May 12 - Drove to Auckland and then south to Papakura train station. Auckland is like Vancouver, a lot of smaller settlements that the city has consumed. We planned to stay in Drury which is just south of Papakura. While checking train schedules/costs we learned that this Saturday and Sunday (two days we were planning to travel) there are no trains running from Papakura (the station nearest  us) to the city. So we need to go about 5 stops by special rail busses and there's a bus leaving in a few minutes. Denis rushed to repark the caravan in the train parking and we hopped on the bus to the train and into central Auckland.


We explored around the downtown, watched a Falun Gong dance and band troupe perform while enjoying a coffee. Walked along the Quay. It's a long bus/train ride but better than trying to find a place to park the caravan and much cheaper. 






Today Sunday, we headed in again and caught a ferry to Waiheke Island, 21 km from Auckland harbour. The island is 19 km long, we had hop-on hop-off bus tickets so we took advantage of that and made several stops.

Had lunch at The Heke Brewery, since it was Mother's Day I got a free glass of champagne. The  island has many wineries (about 30), other attractions and several beaches, even two nude beaches. 9000 residents, $1,500,000 for a modest home.


Warmest NZ water I've waded in and a lot of shells, but nothing remarkable.





Lovely Mudbrick Winery which we didn't get to visit because we ran out of time.

You could definitely spend more than one day exploring the island.




Wifi very poor where we're camped so that's why so long between posts.

We spent Monday prepping the caravan for return to the depot. As the errands didn't take as long as we anticipated we had a nice walk through the botanical gardens and lunch there as well. 

We're getting quite experienced at hopping on the trains using our AT hop card. Yesterday we went to the sky tower and took the first elevator to the 51st floor for a 360 degree panoramic view. Then a second elevator to the 60th floor, pretty much the same view but the windows were cleaner. 



Hey Dillon, Grandpa stood on the glass floor with me.





Last day as tourists.







Leaving the tower we headed across the street to the All Blacks Experience & Store. We didn't experience the Experience but had a look around.


This one's for you Shaun, sorry I just can't pull off the fierce Haka look even with headless mates.


We are now at the airport for a 6 hour wait, oh wait just got a message our flight is delayed and hour and a half 😞

Haere ra!

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