AUT Millennium

Arrived into Auckland yesterday morning, quick drive to Silverdale in the rental Toyota RAV4, then straight out for lunch and a walk along Goat Island beach. Managed to stay awake until 10 pm to beat the jet lag. Woke at 4 am wide awake and ready to swim. Spent an hour in bed researching pools and made a plan to head 20 minutes back towards the city for a 50 m swim at AUT Millennium — the timetable suggested 50 m format from 5:30 to 9:00.

Wet and misty morning, and cold.

Pulled into a very impressive sports hub, and the signs started to make sense — there are two 50 m pools on site in separate buildings. Had a peek into the Sir Owen G. Glenn National Aquatic Centre across the way, you can just about see the empty pool from the cafe in reception (from the pool website I knew it was closed for refurbishment, being re‑tiled) will definitely need to come back again to get this one on the list - reopens January i'm told. Head over next door to a very busy AUT Millennium centre. Through the glass from reception: a 50 m, 10‑lane pool buzzing with training sessions. Looked absolutely awesome.

The reception team were great — fast‑lane check‑in (no idea what that is), then a super friendly, helpful lady took a very reasonable NZD $11 lane‑swim fee, warned me there were only three lanes open to the public and it might be busy, lent me a padlock (forgot mine), and walked me to the nice changing rooms.

Out on deck to find only slow and medium lanes marked; the third lane was reserved for water‑walking aerobics. When I say slow and medium, both had some pretty decent pace going on. I jumped in the slow lane — actually the quicker of the two — and got moving. My lane buddies were doing 100s with fins and across the pool was a sea of NZ team caps running drills with bungees and all sorts of kit.

Fantastic swim environment — it really helps to have fast pace all around you. Ten 50 m lanes. About half the pool seems to sit over concrete floor at roughly 2 m depth, then there's a step halfway up to give a shallow end (I'd guess around 1.2 m). There's a floating boom at one end but I couldn't quite figure out how they divide things up with it.

The floor is concrete and a bit dinged in places — worn, but in a good, well‑used way. Water is super clear and perfectly cold.

Worked through 1 km, had to stop to remove the wristband as it was pinching between skin and watch (my fault for asking for it tight). Finished up at 3.2 km with a mix of shorter sets.

Time for breakfast. The sun came out. Drove 10 minutes to Browns Bay, the closest beach town. Five minutes on a bench looking out to the beach and ocean and I decided I'm not going home, I'm just going to stay here and live here in Browns Bay! However, I will need one of those multi‑million dollar houses on the waterfront!

Checked TripAdvisor and found a recommended breakfast spot: Common Ground Cafe — excellent.