Auckland had finally arrived, our last stop after 6-7 weeks in our little van, which had done us proud!! Surprisingly we had no problems finding the Escape campervan depot and everything went smoothly. What a relief knowing we had received no fines for scratches etc as it had taken some beatings over our time in NZ!! Before we handed it back we made one last stop at Mt Eden on the outskirts of the city centre, which was a volcanic crater which you could drive or walk up to get a great view of the city and skyline, well worth the short detour as well! Up here we had our last beans and egg on toast and took a moment of silence for "freddy", it was quite emotional giving the van back after 42 days haha!

The hostel we had booked in Auckland was smack in the centre of Queen Street the main shopping road, which was great making access to everything we wanted to do very easy. We only had a day and a half in Auckland which we found to be enough. We got all our jobs done before Fiji and literally walked most the city taking in some of the sites such as the Sky Tower and National Museum, which was very impressive. We also took a walk along the harbour front where there were people sailing everywhere, it was then clear why they call Auckland the "City of Sails". There are so many islands surrounding Auckland!

Although we were missing our van it was great to be in a hostal again, and we got a double room as it was low season rates so was not much more than a dorm. The first night after getting another haircut (thought I might keep myself relatively smart after looking back at Aussie´s photos haha, although it is all about variation) we treated ourselves to a meal out at one of the local food courts and then went to the movies to watch "defiance". We had wanted to watch it since we had been in NZ but never knew when it was out so it was great timing.

Other than checking out what the city had to offer we didn´t do much, it was great after being on the go all the time to sit back and relax, catch up on some sleep and prepare ourselves for paradise for the next two weeks.