-18 Days on the Road
Today, we thought we’d share a special place with you. A place where we have spent A LOT of time recently – the Auckland Domain. One reason being, it’s the wildest area in Auckland Central with lots to do. And the second reason being, it is the only place in Auckland Central where there is enough room to practice flying a drone… Let’s concentrate on that first reason for now.
The Auckland Domain is a HUGE park. HUGE, we tell ya! There’s a section of wild forest, open grassy areas, posh gardens, rude statues, trees with roots that just won’t quit, and, the tourist hotspot, the Auckland Museum.
Frolicking in the forest
On the Auckland Domain’s wild side, there’s some short walking tracks winding their way through the forest. That’s right, you read that correctly, the forest! When strolling along the Lovers Walk (always awkward when you take your mates down here) surrounded by hilly and densely vegetated terrain, you’d never think this was in the middle of a freakin’ city.
Like any park that has taken classes on how to be a park, there are numerous areas of large grassy patches – the largest being the sports field where we’ve seen more people jogging in circles than playing sports. Other “grassy areas” are dotted with all kinds of weird trees including those with roots bigger than than their branches. We’re not ashamed to climb them once in a while. Anyway, these big open areas make the Auckland Domain the host of so many events in Auckland City. So far, we’ve “rocked out” at a lantern festival and a music festival here over the past few months.
With all this, it’s not difficult to find a quiet area in the Domain to practice safely flying the drone, especially around 6am. Before the campervan came into our lives and required so much attention, we used to rock up to the Domain every morning so Robin could practice operating the drone and Laura could practice taking pretentious shots with the DSLR. There was one subject of all Robin’s drone photos that we were completely taking advantage of because of its grand structure – the Auckland Museum.
Musings on the Auckland Museum
Robin can’t count the amount of times he has been to the Auckland Museum. (Laura can: twice… whatever). The museum is definitely a must-do for anyone who has just arrived in New Zealand. It really helps to put things into context before you travel the country, such as why so many of the native birds are flightless, why the North Island is such a geothermal “hotbed”, and how the Maori discovered New Zealand.
Between you and us, if you have a letter or something with your name and an Auckland address, you can get in for free. That’s easy enough to accomplish for those with a New Zealand bank account… Enough said.
This time at the museum, our personal highlight was the volcano simulator. We really got to see what it would be like to be sat in a fancy living room with floor-to-ceiling windows displaying a harbour view with Rangitoto Island… And, that’s it. It’s just an insight into the property market… Nah, the simulator shows what it would be like if a volcano erupted in the Auckland Harbour. We’ll leave you to find out the rest yourself when you get to the museum.
The Winter Gardens
We’re pretty lucky to have the Auckland Domain to practice with all our camera equipment. As we said earlier, there’s enough space to practice with the drone. Plus, there’s always some interesting subjects to practice photography. No, we’re not talking about those sweaty runners in the park. We’re talking about the Winter Gardens! We’ve had a bit too much fun setting up the 360 camera and hiding behind various plants in these huge greenhouses.
We’ll leave you with that virtual reality image so you can see what we mean.
Theta 360 Loading...
More on all that…
To see all the images we’ve been capturing in the Auckland Domain during our practice sessions, take a look at our sexy Instagram profile or find our pins in the Auckland Domain on Herepin.
The Auckland Domain graces many of our articles on NZPocketGuide.com, so find more fun and free stuff to do in Auckland by reading:
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