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Published: December 17th 2008
Arrival in Auckland
Maori carving at entrance to Auckland AirportThe flight was brilliant - the boys ate at the airport (not a lot else to do), watched Camp Rock (again!) then slept, woke up for breakfast before landing.
After a year of planning at last touched down in Auckland at about 5.30am, went through customs which is quite an amazing activity. The landing form asked about food, hiking, snorkelling, diving equipment - we weren't sure so declared our packet of biscuits and jelly beans (bought at LAX to get rid of dollars) the man thought that was quite funny - even funnier when we declared the snorkel sets we'd bought for the boys as Christmas presents - but big ears Michael heard us whispering!!! then inspected the soles of our trainers to make sure we weren't bringing any dirt in with us........!
Awful wait for minibus to pick up campervan - first one arrived at 8am, but we didn't know that and were in the wrong place for an hour and a half! Peter had been coughing (seal like) for a while, but it was only when we reached the depot that we realised that he was running a temperature and gave him the first of many doses
of Nurofen! Nice man took us through the intricacies of dealing with various bits of campervan (clean water, grey water and black water!) then sent us on our way.
We set off for Manukau Top 10 Holiday Park - found it without going wrong, and settled in without any more ado for a very leisurely first day (dosing Peter with Nurofen every few hours).
Day 2 we decided to go into Auckland on the bus - meant we didn't have to move the van - which was surprisingly easy as it arrived where it was supposed to, when it was supposed to and went where it was supposed to go. The bus driver pointed out the cheapest ticket and we had a return for all 4 of us, and any travel within Auckland for NZD22 (about 9 pounds - can't find the right key on this keyboard). This meant that rather than do the Hop On/Hop Off (after the awful experience in Hollywood) we decided to do it ourselves.
First stop was a walk along the waterfront and a look at the Tall Ships beside the Maritime Museum. Then we found a chemist which topped up supplies
of Nurofen. Dragged the boys up the hill to the Sky Tower - a truly awesome building from which you get fantastic views of the City and the Harbours and the Islands. Not to mention the mad people doing the Sky Jump - something like 200 ft down on a wire to a very small target! The walk of faith - glass panels - was enough for me!!!
Then we got on a Link Bus (NZD1.6/person) to go to the Auckland Museum - absolutely fantastic! Also saw a T-Rex called Sue from the Chicago Museum! Awesome photos - Michael says!
Really nice beer on the waterfront in the sun before getting a bus back to the campsite - then bed. Boys seem to be loving the bed over the driver's cab!
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