We woke to beautiful sunshine today! What a change from the last few days. While I did the usual morning things, Tom went and got a box – a HUGE box – and we packed up all the NZ holiday bits and pieces. As I said yesterday, there’s rather a lot, but they all went into it. We still had the car, so drove down to the PO, had it weighed (16kg – not as bad as we thought), filled in all the requisite paperwork, paid $204 to send it economy and watched it being sealed for its journey. We’ve sent it c/o Bruce and Carole, so be on the lookout you two. It’ll probably take 2 weeks or so, and we hope it survives intact.
Having dropped that off, we carried on into town to return the car to Apex (total distance driven 6192km, then walked down to the ferry terminal to meet up with Jenness and hand back all the bits she’d lent us. She wasn’t on the ferry from Waiheke that she’d said, which caused us a bit of concern, especially when we phoned her home, and Al said she should have been on it. However, about 10 minutes later, she turned up, having caught the earlier ferry! We had lunch in a Tex-Mex place just along the dockside – far too much food, but we tried our best to eat it! We’re not used to lunch. There was a cruise ship in harbour – Pacific Star, very nice, and it looked huge.
Jenn went back on the 1.00pm ferry and we set off to go to the Sky Tower
– yes, I was going to subject myself to more heights and dizzying experiences! – a sucker for punishment!
Sky Tower is the highest tower in the southern hemisphere, 328m, although it’s a bit of a con really, as it’s only the transmitting mast that can claim that fame. The observation deck is quite a bit below that, lower than the top viewing platform on the Eifel tower in Paris.
The lift is fast – 18kph they say - but the views are spectacular, especially as the weather was perfect, total blue sky and sunshine with just a few little clouds.
The only thing that caused me a few trembles were the glass panels in the floors of the lift and in the floor around the outer part of the viewing area. I did steel myself to look down through one of them, and Tom has the photos to prove it – and yes, I did have my eyes open!!
I really enjoyed being there and even said I’d like to stay longer when Tom wanted to go down to the café for a drink. I think the difference is that we were enclosed in glass so I didn’t feel exposed to the winds – and there was at least one lady who was even more terrified than I am at heights – she got out of the lift and wouldn’t move from the wall. There are panoramic guides all along the inner handrail, pointing out what you can see from that particular window. We took some photos of the cruise ship from above – she looked much smaller from there!
You can Sky Jump from higher up the tower, and several mad people were doing so while we watched. It’s not a bungy but a controlled descent onto a landing platform beside the base of the tower. One girl did it twice while we were there – and was going back for more! They jump off and are then held at Observation Deck level for a few seconds for watchers to take pics then plummet to the ground at 85kph – eeeek!
On our controlled descent in the lift, I couldn’t look down through the glass floor – one glance and I immediately felt queasy. Your ears pop on the way up and down, it’s so fast.
After that, we had a walk about the city but it was so hot, so we went to the bus station to find out how to get back here and how to get to the Zoo tomorrow. We caught our bus and had a hair-raising ride – all fast acceleration and sudden braking – to the nearest supermarket for dinner bits and pieces and arrived back here at 6.30pm. We spent the evening relaxing and watched Superman Returns on Sky TV, ready for another busy day tomorrow – our last full day in NZ. Bye for now.
Having dropped that off, we carried on into town to return the car to Apex (total distance driven 6192km, then walked down to the ferry terminal to meet up with Jenness and hand back all the bits she’d lent us. She wasn’t on the ferry from Waiheke that she’d said, which caused us a bit of concern, especially when we phoned her home, and Al said she should have been on it. However, about 10 minutes later, she turned up, having caught the earlier ferry! We had lunch in a Tex-Mex place just along the dockside – far too much food, but we tried our best to eat it! We’re not used to lunch. There was a cruise ship in harbour – Pacific Star, very nice, and it looked huge.
Jenn went back on the 1.00pm ferry and we set off to go to the Sky Tower – yes, I was going to subject myself to more heights and dizzying experiences! – a sucker for punishment!Sky Tower is the highest tower in the southern hemisphere, 328m, although it’s a bit of a con really, as it’s only the transmitting mast that can claim that fame. The observation deck is quite a bit below that, lower than the top viewing platform on the Eifel tower in Paris.
The lift is fast – 18kph they say - but the views are spectacular, especially as the weather was perfect, total blue sky and sunshine with just a few little clouds. The only thing that caused me a few trembles were the glass panels in the floors of the lift and in the floor around the outer part of the viewing area. I did steel myself to look down through one of them, and Tom has the photos to prove it – and yes, I did have my eyes open!! I really enjoyed being there and even said I’d like to stay longer when Tom wanted to go down to the café for a drink. I think the difference is that we were enclosed in glass so I didn’t feel exposed to the winds – and there was at least one lady who was even more terrified than I am at heights – she got out of the lift and wouldn’t move from the wall. There are panoramic guides all along the inner handrail, pointing out what you can see from that particular window. We took some photos of the cruise ship from above – she looked much smaller from there!You can Sky Jump from higher up the tower, and several mad people were doing so while we watched. It’s not a bungy but a controlled descent onto a landing platform beside the base of the tower. One girl did it twice while we were there – and was going back for more! They jump off and are then held at Observation Deck level for a few seconds for watchers to take pics then plummet to the ground at 85kph – eeeek!
On our controlled descent in the lift, I couldn’t look down through the glass floor – one glance and I immediately felt queasy. Your ears pop on the way up and down, it’s so fast.
After that, we had a walk about the city but it was so hot, so we went to the bus station to find out how to get back here and how to get to the Zoo tomorrow. We caught our bus and had a hair-raising ride – all fast acceleration and sudden braking – to the nearest supermarket for dinner bits and pieces and arrived back here at 6.30pm. We spent the evening relaxing and watched Superman Returns on Sky TV, ready for another busy day tomorrow – our last full day in NZ. Bye for now.
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