We arrived in Auckland at 7:00 am. Today was the day we depart the ship for the last time. It was a great cruise and Holland America made it memorable. We disembarked shortly after docking and decided to take a taxi to our hotel, the Skycity Hotel Auckland. We joined the queue and to our surprise, we were at the front of the line within a few minutes. We loaded our luggage into the cab, got in and told the driver our destination. He told us the fare was $80 NZD. Trusting him, we said okay having no idea how far it was to our destination. This was the first time we had taken a taxi during our entire trip and the only time we got ripped off. The driver pulled out the port gate, drove three blocks and stopped in front of our hotel. He never even said thank you.

Intending to just store our luggage with the concierge until the hotel let us have our room later in the afternoon, we went up to the front desk and to our surprise they checked us in. This was great as we were able to settle into our room before we had to meet our 2:10 pm tour of Auckland we had previously booked.

The Skycity complex includes two hotels, Auckland’s only casino, the Sky Tower, the Sky City Theatre with an auditorium with 700-seats as well as many bars and restaurants. The Sky Tower is 328 meters (1,076 ft) tall making it the second tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere. The tower also features the "SkyJump", a 192-metre (630 ft) jump from the observation deck. The jump is guide-cable-controlled to prevent jumpers from colliding with the tower in case of wind gusts. Climbs into the antenna mast portion (300 m or 980 ft heights) are also possible, as is a walk around the exterior.

    
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Our tour guide picked us up for our 3-hour Auckland Express Tour adjacent to the hotel entrance at 2:10 pm. Skirting the harbor, our destination was the Westhaven Marina. It’s the largest yacht marina in the Southern Hemisphere. The marina has nearly two thousand berths and swing moorings, and is continually booked. From the marina, we had a great view of the Auckland Harbour Bridge which is an eight-lane motorway bridge over the Waitematā Harbour. It joins St Marys Bay on the Auckland city side with Northcote on the North Shore side.

             
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Mount Eden, our next stop, is the highest volcano among Auckland's 52 volcanos. It is 196m tall. From the summit, you can enjoy spectacular views of the city and its harbours. The cone is a dormant volcano and its summit, at 196 meters (643 ft) above sea level, is the highest natural point on the Auckland isthmus. The bowl-like crater is 50 meters (160 ft) deep.

           
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Continuing on, it was a short drive to our next location. Enjoying a headland location, Achilles Point provides a viewing platform with fantastic views of the Hauraki Gulf, Brown's Island, Rangitoto Island and distant view of Auckland city.

           
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Leaving Achilles Point, we drove straight back to the hotel to conclude our 3-hour tour. By now, it was time to look for a restaurant for dinner. We went outside the hotel and walked up and down a couple of streets. Finding nothing other than a giant Santa on the side of a building we opted to go back and try one of the hotels many restaurants. Arriving back at Skycity, we were met by Santa himself. Christmas must be around the corner.

  
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