The Skytower is the icon of Auckland and, at 328 m high, is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. (To put that into perspective, the Empire State Building is 381 m at the top floor, and 443 m including the pinnacle.) BUT, since the high rise buildings in Auckland aren't really that tall, the Skytower really stands out and is very noticeable. You can pretty much spot it from most places in the city.
So, last night a group of 11 of us decided to go up to the Skytower to see the observatory floor and to have dinner at the revolving restaurant (appropriately named 'Orbit'). It was a very enjoyable evening. We made our reservations as early as we could (5:30) so that we would be up in the Skytower to enjoy the views while it was still light out and also to see it at night, with the whole city lit up. We took the elevator up to the main observatory floor (a section of the elevator floor was glass, and it was cool to look down).
We had a great view of the city and got to watch the sunset as well. I kept snapping pictures of pretty much the same thing since the lighting was constantly changing. Here's a progression of the sun setting:
I really enjoyed having a bird's eye view of this city that I have been walking around in for the past 4 months. We spotted our apartment building and campus and all of the places that we walk around - it was really an interesting experience!
You could walk the whole 360 degrees around the observatory floor, and some sections of the floor were glass. Here's me standing on the glass looking down:
We were pretty high up!
We also got to watch someone jump off the Skytower! They do this thing called the "Sky Jump," which is kind of like base jumping while being attached to a wire. You get an 11 second free fall (going about 85 kpm), but then they slow you down to a smooth stop at the bottom (so no bouncing like bungy jumping). We had an interesting vantage point, because the person was suspended right in front of us and then dropped.
Here's a video of the guy doing the Sky Jump: (I didn't think when I took the video that I shouldn't take it vertical, so you'll just have to turn your head to view it!)
After a half hour of enjoying the view and taking pictures, we headed to the restaurant to eat. The kitchen, elevator, bathrooms, etc. were all in the center part, which did not rotate, and]the tables were all located on a platform that did rotate. It was a fun experience. We ordered off an a la carte menu, but as long as everyone spent over $30, the elevator ride and trip to the observatory were free. Since the main courses all ranged from $25-$35, this was not difficult to accomplish. The food was really good too, so I figured that if you went to a nice restaurant, you could easily spend $30 per person, but here, we were getting a nice meal, plus an amazing view, an elevator ride, a trip to the observatory floor, and we got to eat in a revolving restaurant! Not bad at all, if you ask me!
Now I know New Zealand is famous for its lamb, but I've only had it twice since I've been here. Once was on the Loyola Taupo/Rotorua trip, where I had grilled lamb chops and the other time I bought lamb loin at the grocery store and cooked it myself. Both times it was very good. So, I figured that since I was at a nice restaurant, I would get lamb again. I was very happy with my choice because it was delicious. It was lamb tenderloin served over mashed potatoes, with a tomato, rosemary and kalamata olive compote. Kelly ordered the fish special, which I got to taste as well: red snapper with a tomato and caper salsa served over corn risotto. Everything was just delicious and I wish I could have had a sampler plate with several of the main courses because they all sounded so good!
We had a funny experience with the waiter. This was a nice restaurant, and I guess most people would probably order an entree (they call starters entrees here) AND a main. We, being cheap college students, were splurging enough just for the main meal. So Timm ordered first and ordered pasta as his main. Then, the waiter said "And to start?" and Timm thought that he HAD to order a starter as well. So he switched his pasta to be as a starter and then ordered salmon as his meal. But then as everyone else ordered, Timm realized that he wasn't required to order two courses and he changed his order. But somehow it got messed up and the waiter still brought him a starter! The waiter was reluctant to take it back and Timm felt really bad. The manager even came over to apologize to Timm. It was pretty funny!
Afterwards, some people went to the casino in the Skytower right from dinner. I went back to Empire with some of the boys (I wanted to change out of my heels!). Then, a little later on I walked back to the casino with TK and Gina and met everyone else there. I'm pretty sure that this was the first time I have ever been to a casino and I decided in about the first minute that it's not a place for me! Since I was there, I wanted to try something just for fun, so I put a $2 coin into the cheap slot machines and played a couple of games. Of course, I didn't win anything. Some people lost a good amount of money playing the tables. Not that I ever really thought otherwise, but this experience confirmed the fact that I am definitely not a gambler.
When everyone had had enough of the casino, we went to Empire Taverns to hang out for a bit. There was a nice cover band playing so we stayed there for a bit and then went to Denny's to get dessert. (Yes, there is a Denny's in Auckland.) I was pretty hungry, since even though the food was really good at the Sky Tower, the portions weren't all that large. So, I ordered pancakes a la mode, which completely hit the spot because I couldn't decide whether I wanted to order breakfast or dessert. It started raining while we were eating, so we stayed for a little while to see if we could wait out the rain, but it didn't seem to be stopping. Most people took a cab home, but TK, Gina and I decided to brave the rain and just walked back. We all had a very nice night!
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