Auckland

Monday 12th February 2024

In the morning we left the Airbnb and drove to a garage to see if they could fix the chips in the van windscreen. No, it needs a new windscreen! Luckily it seems that Chris insurance will cover it but he will need to sort it out later. We took the opportunity to go down to the lakeside at Rotorua before we left and found another Māori village. Not well signposted so noone was there. It was beautiful, right on the edge of the lake and with the inevitable geothermal activity creeping out of pavement slabs and holes in the ground. The beautiful Anglican church sat next to the Māori meeting house.

Then we got back on the road to Auckland. It’s about 3 hours drive so we stopped halfway in a lovely town called Cambridge for lunch. After that the roads changed completely. Remember that Chris passed his driving test a week before leaving the Uk. The South Island has no motorways, hardly a dual carriage way and very little traffic. The further North we went the more traffic there was. Now it’s a 4 lane motorway into Auckland with junctions every few kilometres. Chris did a great job and with a little bit of mis direction from me we made it to the Airbnb. It’s right in the middle of the CBD so we had been worried about parking but struck it lucky with above ground car park just round the corner. The van won’t go into multi storey car parks!! After that we had to take Chris for a cold beer!! The apartment is good and we have an amazing view of the Sky Tower!!