see from the tower. (Our guide was also telling us that he had come to NZ on a working visa and never went back) ...I'm noticing a bit of a theme here.

For those of you who don't know I found out a couple of days ago that I had gotten a nanny job that I had applied for. So this morning after making a stop at the farmers market I hopped on the ferry and headed over to Waiheke Island to meet the family. Let me just say that the ferry ride was not the calm, take pictures, enjoy the scenery, ride that I was expecting. Rather it was a rough, roller coaster like ride and involved getting sprayed in the face multiple times.

So for the rest of this afternoon I've just been getting settled into my room as well as getting to know the family (who seem awesome by the way).
The higlights of the day have been eating fresh and local kiwi fruit as well as being able to step outside the door and pick a lemon off the tree to use in my tea... both things that i could definitely get used to.

I could seriously keep typing for hours but i'll stop before I bore everyone and lose the few readers that I do have!

Thanks for reading :)

RACHEL (aka the Canadian falling madly in love with New Zealand)