Originally Posted by
kmandrew
We are arriving Feb 26 then fly to Queenstown Feb 28. My original plan was to stay at the Hilton (120k), now my wife is suggesting we stay here (50k). Her logic is - we land at 1300; drop off our luggage then make our way downtown on public transport, eat dinner, walk around then make our way back - flying from LAX so will be pretty wiped. On the 27th she wants to do a day trip up north, I assume any tour company would pick us up at the HI. This plan will allow us to have a more relaxed morning if we book the 10:30 to ZQN on the 28th.
Any thoughts?
It is a great place to stay for a short time. There is a bus to take you to a railway station nearby where you can change to train to go to city centre or another bus. So there is exploration opportunities. A short walk there is an market type street mall with restaurants. So there is a plus too.
But it is very unlikely tour company would pick you from this hotel. Unless you book a tour from the hotel where transportation can be arranged. If this can not be arrange, you could either take Uber (yes it is available in Auckland) or get up early and take the shuttle to airport then the airport bus to downtown to join the tour.
Since your morning flight is around 10:30, personally I would use this hotel so that I can get up early and have a nice breakfast before heading back to airport. But if you wish to explore the North Auckland, you must do some homework on where you want to go and whether there is a tour available, or whether the public transportation is available on the day you are there. I highly recommend Google map to search for schedule if you have a good idea on where you want to go. If you want to take public transportation, a Auckland transportation card is very necessary. Otherwise make sure you can use Uber with roaming on your phone by either purchase a data package or a local SIM. I recommend a Glocal Me device if your phone is locked to your network in the US.