Auckland

There are no direct flights from Christchurch to Kansai International Airport, so I have to spend a night in Auckland on my way to Japan in May. I was originally going to spend the night in a hotel near the airport, but since I have a whole afternoon and evening in Auckland I've decided to stay in the city. I also plan to take the opportunity to ascend the Sky Tower, which I haven’t done before.

Hopefully things will go a bit more smoothly than they did the last time I made such a plan. This was in 2007 when I had to spend something like ten hours in Auckland on my way to Myanmar. My onward flight wasn't until around midnight, so I planned to take the bus into the city and have dinner at Orbit, the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower.

Unfortunately, on that occasion my arrival in the City of Sails coincided with that of the Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2, and the streets around the harbour were clogged with cars as people tried to get a view of the world's longest, tallest and widest ocean liner. The traffic was so bad that for a time the airport bus couldn't even get to the airport. In the end I decided it was too risky going into the city so I canceled my booking at Orbit and stayed at the airport.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 149.5km
Days left until departure: 42