As our travels throughout the North Island have come full circle back to Auckland and to an end, we certainly have enjoyed our stay filled with rich and playful experiences. Randomly, here are some observations:

-super friendly folks and relaxed yet active lifestyles
many people walk everywhere and anytime in their bare-feet!
-100km/hr speedlimit on a super twisty and narrow rural road (scary thing is some people do it and tailgate like crazy!)
-then again, rarely do we see anyone speeding -however we read in the paper that drivers are given speeding tickets based on their salary! One man was appealing his ticket of $117,000 for speeding 23km over the limit!!
-mostly small cars and few large pick-up trucks
-kids allowed in a pub….thank goodness for cold beer on a hot day!
-driving on the wrong side of the road!
-place and street names a huge challenge as they are in Maori language
-eggs in grocery stores not refrigerated
-delicious and tasty local produce!
-when there’s a mountain, slap up a fence and throw some sheep or cattle in and they adapt!
-fantastic and abundant public toilets!
-cool power outlets that allow switching off phantom energy use
-too many roundabouts!
-high cost of gas (about $1.95/L)
-high cost of milk ($5.89 for 3L) even when there are so many dairy cattle!
-Kiwi accents!
-terminology (eg. boot & bonnet for hood & trunk of car!)
-madness for rugby and cricket!
-super clean and lush
-culturally aware and recognize Maori history (emphasized through tourism)

We will miss our little Nissan car and the GPS telling us to ‘turn left after the skin cancer clinic’! Jeff did an amazing job driving overall (don't tell him that!)

Off to Sydney tomorrow.....!