We awoke from our slumber all spaced out and jet lagged feeling like we were in the 1970's. We grabbed some brekky in the 1970's dining room before getting our stuff together and checking out. We had to get back to the airport in order to get picked up by the camper van people. We waved goodbye to the kiwi on the roof and got in the minibus to the airport. Luckily 'Mr Happy' wasn't working today! Once at the airport we went into the Telecom NZ shop to get a sim card. The girl behind the counter was young and surly and scowled at us. She basically just grunted at us and provided no helpful information whatsoever. Her customer service skills were nil! We hoped everyone wasn't going to be as miserable as this in NZ. She had lost them a sale. We instead went next door to Vodafone who were massively more helpful and got us connected on the NZ mobile network. With this done we phoned the camper van people who picked us up ten minutes later and whizzed us over to their place a few kilometres away. We were dealt with by a really lovely and friendly lady at Mighty Campers who introduced us to our new little home and got us on our way. We needed to do a big shop first and were in a bit of a conundrum as to which supermarket to go to. We just had to go to the Countdown Supermarket that we had seen on the way from the airport. We just hoped that we wouldn't be against the countdown clock as we were shattered and couldn't cope with rushing! We shoved our trolley around Countdown still feeling spaced out and got everything we needed including a packet of PG Tips tea bags that seriously looked like they belonged in the 1970's. With this done we drove through Auckland to the caravan park we had booked in the northern coastal suburb of Takapuna. It felt weird to be driving a different vehicle as I had got so used to driving our lovely 'girl' in Australia. We had got a GPS with our new camper but it isn't as good as our old mate Les. The voice on it is robotic and without personality which is a shame. Never mind though our new GPS guided us successfully through the Auckland suburbs. We were guided along the motorway and over the Auckland Bridge into the northern suburbs. The view of the city was very impressive with the skyline dominated by the spectacular Sky Tower. Before too long we were coming off the motorway and were soon in Takapuna which is a lovely cosmopolitan place full of cafes and bars. The caravan park was a wonderful quirky place and we got a great spot right on the sea front and with an incredible view. This was a fantastic place to begin our New Zealand camping adventures. We got everything unpacked and put away, had our tea and then collapsed absolutely knackered. It was great to be sleeping in a camper van again.