Day 1 to 4: Auckland Area of New Zealand

Kia Ora (Greetings) from Auckland, New Zealand - We arrived in Auckland - City of Sails, on Thursday (10-15-09) at 12:10pm. The last two times I was here it was sunny and beautiful. We arrived in overcast skis and light rain but it was a great view as we dropped below the clouds to see this city that is surrounded by water, sailboats and volcanos. Auckland is situated among 49 volcanos - all at this time dormant - hope it stays that way for awhile.

It took us 1 ½ hours to get out of the airport because of customs, and the fact we had declared camping equipment such as hiking boots and tents. The Kiwi’s (New Zealanders) check all this to make sure you’re not bringing in foreign critters and soils on camping gear that could be considered a problem to their environment. Since we had cleaned our gear very well we moved through fairly quickly but they were meticulous in their inspections.

We arrived at The Brown Kiwi Hostel for a two night stay, stowed our gear and went for a long walk in the Ponsonby area just west of downtown. Friday was a day of hiking around downtown Auckland for the better part of the day checking out other packbacker hostels for bulletin boards for vehicles for sell, familiarizing ourselves with the city, drinking some beer (you know us), checking out the wharf area (big cruise ship in town), and just enjoying the international community that is all over this city.

Saturday morning we got up early and headed for the Halsey Car Market about a 1 ½ miles from the hostel to check out vehicles for sell. Lots of camper vans, station wagons and a few 4 wheel drive off-road vehicles. After about 2 hours there we finally chose a 1996 Nissan station wagon that had 222,000 kilometers. We’ll give it some attention before getting too far from Auckland but overall it looks in good shape. With some bargaining, we got the seller down to $2,200 NZ. We then completed the paperwork to change the car ownership to our names at the post office, then proceeded to get 3 months of car insurance, packed up our gear and headed to the Pentlands hostel where we stay till Monday morning.

Now if you have not driven on the left side of the road before and you’re then tossed into the traffic in a big city like Auckland (1.3million people) it is a bit stressful. We managed to make the 8 mile journey to the Pentlands without much of a problem. I find it’s much better to follow other cars than to be leading the way especially at the traffic signals and the many roundabouts in this city. I can tell you how many times I turned the windshield wiper on thinking it was the turn signal. Its opposite ours of course on the steering column. Pentlands greeted us with open arms, answered questions, gave us details about nearest food market, nearby attractions, etc. We managed another 2 hours in mild traffic as we purchased petrol, some car camping gear - ice chest (New Zealanders call them chilly bins), dining tarp, rope, camping chairs and food box. Then we headed to the market for some food to cook at the hostel. To say that we are a bit spoiled in the United States would be highly under stating the fact when I say the choices we have for camping gear and food products compared to the Kiwis. Also, the prices were a bit higher than we were expecting but then again it is an island country in the South Pacific.

Sunday we got up early and headed off to some sites in the Auckand area. We went up to Mt. Eden, One Tree Hill (no tree just a big monument). More on that later. Views of Auckland were outstanding if only we had some sunshine and the wind wasn blowing everyone off the mountain. We then headed over to Tamaki Drive, a very scenic waterfront through some prime real estate in Auckland. Great views of Rangitoto Island - another volcano - and sailboats and people out for the weekend. We made it back to the hostel for dinner and a good long chat with a native German who has lived in NZ for 22 years. He provided lots of details on some places to explore on both islands. Now off on Monday heading to the Northland and Bay of Islands north of Auckland.

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