Day 10 - Friday 4th January

It was just the 4 of us out and about today. We wanted to go up the Sky Tower in Auckland. We borrowed Jen's SatNav so found it quite easily, we parked in their multi storey car park and made our way to the entrance. We nipped outside to take photos and it just started with a quick shower!

We joined the queue for tickets and once we'd bought them and gone through the chaos started! It wasn't very well organised and we waited about 1/2 an hour to go up! It was worth the wait once we were up! Not only had the weather cleared but the views were spectacular!

 The lift had stopped at the cafe / main observation level, we found a table which had a clear view of the bungee jumping off the tower. We decided to have a drink in the hope somebody would jump but in the time we were there no mad fool did so we went up to the observation level. After a look around we had bought tickets up to the highest point of the tower, the Sky Deck, again nothing was signposted and there was nobody to ask so we didn't know where to go. We eventually found the lift.

Once at the very top we were dared to lie on the glass which lent out of the tower!!! Mark, Charlie and Courtney did this easily (several times.)

I took a bit more persuading, ok, I took A LOT more persuading, I was petrified! So much so that my hands were clammy and my heart was beating like mad!!! I wasn't to be beaten, I wanted to do it but by golly it was VERY scary!! I did it in the end though.....go me, lol!! (If you look very carefully you can actually see my legs shaking, LOL!!)

My next challenge came when we returned back to the observation floor, there was a glass floor!!! Again Mark, Charlie and Courtney did it with ease! Mark is petrified of heights but for some reason just walked across no problem!! I guess it's mind over matter but I experienced the exact feelings that I had earlier. Give me a roller coaster any day, LOL!  I didn't think I could muster the courage once again but amazingly I did!! I think it was only so I couldn't be laughed at later on!!

We then came back down to ground level (phew), looked around the gift shop and looked at our photo before returning to our car.

As we were driving away the sun was shining brightly, the tower looked so different to our photos from the morning! Mark quickly managed to snap this from the car window!

Mark requested our next stop, Eden Park, the home of New Zealand rugby and cricket! Apparently it's where the All Blacks play and the setting for the Test match between England and New Zealand coming up soon!

We had a quick snack before setting off on an hour and a half drive to the Manukau Heads Lighthouse, Auckland's highest and most remote lighthouse!. We were disappointed to find the gate closed (and locked) when we arrived, the sign said it closed at 5:00 and it was now 5:30! (We didn't realise there was a closing time, we thought we'd just be able to drive up to it.) It was a long windy road to it so weren't going to attempt going back at a later time! There was another lady there, she'd also done the drive and said she wasn't going to waste it either so jumped the fence, lol!! It was such a long walk to the lighthouse that we decided to try and drive along a bit and see if we could get a view of it further along. That was a mistake, the tarmac on the road suddenly became gravel and we realised it was a dead end and no view of it anyway! We found a gateway and turned around. We went back and, ahem, jumped the fence too!! Like I say, it was a pretty long walk.......

Up 120 steps

but was so worth it!

We couldn't believe the lighthouse was still unlocked so had a little mooch around and self timed this photo at the top.

When we came down we saw the lady from earlier and she took this nice photo for us.

We then had a quick look at the viewing platform before returning to the car.

The drive back was interesting! You see this photo........

I snapped it because of the number plate, Jen had told me that some personalised number plates make words, we presume the driver in front was a hairdresser, their plate read '1 CUT 4U' How fab is that!! Now the other vehicle in the photo is a double trailered wagon, as we were driving along he was going quite fast. At one point the rear trailer left the road and went down the side embankment, the driver managed to straighten it again but it wobbled like crazy, we seriously thought it was going to tip over!!! The car in front pulled right back from him so obviously thought the same! He drove quite a bit slower after that!!

We ate dinner out then returned home. This evening we watched another Idiot Abroad! This one he rode across Russia on the trans Siberian railway!