Day 69 - Auckland, New Zealand

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2 Norwegians in the backpacker's answer our advert to share the cost of hiring a car for a few weeks, however we find that there are no cars anywhere at such short notice. In fact by now we had decided to go by bus anyway, at least on the North Island. We booked with Kiwi Traveller's hop-on-hop-off bus from Auckland to Wellington, a bargain at 105 New Zealand Dollars. We went to the Auckland Museum to learn more about Maori and foreign influence and history of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole. But particularly I wanted to see the temporary exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci's machines; wooden models which had been made from his own sketches and may well have been made in his own lifetime. Some were fascinating particularly the robot and multi-turreted tank. He may even have invented the bicycle, although there was some doubt as to the author of that particular sketch. Later we went to the YHA travel centre to purchase our bus ticket, first stop Rotorua.

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