City of Sails - Part 1: Harbour Bridge

In a few days we'll be celebrating the first anniversary of our arrival in New Zealand. Thinking of that recently, I realized that we have not made a proper introduction of our home town, Auckland, the City of Sails. Thus, taking advantage of my Fridays off and the fact that the weather is still great (as we're slowly approaching the rainy winter season) I made an exploratory trip under the bridge.

The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane motorway bridge over the Waitemata Harbour. It joins Saint Mary's Bay in Auckland with Northcote in North Shore City (we live some 15 minutes north of the bridge - similar to Larkspur's distance from the Golden Gate Bridge). The bridge is the second-longest road bridge in New Zealand. The bridge has a length of 3,348 feet and rises more than 145 feet above high water.

According to the information I found in Wikipedia, "the bridge took four years to build. Rail lines, as well as walking and cycling paths were originally part of the design, but unfortunately were dropped for cost reasons [...] The bridge was opened officially on May 30, 1959 [...] It started out as a toll bridge. Tolls were originally 25 cents per car but were reduced 20 cents after 15 months of operation. Later tolling was made south-bound only before being discontinued on March 30, 1984. This was in line with political commitments that tolls would only be charged until the bridge's construction costs were paid off [...] Owing to the rapid expansion of suburbs on the North Shore and increasing traffic levels, in 1969 two-lane box girder clip-on sections were added to each side, doubling the number of lanes to eight."

Using our invaluable "Jill-Jill" (or what others call a GPS), I found my way through the North Shore suburbs to the side of the bridge. I discovered a couple great-looking restaurants on my way too. One of them, "Wharf," looks like a flying saucer and is situated almost right below the bridge. It has great views of the city skyline and the bridge itself. Will be a great place to come for a romantic dinner.









I decided to be daring and ventured right under the bridge... A bit spooky but worthwhile, I guess.





I stopped at a little beach with a few huts and great views across the water.











And before I headed back home I had lunch at "Sausalito"!



I found out from one of the waitresses that the couple who owns the place spent some time in San Francisco a few years back. They fell in love with Sausalito and chose to name their new restaurant after the town in Marin County.