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Published: October 7th 2009
Never underestimate the value of seeing a familiar face. We certainly won't after this trip!
South America was an amazing experience, but we were definitely ready for a change and for a few weeks of speaking the same language as the locals. After getting nice New Zealand stamps in our passports, the first 'local' that we had the pleasure of conversing with was a pleasant lady on the customs desk. As we declared to be in possession of some hiking boots, she checked our soles and then as us if we had a
tint.
This did little to sooth my paranoia about the botched hair job I received in Santiago. But after a dumb-struck glance at each other and a nice little teepee signal from the lady, we realized that she wasn't actually being incredibly insensitive to my predicament and was instead inquiring as to whether or not we were transporting a t
ent into her country...
As we are not in possession of a tint, she waved us through to get our belongings x-rayed. We had visions of that TV programme where seemingly innocent travelers get stung for huge fines because they forgot they had an orange in
their bag. Thankfully though we were fine. We proceeded through the small airport and found ourselves front of house. We killed a bit of time pondering our lost Friday 25th, before our assigned pick-up time when Paul promptly glided in front of the airport in his smart Mazda RX8. It certainly made a nice change from the battered taxi's we had traveled in in South America!
As we whizzed along the motorway, we caught up with Paul and got our first view of Auckland. First impressions were that it is not all too dissimilar to Ireland. I can understand why so many Paddy's come here and end up staying.
Paul's fiancee Elisha was waiting for us back at their lovely apartment. We were also enthusiastically greeted by Rio, their pet chihuahua. It felt nice to be able to make ourselves at home (albeit in somebody
else's home!). Already delighted with having some home comforts, Paul sealed the deal by preparing a slap up Irish breakfast. I wasn't aware that any food could taste as nice as those baked beans did!
After freshening up we hit the town. We finally took the plunge and purchased a nifty little
netbook for in our camper-van. Then Paul & Elisha began a guided tour of Auckland. We had lunch and delicious ice-cream at the beach. We saw a panorama of Auckland from the top of a volcano, and we eased back into life in English.
When the jet-lag hit us hard we returned to the apartment where I dozed on the couch. Philippe fought through the haze, mostly due to
Colin McRae Rally, Dirt 2 and Paul's new, very cool, gaming steering wheel. At dinner time we had our first authentic baarbie and the good times were rolling. We even managed a few beers out in town with some Kiwi's before we truly crashed out.
On Sunday we had to pick up our campervan. The guys kindly dropped us over to collect the van, and had to wait the full hour that it took us to dot the i's and cross the t's before we could get to our hangover lunch. We had our first Wendy's burgers before continuing the guided tour of Auckland with a visit to Piha beach.
We spent Monday preparing the van for our adventure. We found a Pak 'n Save and spent about
two hours buying a few weeks worth of groceries. After a lovely meal out with Paul, Elisha and Dave, we made our way to a campsite for our first official night in the van.
The van, now fondly known as
Bitsy, is a hit. Bitsy is a white Mitsubishi Express Van with groovy hippie flowers painted on the outside. In the middle we have a dining area with a sink and fridge at the back door. We even have a portable gas cooker. At night the dining area quickly folds away allowing a spacious bed to be made. It only takes about ten minutes to complete the changeover.
The next morning we hit the road for our test trip - a two day trip up north to the Bay of Islands and back. With Philippe at the helm we made good time up the motorway before being sick of the traffic. In Wellsford we veered off the motorway and spent some time enjoying the scenery on some regional routes. We stopped for lunch in a dedicated picnic spot somewhere near Mangawhai. It was our first meal cooked in the 'wild' on our portable burner. Back on the road
again, when we reached Waipu I had to get Philippe to reverse as I saw the 'Ceud Mile Failte' sign welcoming us to the town. I have since learned that they claim Scottish, not Irish roots, but it was close enough for me!
Back on the motorway we kept heading north. Eventually we took the Russell scenic route for the final stretch of our journey. We arrived in a campsite at about four in the afternoon. We had enough time to go into town to enjoy a beer before dinner. Dinner was again cooked on our little portable burner and that night we were grateful for our itsy bitsy home as we listened to the wind and rain lashing down on our metallic box.
Before breakfast the next morning a helpful camper informed Philippe of the tsunami warning that had just been issued. Eh did he say tsunami??? As Philippe asked what that meant for us, the gent simply said “don't go for a swim today”! We decided to tour around Russell a bit more before we began the trek back to Auckland. As we made our way to a viewing point it was busier than usual. It
turns out a tsunami warning isn't all that usual in New Zealand. Several locals had made their way to high ground either to avoid or to get a better view of the impending wave. By all accounts it was tiny by the time it reached the New Zealand coast, but the warning system and level of information supplied was impressive.
On the route back south to Auckland I decided to have a go at driving. Bitsy is a 2.4 litre metal box. While she has no trouble gaining speed, once you go over 80 or 90 the back of the box catches lots of wind and starts bouncing all over the road. Thankfully though I was only driving the non-motorway stints, allowing Philippe to admire some of the scenery he would have missed the previous day.
With Philippe back at the wheel for the remainder of the trip we tipped down the motorway to Wellsford before again deciding to take a scenic drive down the west coast through Helensville. As it turned out, this put us in good order to get to our campsite in Auckand and avoid the bulk of the evening rush hour traffic.
We
reserved our spot, ate a quick bite of dinner, put a bucket in our parking bay and took a spin over to Paul and Elisha's again. It was nice to be in a town where we knew our way around and we new some friends to drop in on! After a few hours of banter though we said our farewells and went back to the campsite to make up our bed in Bitsy.
The next morning I finally got to fix the mess that the hairdresser in Santiago made. Spending a fortune in a posh hairdressers I emerged radiantly smiling after the experience with shiny new dark hair. We made our way to the ferry dock to pick up Will, Philippe's friend and ex-colleague from England. Will happened to be New Zealand, so we made it our business to hook up with him.
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch, dropped Bitsy back at the campsite and made our way into the centre of Auckland on public transport. Once in town I began to canvass in favour of going up the SkyTower. Little did I know that I was the only one in our threesome that was not afraid of
heights.
The two boys stopped for a pint and some Dutch Courage, and agreed to scale the 220m to the observation deck. At the top we had some lovely views of Auckland, but the funniest views for me were of the two boys cautiously walking around the platform. Certain areas of the platform have glass floor sections which I found exhilarating. After a time Philippe defeated his fear and shocked me by walking onto one of them!
We enjoyed cocktails at 220m and then set off in search of a place to eat dinner. We found a nice place down at the quayside and treated ourselves to a slap up dinner and a few drinks before Will boarded the last ferry back to Waikiki Island where he is staying.
We took the bus back to Bitsy and settled in for the night. The next leg of our journey will take us to Rotorua in the centre of the North Island.
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karin counet
non-member comment
warning!
Be careful, don't get lost in your bitsy!!You are sure it's a van??