Auckland for Easter

This was a first for us, Easter at a Hotel! With the last of the hotel points we splashed out at the Westin Lighter Quay in Auckland. We had a lovely suite with two rooms that was created by the staff closing the door in the hallway. This cut off our end of the hallway and allowed us to have the two room doors wide open.

The hotel is lovely, water filled courtyards with Maori statues and carvings beautifully illuminated at night. The lobby was decked out with candles in the evening giving a wonderful sparkle to everything.

There is a lock system for boats to access the rear of the hotel, and the adjacent apartment/condo complex.

I seriously think that wherever we end up we will be purchasing the Westin Heavenly bed. I've never had such a great night sleep as on those beds.

Once we had checked into our room on Saturday, we trudged off to the sky tower. On the way we witnessed sky walkers taking a stroll around the tower, attached to a railing that ran around the outside of the building.







We arrived at the tower at around lunchtime, so we combined the two. We had our lunch at the tower revolving restaurant. It was a lovely lunch and kids enjoyed watching the hotel go by.

With lunch under out belts, we walked back along the waterfront to the hotel for a dip in the saltwater pool. Then pizza for supper and bed.

On sunday we got up earlier, with the time change the kids woke up at 6:20AM. We were off to the zoo by 9am (pizza for breakfast)

The zoo was absolutely fabulous, usually i feel bad for the animals in their pathetic enclosures but the Auckland zoo has the best facilities I have seen. The animals did not pace like they do in the Winnipeg Zoo! The Siamang gibbon was the highlight of the trip for me, they announce their presence to potential invaders by filling a frog-like membrane on their throats and hooting loudly! This was a real crowd pleaser.

After the zoo we took a trip the the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT), a collection of old vehicles, printing presses, telephones/radios. The kids had a good time in the printing press area, only runs on Sundays lucky for us! They came away with heaps of free paper products with their names printed on them.

That was such a busy day that when we got back to the hotel, we didn't even go to the pool! We all vegged out for about an hour and 45 minutes, then off to the water front for supper. We strolled along the waterfront with the kids climbing the stone railings as they saw some "free runners" doing the day before. We located a restaurant to the adult tastes and after seeing the food and listening to grumbling tummies, the kids gave in an ordered some fajitas to share...to their surprise they liked them! So after whining that there was nothing on the menu they wanted, they discovered something new that they could eat, hurray!!! Barriers being toppled everywhere.


So a leisurely stroll back to the hotel greeted us with the harbour lights and the sky tower a light with a blue neon glow, very nice.

The kids have had not much trouble getting to sleep at all, that's a blessing.

Our last day started off slower than the previous, it began with a phone call to the front desk to get a late checkout (privilege of a platinum member ) of 3:00pm. Then off to the pool for another swim. Once we had showered and changed we sauntered off to the ferry building and over to Devonport on the north shore of Auckland. Today lunch was taken on the north shore at a place called Platters, with a bit of different food on offer. The kids were able to order something other than chicken fingers ;) Good food on board we started up the road to Mount Victoria, an extinct volcanic cone that had military applications for protecting the harbour since the Maori people first arrived in New Zealand.


After trudging up....and I mean straight up, the 80 meter hill and enjoying the spectacular view, we headed down to the Devonport chocolate factory before catching the ferry back to checkout and return to Tauranga.

It was a very enjoyable weekend for all!










We now have $115 NZD donated for our Listen Up marathon.
Thanks to:
- Steph, Mike & Troy
- Danielle,Andy and McKayla
- Kat, Doug & Jack

Donate Here, thanks!