Aotea Square with Auckland City sights to see these school holidays...

Aotea Square in Auckland City near the Night Markets

It was neat to take my youngest two out to town for some movies and a bite to eat on this the first week of their holidays before we fly out to Samoa on the weekend.

What was neat to view on our way to the Queen Street Cinema was the Night Markets outside the Aotea Centre packed with mostly Asia foods and places to sit, talk and eat.

Because we live out in the suburbs, we don't venture out to the city much with the crazy car parking costs (free out in the suburbs) and the packed motorway that doesn't really seem worth the effort after an hour often stuck in traffic.

However, it was just nice to go into town in reminiscent of how I'd spent 5 years in town attending Auckland Uni (as it was known then) in my late teens, early twenties and working on Queen Street as a Uni student whilst studying.

That's another reason why I'm the preferred driver when we drive into town and now currently attending meetings at the Town Hall for Auckland Councils Pacific Advisory Panel with our term set to end in the next couple of months.

There were some light features on trees nearby in the Aotea square and the Town Hall was lit up with some laser light art. Definitely, nothing to compare with the large scale laser lights show in Sydney (Darling Harbour and surrounding Opera House etc.) that we witnessed a few years ago but still neat to see.

Alternatively, people were also ice skating in the rink with lots of eateries close by if wanting a little bit more than market foods. I was actually surprised at how many people were out and about in the chilly evening as we were.

Afterwards, it was nice to drive back home at a leisurely pace with no traffic congestion at night and away from the hustle and bustle of city life and looking forward to Samoa...