5 January, the eve of Three Kings’ Day:
Hi team!!!! We’re Sylvie and Moni, and we are so excited to get in touch😊 We’ve been living in New Zealand for years, we have an incredible project ahead of us and we’d love to talk to you about it first🙌🙌🙌
New Zealand? What a dream! And it’s Juanjo’s bucket-list trip! And that project… the suspense!
The next day, somewhere between one present and the next, I was already writing back to find out what this incredible project was all about.
Long story short, it turns out they want to create their own personalised, inclusive trips, and they would love us to do a pilot trip together.
The idea had two sides: to find out first hand what travelling around New Zealand is like as a blind person and, at the same time, for me to share with Sylvie and Moni my experience and knowledge of accessibility, especially the parts that, not being blind themselves, they might not have had the chance to come across.
Did it take much convincing to throw ourselves into this project? Not a chance! In fact, just over two months after that first Instagram message, we were flying to Auckland.
Mind you, during those weeks the video calls, the WhatsApps and the emails back and forth were relentless.
Getting to New Zealand takes a while, but I particularly enjoyed our stopover at Shanghai airport. Yes, we flew from Dublin via Frankfurt and China. And the shops! So many adorable plushies and blind boxes — those surprise packets where you have no idea which figure you’re going to get.
In fact, Juanjo and Eric, who had gone off in search of food, surprised me with a blind box and a gorgeous plush of a chubby panda. And of course, afterwards Eric went back to the shop with me, where I bought myself a little panda plush keyring and, yes, another blind box.
We landed in Auckland at 7 in the morning, New Zealand time, around 12 hours ahead of Dublin, where we’d taken off some 32 hours earlier.
A stop along the way: the paperwork
But before we throw ourselves into the New Zealand adventure, a little paperwork! There are two things you need to sort out in advance:
- The NZeTA, an electronic travel authority needed by travellers from certain countries, Spain and Ireland among them. It’s worth applying with a bit of time to spare, as it can take up to 72 hours to process, so don’t leave it until the last minute. If you’re travelling on a different passport, check whether you need it or whether you have to apply for a visa. The NZeTA is valid for two years and costs 17 New Zealand dollars through the official app, or 23 from the website. On top of that, in most cases, you also pay a tourist levy of 100 New Zealand dollars (the IVL).
- The New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD), free and compulsory for everyone, children included, which you can fill in online from 24 hours before your flight.
And do pay attention to that last one, because New Zealanders take biosecurity very seriously in order to protect their ecosystems. They will ask you about the soles of your shoes! Food, anything of animal or plant origin, gear used outdoors… it all counts.
In fact, when we arrived they asked whether we were carrying any food and I explained that Eric had some chocolate bars from the plane and a few bits bought at the airport. Happily, the chocolate made it through border control! 😂
Auckland at last!
With all the formalities behind us and our suitcases in hand, we headed for arrivals, where Sylvie and Moni were waiting for us in their brand new Watchout Tours hoodies.
After barely two months of video calls and messages, finally meeting Sylvie and Moni in person was quite emotional.
We went to pick up our hire car and, after a very quick stop at the Waipuna Hotel & Conference Centre to drop off the bags, we headed straight into the city centre.
Our first morning in Auckland
Our first stop, for breakfast and to recharge, was Federal Delicatessen, a New York-style deli, very close to the Sky Tower. It’s a well-known spot in Auckland, although Eric wasn’t quite as impressed as we were. While his dear father and I enjoyed a good pastrami sandwich, one of the house specialities, he went off afterwards in search of a bakery to buy himself a croissant.
Well fed, and with a much-needed caffeine boost for some of us, we headed up the Sky Tower.
A few facts about the Sky Tower
- It is 328 metres tall: the tallest structure in New Zealand.
- It opened in 1997: it is part of the SkyCity complex, right in the centre of Auckland.
- It has three observation levels: the lift takes you up to floor 60. The Main Observation Level, on floor 51, is at 186 metres; The Lookout, on floor 53, at around 194 metres; and the Sky Deck, on floor 60, at 220 metres.
- Views of up to 80 kilometres: on clear days you can pick out different parts of Auckland and its surroundings from the viewing levels.
- There is plenty for anyone after a shot of adrenaline: the SkyWalk, an outdoor stroll along a platform 192 metres up, and the SkyJump, a controlled jump from that same height. Since our visit, another attraction has opened: SkyRide, which lifts visitors outside the tower before bringing them back down.
There’s also a section of glass floor on the main viewing level, on floor 51, which some people find quite something. And just above, on floor 52, is Orbit 360° Dining, a revolving restaurant 190 metres up. While you eat, the restaurant turns to give you a full panorama of Auckland.
And that lift! You can really feel the acceleration as it whisks you up all those metres. And Eric loved walking on the glass floor of the main viewing level.
But one of the things we enjoyed most was, oddly enough, the souvenir shop. There we got to touch small miniatures of the tower and form a much clearer idea of its shape: like an enormous lollipop, with a sort of ring fairly high up that wraps around it, where the viewing levels are.
As it was a glorious early autumn day, after leaving the Sky Tower we took the chance to walk around central Auckland. We came across loads of shops, some of my favourites among them, like Lush and Pop Mart. Down by the waterfront, there was that lovely smell of salty sea air and the gentle clinking of the boats in the harbour.
After a good few explanations from Sylvie and Moni about what we were looking at and, of course, a good few photos and videos, came the sweet moment of the day: they took us to one of the top ice cream places in Auckland, if not the top one, the Giapo ice cream shop.
I’ll admit that by then I was starting to flag, as I’d barely slept on the flights, and I only had a modest little tub of lemon ice cream. But then… along came Juanjo’s chocolate and hazelnut ice cream. That wasn’t a cone, it was a monument to chocolate so enormous that it needed its own postcode.
Between how delicious and how spectacular it was, we understood why Giapo is so famous.
Once Juanjo managed to finish off that chocolate monstrosity, we went back to the hotel to rest for a while and have dinner in its own restaurant.
I liked the hotel. The lift had braille on the buttons and announced the floors, and it was right beside a lake, a little outside Auckland, so you could hear plenty of birds and it was very peaceful.
After so many hours of travelling, so many emotions and discoveries, and an ice cream of town planning proportions, it was time to rest. And this was only the beginning!
