Activities/Things we did
On our first full day in Auckland, we started the day very early for Canberra time as Little E adjusted to the time difference almost immediately. We had a leisurely breakfast then made our way to the French market around the corner. We didn’t buy anything though there were many things that looked delicious, especially the cronut!
Cronutttttssss!
We walked towards the ferry terminal to do a day trip to Davenport. A sea side town across the harbour, lined with shops, cafés and restaurants. Little E absolutely loved the ferry trip, he laughed the entire trip, pointing at the seagulls, clapping. Despite the fact that it was windy and cold, he didn’t stop smiling.
Once we got there, we made our way to the lookout point of North Head. It was such a hike! Pushing a sleeping baby up a steep hill is definitely a great work out. We got a nice view of Davenport, the water and Auckland. After a quick look around and loads of photos, we descended down the hill towards the playground.
Things to do in Devonport
As it was a Sunday, there were plenty of families with young children. I believe the local council organised a treasure hunt for the older kids. Such fun! While Little E played, we enjoyed some much deserved coffee and hot chocolate. Once Little E had enough of playing (and getting slightly pushed over by some unruly older children) we had a quick look at a craft market that happened to be on. We didn’t get much from there, just a couple of jars of feijoa jam – a fruit that tastes almost like guava.
We caught the ferry back to Auckland, which Little E equally enjoyed. We had lunch at what-was-advertised-as the “Largest Asian Food Alley” in the Southern Hemisphere. There were 13 food joints, but we just couldn’t go past the Indonesian food joint 🙂 Little E had an extraordinary amount of food for lunch! My little Indo boy 😉
Little E’s favourite Indo dish
We then spent the rest of the day poking around all the shops in Auckland CBD as Little E needed to nap – a great time to shop indeed! On that note, if you ever need (free) hot drinks or cold water and a clean place to change the baby, Galleria Duty Free is the place to be 😉 😉 😉
What we found in Galleria – wut wut?
We went back to our accommodation in time for Little E’s dinner. We didn’t want to overtire him on his first day of holiday, in fear of him being cranky for the rest of the trip!
Activities summary:
La Cigale French Market
A ferry ride to Davenport – a walk to North Head for beautiful view of Auckland, an amazing playground, little seaside shops and a craft market
Lunch at the “Largest Asian Food Alley”
A walk through Auckland CBD
I reckon we could’ve spent an extra day in Auckland, as there were two places we wanted to go to for Little E. The aquarium and the water park at the Rose Gardens. Maybe the next time 🙂
Accommodation
We had a hard time finding accommodations that ticked all our boxes for this trip. It is our first overseas trip with a baby and we really couldn’t afford to mess up with sleeping arrangements – if he doesn’t sleep, we don’t either. Not good when you have full days of activities 🙂
The days that we were in Auckland also coincided with the Pacific Princess cruise ship. Most reasonable-priced rooms (that could fit a portacot comfortably) were booked out and we really don’t want to stay too far away from the CBD. We then found this guy from AirBnB. It was perfect for us, the place was easy to find, the room was massive (we could fit the portacot in and still have plenty of room to be comfortable), and the hosts friendly. Since the place isn’t specifically decorated for kids, we did have to be extra watchful of Little E though. There were knickknacks within arm’s reach, and cactuses all around the garden. However, of course, it is someone’s house, so we had to be respectful anyway 🙂 All in all, being our first experience with AirBnB, it was a good one and I reckon we’re going to do it again for our future travels.
We enjoyed our short time in Auckland, it felt like we were still in Australia, with some shops getting a name change (Countdown instead of Woolworths, etc). If I can compare it with another city, I would say it is like Sydney. Though I could not say that it’s a must-visit city, given the chance, I would go there again 🙂
I hope you enjoy this first series of my NZ travel posts, and hopefully it gives you the inspiration to go 🙂 In case you missed it, read here for reasons why I think NZ is a great child-friendly country to visit.
For more of my other NZ posts, please click here 🙂
The Unicorn Mum 