Subject: December 31: Walking around the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere, then the new years eve fireworks
Date Sent: Sun, January 3, 2010 5:27:54 PM
Kia ora,
Like I wrote in my last email, I was upgraded to a "club floor" room at my hotel. This was for both nights that I was staying there -- Dec 30 and Dec 31. From my room I had a view of Auckland's Sky Tower! The new years eve fireworks would also be from here...
But first, I had to do something that someone on the plane told me about -- go for a stroll around the tower. Sounds easy, but the "stroll" is on TOP of the tower and OUTSIDE it... completely outside, with nothing but a harness and rope to prevent you from falling to your death 192m below. This was too much fun to pass up! I bought the ticket and went up with a family of 4 and another loner like me... When we reached the top and went outside the safety of the tower and into the wide open, 2 of those family members backed out (mom and son) -- the height got to them. So it took a while for our guide to rearrange everyone else's order and get our harnesses checked again. During all this I started enjoying the 40-45km winds up there...
Oh yeah, there were also people jumping off the tower -- I want to do that next time!
Once we were all out on the platform (1.2 meters wide -- that's all we had to walk on and nothing but air below), our guide asked us to do a few things -- like lean forward away from the platform, or "sit down" in our harness while hanging outside... Of the four of us there, only one was completely comfortable doing all that, and I regret to say it wasn't me! Now I wish I had, but at that time, I was too scared to try anything like lean my whole body outside the platform with the city below! So I just stayed on the relative safety of the platform.... But I still walked forward and backwards looking up, not knowing where my feet were going. So at least that's something. :) All this is captured on DVD and not on my website, but I might put something up later.
After coming back down it was time to go back to the hotel and wait the new years eve fireworks. I also had to repack both my bags to make them "roadtrip friendly" (rather than "flight friendly").
At 11:30pm I went up to the 12th floor club room (free snacks and drinks "until 7 or 8pm" and free drinks 24hrs). This room had a head-on view of the downtown skyline, dominated by the Sky Tower... I set up my camera for the midnight fireworks show and just waited with the 15 or so other people that were there...
The midnight show was good -- not great -- but the setting was wonderful! No drunk lunatics smashing glass beer bottles at my feet so riot police can think I did it and start yelling at me... no drunk lunatics throwing the beer bottles in the air either that I wouldn't have to avoid this year! It was great!
Next morning would be the start of my roadtrip in the North Island. But I'm not going to send those emails yet. It's time for me to go to my boarding gate here at AKL airport, for my flight back home! I'll send those emails out after reaching home, but all photos, trip maps, and emails are uploaded on my website through December 31:
http://www.callmewanderer.com/austrlia/nz0910/index.html
January 1-3 is still "TBD"...
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| Dec 30 | Contents | Jan 1 |