Day 3,4 & 5 In The Campervan

It’s Sunday morning and time to pick up the campervan, so we checked out of the hotel and headed for the depot.  Surprising for a Sunday it was quite busy and it took most of the afternoon to get settled away and on the road. We were a little disappointed at the age and condition of the van but decided to push on anyway.  The good news is that we made it out of Auckland alive and well.  It is going to take some getting used to driving on the left hand side of the road.  Also the shifting of the 5 speed manual stick has to be done with my left hand.  I know there will be a few expletives floating around.  The first day there was a lot of them.  The amount of blue air has diminished since then.



Home Sweet Home





We headed north out of Auckland and stopped a short way up Hwy #1 ( their main Hwy ) at a town called Orewa.   We don’t know much about it as we have not started being tourists yet.  We have spent the last three days just getting the campervan in tip top shape and getting organized.  It is a fairly cramped space but we have made a few changes utilizing bins and containers to make it quite comfortable.  A good cleaning was also necessary.  We have a little bit to do tomorrow before we start to really become tourists.

Our first impression of New Zealand is that the people are very friendly and will go out of their way to help you.  Except when you are driving, then they are like the rest of the drivers in the world.  Impatient.

We had a few shocks when we hit the grocery stores as food can be quite expensive.  Cucumbers cost    $ 3.57 each and 1 ½ pieces of corn cost $ 6.69.  However, meat is about the same price as in the US or Canada.  Go Figure. 

We’ll see how it goes as summer gets closer.  I have included a few pictures of different foliage than we are used to seeing.