van wyk journeys 
We decided to walk to Mount Eden for an overview of the entire city, this was well worth the time and the walk uphill to go there.
As this was also a Hop-on-Hop-off bus stop, our plan was to start our tour of Auckland there.
An amusing and somewhat awkward moment occurred when we boarded the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus. We planned to pay at boarding but the driver let us on and said we could pay once we got to the museum stop, as she had no way to accept our payment. She seemed quite confused as she had never had anyone walk up Mt. Eden and then catch the tour. When we got to the museum she told us to wait outside the bus and she would come and get our payment. It is a busy cross-over stop for the buses. The next thing we knew she was driving off. It worked out well as we were thinking it wasn’t really worth the $45.00 each.
From the drop-off point, we walked downtown and caught a city bus to Mission Bay. It was Saturday afternoon and seemed to be where locals went to spend the day. We took the bus ride back downtown and then walked uphill again to the hotel.