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The morning we left Russell, was a perfect clear day, not a single cloud in the sky!! It was beautiful! So with this in mind I decided to NOT take the ferry route back, and save ourselves $12.00 by going the inland route to Auckland.. (The route I originally anticipated, but was conned in going the ferry route!) Anyway what I didn't realise, until half way along the route, was there is two routes this way back to the State Highway, 1 - the quickest route inland, or 2 - the scenic route, along the coastline. Without knowing, we took the coastal route, option 2. It was stunning though, and the Bay of islands really do look superb in the sun.... But the negative point is this trip added an extra hour on the journey, and was endless winding roads again.... So I guess, every cloud does have a silver lining!!! It was worth it!
Fact - The bay of islands was named by good old Captain James Cook, when he sailed the region in 1769.
Throughout the whole trip in New Zealand, we have been map reading, rather than putting our trust into a satellite navigation system, which on a number of occasions in Australia and England have managed to get us lost..... So we thought - back to basics, and if we get lost - that will be the adventure we're here for! Well I must admit, I have excelled myself, I single handily have got us from A to B each time, without getting lost once!! Well done me! On a couple of occasions, I found myself biting my nails as my map I was using wasn't very accurate, and didn't show half of the towns we were going to / driving through, so a lot was on instinct!! But we made it! Luke drove 80% of the way and I did the rest, But I did do the 100% Map reading!
Anyway an hour behind schedule, we eventually met up with the main highway which goes straight down the whole North Island. And were on our way again... Within minutes, disaster struck! A huge lorry went past us in the other direction, scattering heaps of rubble and stones all over our van, after the turmoil, we realised there were 3 stone chips in our windscreen, and one huge crack! It was about 6 inches long!! Oh god!!
We called the campervan hire company, and they were really cool about it - but basically said were going to have to cough up the money for a new windscreen!! Bah, Lorry drivers! Its true what Jeremy Clarkson says about them..... Huffff!!!
After our stress, we reached 'Waipu'. This is just a little village between Whangerei and Auckland, and is the hometown of my good friend 'Gimma'. All throughout our time in America back in 2004, she would tell me stories about her shifts at work at the 'Pizza Barn, in Waipu' so the obvious choice to meet Gim was there, at the Pizza Barn!! We pulled up, a little earlier than we'd arranged to meet (somehow?!).....
And read the sign.... Closed!!!
It had recently changed its opening hours, to only be open Wednesday to Sunday typically!! We waited around in the midday sun for Gim, so took a stroll up and down the main street. Then received a call from Gim, She had broken down so was unable to get to us... This day was filled with bad luck, so we tried to make our way to Auckland safe and uneventful... We reached Takapuna (uneventfully) where we anchored up for our final stay in New Zealand, Takapuna is this little beach town, its Aucklands Equivalent to Bondi, its a nice beach in the harbour, 15 minutes away from the city.
Takapuna is one of the busiest areas we've stayed in, were usually in a tiny little town with one of everything, 1 supermarket, 1 gas station, 1 school etc.. But here has streets lined with bars, cafe's, restaurants, shops, its a really nice place to stay!! And across the water is a volcano, ( Sorry I forget its name 'Mt R......something') so the beach on our side has black molten rock from the volcanoes last blast! Scary!
We parked up, had a stroll along the beach, then back through the shop centre. On route back, we had a peep into a pet shop, and in the glass cages were the cutest puppies!! There was one Jack Russell puppy - with the exact face of Millie, but a complete white body - this puppy had long gangly legs, adorable!! A couple of Shiatsu puppies, fighting with each other, and a few border collie pups.... Awwww!!
The next day, Our final day in New Zealand. We ventured out into the big city of Auckland, we got the bus down to Devonport, this was another quaint little village with a wharf, which has the main ferry terminal to Auckland CBD from the North Shore. Then we got the 10 minute ferry across Auckland harbour into the city.
We spent the day walking around, just seeing what there is, its basically just a city, a big one on the scale of New Zealand standards, but probably the same size of Leeds City Centre really. After a couple of hours we stopped off for lunch, and we didn't try a local cuisine, we didn't go for anything new and exciting, No, we went to Pizza hut!! We were not able to eat Pizza the other day in Waipu, so Pizza was on our minds! Not even a local pizza shop, we chose one of the biggest chains of Pizza places in the world.... In hind sight, maybe we should have been a little more adventurous on our last day...
Feeling full we traipsed the streets again, burned of a couple of slices of pizza, wached a few people jump off the sky tower... This is a bungy jump experience sort of thing. You are on the ledge at the top of the sky tower - attached to a harness, then the harness is attached by two wires at either side, then you jump off the ledge, then you fall, but guided by the wire, down to the ground, literally within seconds of hitting the floor, somehow brakes are applied, so its a soft landing down to earth!! Then made our way back to the other side of the harbour by ferry, then slowly made our decent back to Takapuna.
Luke went for a beach run, and I struggled with packing my bags for leaving!
My friend Gim, came over to spend the evening with us, so we just hung out in Takapuna with her for a while, we caught up on old times, and what we've all been up to. I usually get to see Gemma every couple of years or so, but she visited us in Sydney in September, so its only been 7 months this time. But every time we do catch up, its as though we see each other all the time!! So that was nice. Then we spent the rest of the night tying up loose ends with the van so it is good enough to give back tomorrow minus the blooming windscreen!!!)
The next morning we planned to drive into the city to meet Gem for breakfast before going to drop the van off and get all checked in at the airport. It would have been A lovely way to end our trip to New Zealand!............ But we spent the morning emptying out all the grey water / cleaning the van and filling the water....
At the return place, they gave us the bill for $300 for a new windscreen!! So we squeezed our pockets dry and paid the money, and with our pockets lightr we went to the airport... We were sat having a coffee, when the fire alarm went off - we heard an announcement just telling us to be ready - we MAY have to evacuate..... The alarm persisted for about 5 minutes, then when it stopped, a further announcement came over the tanoy to tell all staff members, it was safe to enter the building!! Charming!!!
Both Luke & I have thoroughly enjoyed our time here in New Zealand, it's been a unique experience, and we loved living in our home on wheels ( for the first two weeks) have loved the freedom both the camper has brought us, and the country too. It's definitely a more 'outdoors' country and has the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen, so for now i'll say.. in the world! And it's definitely feels like we have gone back in time.
New Zealand is up there on my list of favourite places.
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