Tauranga

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Friday January 8 - Today it rained all day. All day. A shame, because it was our last real day. We planned to spend it in the antique shops in Paeroa and then in Tauranga, the city where we would go back to tonight (to the B&B). We went to the library to internet and I bought a children's book they were selling with great pictures (for 20 cents!). We skipped the antique shops due to the weather. Then we had to drive back through the gorge to get to Tauranga. But the GPS started to work again, so that was good. In town, we found some free parking and ate lunch in our van. Then the rain lessened and we went to art gallery in town. When we were done there, it was really raining, so we gave up any hope of seeing anything interesting and went to the mall instead. I had a terrible bubble tea and we looked around a bit and then finally gave up and headed back to the B&B. On the way there we filled up with gas and got fish and chips from the same place as we had from our first night in the country. It was still good. There was a Dutch couple staying the night there and we talked with them while we ate. Then the owner came and eventually found our suitcases for us, so we unloaded our things from the van that night, since the rain had stopped. We really should have slept that last night in the van, as the bed at the B&B was just terrible, and the bed in the van was really comfortable. Ah well.

Saturday January 9 - The Dutch couple had left by the time we got up and we had a relaxing morning, having breakfast and repacking our things. We took a walk through their land to the estuary nearby and back again. It was such a beautiful day - shame we didn't have this weather the day before. The part we were most worried about was whether he was going to keep our $500 bond, since the window had that small stone crack in it. We're sure we didn't do it, but it was not on our list of things wrong with the van when we got it, so we didn't know what would happen. But when Xander came in the morning, he had already looked the van over and gave me the bond to tear up. And I did! Such a relief. We made some sandwiches to take with us, and the shuttle bus came for us at 12:30. It took three hours to get to the airport, and we picked up a couple of others along the way, including a lady who works as the private physiotherapist to a family in the middle east. They fly her out for three weeks or so at a time, about four times a year. She is on the payroll all year. Not a bad deal. This started our 39 hour 3 flight door-to-door return home. We flew from Auckland to Melbourne to Dubai to Zurich and then the train to Basel and then the tram and bus home. Phew. In Dubai, we split a $22 burger and fries from Shake Shack (slightly more expensive than in NYC), but it was good. It was also 6am, but some other time in our bellies. I watched a lot of movies, ate a lot of meals, and slept a lot, and eventually made it home. A short stop at the grocery store on the way home and we had a frozen pizza for dinner. It was Sunday evening and I had to work on Monday. Not as bad as you might think, but still a bit zombie-like. Would I do it again? Absolutely. And I imagine we will - there's still the south island to see.

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