Auckland and Beyond

Friday was a full travel day - Zach and I flew into Auckland on a different flight than Kev and Aaron, so we arrived about 6 hours before them. The hotel we stayed in was booked under the boys’ name (we were just crashing with them, so had to keep it undercover), so we couldn’t check in until they arrived later that night. We killed time by spending 3 hours in the airport sorting out our campervan hire. We waited too long to book our Christchurch flights and didn’t want to pay $300 each at the last minute, so we changed our camper rental to 5 days around the North Island. It all ended up working out fine, but took a lot of calling around to the different airlines and rental companies to find a solution. We then took a shuttle bus to downtown and waited for the boys to arrive. Our hotel room was really spacious and the perfect location in downtown Auckland. The next 3 days were jam-packed busy and we got to see and do a lot of fun things.

Saturday we walked around downtown to scope out things to do – we checked out the Sky Tower which consisted of a casino, restaurants, shopping and an observation deck that you could view the city and jump off of. We ate at a great Mexican restaurant (rare find here in NZ) and met the owners who were from Long Beach, CA and had started this restaurant chain in NZ. After that, we hustled over to the casino to watch the AFL finals game (Australian Rules Football). The two teams in the finals were from the Melbourne area and the boys had bet on the game, so we watched it on a big screen in the casino. It was really fun being there with the other fans and rooting on the St. Kilda Saints. The game was a nail-biter and the two teams ended up tying in the last minute. We weren’t sure how they would choose a winner, but heard that they would have to play another game the following week. So, hopefully St. Kilda will win this time and we can cash in a few dollars from our bet.

Sky Tower

Sunday was by far the best day in Auckland. We took a ferry out to Waiheke Island, which is about 30 minutes away and a fairly good sized island (about 20 kilometers long).

We all rented a scooter and drove around the island, saw some stunning views of the ocean and got up close and personal with cattle, sheep, emus, roosters and horses. For lunch we ate at a café overlooking the water, then hopped back on the scooters and cruised around for a few more hours. Every now and then we stopped at a beach to play footy and collect some seashells. It was so much fun and we really lucked out with some beautiful weather.

Monday morning Aaron packed up and we all headed to the airport. He flew back to California and Kev, Zach and I took a shuttle to our campervan rental. After signing our life away, we hopped in our hi-top 3-berth and hit the road. This camper is quite a bit smaller than the one Zach and I rented before. It does have a sink, stove, fridge and queen bed that we are all sharing, but doesn’t have a bathroom or TV like the other one. We are really roughing it out here. Our roadtrip has been successful so far…we'll update that trip with pictures over the weekend.

And we're flying home to California on Tuesday!!!