So our Auckland entry wasn't suppose to be for another few weeks...but will explain later!!! After leaving the corromandel we thought we would make our way towards Auckland..stay for one night on the outskirts and then go north to the Bay of Islands for our last few weeks in NZ. We were originally going to stay in a caravan park that was by the beach and quite remote but at the last minute I thought we should head to one in Manauka which is south of the city. We had dinner and relaxed for the night. The next morning we got ready to go and Rodney just wouldnt behave, he started blowing lots of smoke out and kept cutting out. Kam was desperatly trying to start him up and I was looking at the exhaust.....a really nasty German guy in a posh Britz van started shouting at us because of the smoke and we felt really crap! There was no way Rodney was going to go anywhere. We had to arrange for a mobile mechanic to come out later in the afternoon.....he came out and suggested we take it to a diesel specialist in town. So we had to get him booked in over the following few days. All we could do is wait in this caravan park and pray for what to do. The caravan park was more like a German refugee camp! It was a bit soul destroying as there was nothing around the caravan park apart from motorway and everyone was German. Friday came and we had to take Rodney down the motorway to the mechanics, we had to pray big time that we would make it there...amazingly he did and we left him in the hands of them. We were suppose to take a train into Auckland city centre to look around but I was desperate for a wee!!! So we had to go on a mission to find a toilet and totally missed the train we were about to get on......think it was all Gods plan because we soon recieved a phone call from the mechanics saying our worse fears......Rodney was not worth saving..we went back to the mechanics and they said the injectors and the fuel pump had totally gone and it would cost $2000 to fix it.....theres no way we could afford it and it was more than he was worth anyway! We both felt really gutted and knew we would have to bring our flights forward as we couldnt afford to stay in NZ. We managed to drive back to the caravan park and got on the phone straight away....unbelievably we managed to change 4 flights to the dates we wanted and all our accomodation booked up in the cook islands and san fransisco. So it seemed like it was all in Gods plan. We were really upset about not being able to see the bay of islands and completing our trip. We phoned up a lady that Suzi Lambert had told us about called Brenda who lived in Auckland and asked if we could stay with her on our last few days in Auckland. In the meantime we just didnt know what to do with Rodney, the mechanics said they would take him of us for parts so we thought that would be a good plan, but we also heard that there was a car market on in a racecourse on sundays. We thought we would be cheeky and see if we could get rid of him down there. We took him down there on sunday morning and got there at 8am, we put him up for $1250 which is just over 300 quid. We pulled in next to some other backpacker vans and everyone looked miserable as it was raining. Just as Kam had reversed in a man bounded over to us like an excited puppy and said he would offer us $800 for Rodney. We were a bit amazed but he test drove it and said he was interested and gave us a $200 deposit for him!!! We arranged for us to drop the car over to him the following day and we got back to the caravan park within an hour of leaving!!! We were really really chuffed and again all seemed like it was in Gods plan!!!

The next day we were so happy to leave the caravan park as we had been there a week!! We had met some lovely people there but we just couldnt wait to get rid of Rodney. We had to drive right into the city centre for 9am so it was really really busy! We met the guy and gave him over and got our dosh, it felt like a huge weight lifted off our shoulders as we saw him driving off into the distance!! We then got on the train and found Brendas house which was a short ride away. We met her and she was lovely, within 5 minutes she had offered for us to use her car and go and stay at her beachhouse for the night!!! We were amazed! Kam drove her huge car and it was so nice not to worry about it breaking down like Rodney!! We went to Piha where the beach house was and it was only a 40 minute drive away but completely different. It was really hilly and as we got to Piha we looked down on the beach from the top of the hill and it was just beautiful!! We found the beach house and it was really nice. We had a lovely time just chilling out and was so nice not to be in a caravan park!!! The next day we just went down to the beach and relaxed and watched the biggest waves ever roll in! In the evening we returned to Brendas and she cooked us a lovely dinner and we had another relaxing night!! Our last day we went and looked around Auckland, our flight was due to leave in the evening so we just took in the sights of Auckland!!!

So that was our Kiwi adventure over with....we're gutted we didnt get to see north of auckland but its a reason to come back!! We definatly think the south island is better than the North though!!! We will miss all things Kiwi...especially Shortland street.....one of the best soaps EVER!!!

Next stop Cook Islands...where we cross over the International date line so we actually are going to have 2 wednesdays!! Crazy!!