06/11/2016 I woke up like clockwork at 5m again - and when I stepped outside the tent, it was very easy to see the milky way. I answered the call of nature (Not a Tui bird!), ad went back to the tent, and set up the tripod and camera to try and capture a shot of the milky way, but by the time I had done that at 5.30am the sky had lightened enough and clouded over enough that it was not longer possible.
I had sorted everything out the night before so that I could easily empty the tent ready for dismantling, and that proved to be the case. The only problem I hit was that the fly sheet had condensation on the inside and dew on the outside, and no amount of drying seemed to help as it was still very cold air.
Once I removed the fly from the frame, I noticed that the main velcro fastener had dis-adhesived (is that a word?) from the rest of the fly, and indeed the seams themselves appeared to be unsticking themselves too - I suspect I need to buy a new flysheet.
After trying as best I could to dry it out, I packed the tent away, and took everything to the lounge, to pack the tent in to the rucksack. Having moved the excess clothing in to the day bag, it was much easier to pack the main rucksack this time, and it felt like there would be enough space fr a few extras once I ship it off, so I'll work on that as soon as I get to Auckland.
WIth everything packed, I headed to the kitchen and caught up with Sara regarding status of my apartment via Facebook. I had time for a sandwich and then decided that since I had to be at the bus stop at 7.45, and I had only walked the distance with full kit while jet lagged, I would leave the campsite at 7am.
I made it to the bus stop for 7.30am, so got a chancce to chillax, using the rucksack as a seat.
Guilleme from France arrived, also awaiting the same bus. Another bus marked 'Auckland' arrived and we were both unsure if it was the right one, until our bus turned up. We chatted about travels and plans, and I was given a few tips of places to visit while based in Auckland. Guilleme had hitch hiked to a few places that the busses don't go to - so that may be an option, though I suspect that's only if I'm not sporting so much luggage!
The bus we were on was an express service, which meant there was no scheduled stop at 'The Coffee Pot', however that idea was scuppered when something went wrong with the bus, and we had to pull in there anyway so that the driver could fix it. Guilleme had an onwards bound bus so took up the offer of hopping on the other bus that we had been swithering about earlier in the morning.
This time I remembered what side of the bus I should be on to get skyline photos of Auckland, and I managed to get a few - apparently the highway near Auckland has a better maintenance budget, as there was no bumpiness to shake up the attempts!
I got to the hostel at 1pm, but checking was not until 2pm, so I went to Mad Mex, a mexican taco bar, so I enjoyed some tacos and a bottole of beer for lunch instead of the sandwiches, which were now relegated to dinner duty.
Once I checked in I met the various people I was sharing the dorm with:
Michael from WA
James from Vancouver
Sophie from Gloucester
Stefan from Berlin
??? from Colorado

James, Michael and Garet are all volunteers for a servie that offers placements to help communities such as looking after coastal preservation of wildlife etc.

Not everyone had moved in yet, however, I was keen to get some kind of sightseeing in, so decided to go up the Sky Tower. I headed off to go up the Auckland Sky Tower. At the door various activites were listed as possible - there was an opportunity to walk around the outside edge 55 floors up, or to bungee jump from there. Each of those options had a price tag close to £80, and given my developing vertigo recently, I decided that I didn't want to have to pay for the privilige of being terrified, so I opted to not do either!
I paid $29NZ to get entry to the Sky Cafe, and the level 53 and level 60 viewing platforms, all of them safely inside with thick glass to prevent people plummeting to their untimely death. I also paid an extra $4NZ for the chance to visit later on in the day, with a view to going up to take some night time photographs of Auckland.
As is common with a lot of these high tower viewing platforms (for example Space needle in Seattle), there was a photo opportunity before getting in the lift, so I did the honours. I wanted to have my bag with Nessie included but I realised they were using green screen not bluescreen for the mask, and since Nessie toy is green, it would have disappeared, so instead I went for an action pose.
I somehow managed to spend about 2 hours up there admiring the views and scouting out where I wanted to be when it got dark, then headed back to the hostel.
On my way out, I bough post cards, and checked out how my photo had come out. I was given a warm reception by the staff, who said that mine was the best photo ever - not just the best of the day, I have to admit it turned out pretty well, so I paid for the souvenir pack. I will upload the photos eventually - still having trouble with poor internet connectivity!
I bought a voucher for a 7 day paid wifi option at the hostel, and shortly found out that it was just as bad as the internet at the camp site, I'm starting to wonder if this is endemic to New Zealand or just that the accomodation places are seriously over subscribed because all travellers use wifi enabled devices now.
Someone came to the room to try and persuade us all to go out to a game of killer pool and drink the night away at a local bar, but it seems that despite all of us in the room saying yes, none of us actually wanted to since we wanted to have some level of productivity the following day!
I spent some time packing my day bag with the camera and zoom lens and tripod, and headed out to the Sky Tower again around 9pm. I headed straight to the level 60 viewing platform and made a beeline for the spot I'd found to get the best shots of the bridge, and got to work. There was a bit of experimentation involved, as I haven't really done a lot of night time cityscape long shutter speed photos, but III started to get a feel for exposure times and aperture sizes. The roads were not really busy enough to create nice continuous streams of head/tail lights but I did get some nice photos out of it.
I headed back to the hostel and started to write this report up, but found myself falling asleep, so went to bed.