Friday 17th March

I finally got checked into my room yesterday. The hostel is much better and cleaner than the other one....although I had a really bad nights sleep, there is a bar/nightclub in the hostel, so the music kept me awake til all hours, my ear plugs didn't even work!

I went to the Sky Tower yesterday afternoon. It's the highest tower in the Southern hemisphere (328m). I paid the extra to go right up to the sky deck which is as high as you can go (220m, unless you do the vertical climb at 270m). When I got in the lift I immediately saw part of the floor was glass, not very nice...and then when we were going up in the lift, you could actually see the city through the glass in the building...it was a bit of a weird experience, and not one that I particularly liked!
When we got up the top, I went straight into the other lift up to the sky deck. It was a great view, and I even got to see a couple of people do the jump from above. It was funny, the second jumper was hanging on a wire outside the observation deck window for a few seconds, we were all waving at him, he looked a bit scared!! I just about managed to stand on the glass floor too, it took a lot of courage though!

I went to the bar in the hostel at 5pm to see if they needed any help handing out flyers so I could get a free night, but they told me they didn't have anything at that moment, so I just went back to my room for a rest. I even tried again this morning to see if I could help with the changing of beds, but there was another person that got there before me... I was a bit peeved, so I just decided to pay for the next 2 nights and not worry about working....after all, I am on holiday! I phoned Mum up this morning, was lovely to speak to her, we hadn't chatted for a while.

I was going to go on a harbour cruise this afternoon, but there is a big black cloud above, it looks like it may rain, so I thought I'll just do it tomorrow. I went for a bit of a walk earlier, I found some lovely gardens, Albert Park, it's really pretty there. I'm meeting Jason's cousin tonight, and also I was speaking to an Irish girl in my room, so she's coming out too, she's desperate to do something for St Paddys Day!

I'm really getting to like Auckland, it reminds me a little of Sydney, with the tower and the water etc, very nice.