May 18, 2014

May 18, 2014

We landed in Auckland at 5 am New Zealand time. New Zealand is 19 hours ahead of California. We passed through customs very quickly and had to wait about an hour for the shuttle to take us to the campervan rental office. We got familiarized with our camper van and were off on our camper van adventure. 

Driving on the other side of the road was a bit nerve wracking at first, even as a passenger. We almost got in three different accidents within the first two hours of driving. Mostly due to the fact that Matt was looking in the U.S. direction for oncoming traffic. Whoops! One car was literally three inches from the hitting us t-bone style due to looking left instead of right. Driving on the other side of the road is hard to get used to anyway, but having the campervan doubles the fun! We were laughing the entire first hour of driving the campervan around Auckland. Trying to find a parking spot in downtown Auckland was more than laughable. We finally found a “spot” at a YMCA parking lot that was supposedly free on Sundays. While Matt was able to actually put the camper van in one spot, it was so long that our back end impeded any car from parking in the five spots passed our van. We decided to make our outing in downtown Auckland as quick as possible in case our parking spot wasn’t really a parking spot. Getting towed our first day out wasn’t high on our list. We briskly walked to the Sky Tower. Looking up at it reminded us of the Space Needle in Seattle. The Sky Tower is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and New Zealand’s most visited tourist attraction. We zoomed up in the elevator to the observation deck in about 40 seconds. The older I get, the more I seem to be affected by heights. I wasn’t scared, but it was a very strange sensation being able to look straight down from so high up. Walking across the spots in the floor made out of glass certainly gave me sweaty palms. The kids had no qualms, whatsoever, of course. They had fun jumping on the glass on the floor and pressing their faces up against the windows looking outward. We got to watch two people “base jump” off the deck. They were attached with wires so it was like a controlled free fall. We then took an elevator 9 more floors up to get higher views. On this deck, I wasn’t bothered at all. Getting to look only outward just made it feel very peaceful and I could truly enjoy the sights of the Auckland harbor. 

We ate a delightful little lunch at the cafe near the observation deck and then high tailed it back through the streets of Auckland to our camper van. Much to our relief, it was still there! We then drove to Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Adventure, which was an aquarium with New Zealand’s sea life and with Antarctic penguins. Watching the penguins was hilarious. One of the king penguins took a great liking to Carolina. She was make faces and noises at him and he loved it. He followed her along the glass of the enclosure everywhere she went. When he couldn’t find her, you could see him looking for her. It was actually really sweet. Carolina was sad to leave him.

 

 We decided to get to our first campervan site and then go to the grocery store to stock up our van. When we finally were ready for dinner, we drove around the nearby area looking for food. We didn’t find anything but fast food. It pains me to admit this, but we ate McDonald’s. Insert big sigh. I don’t like it when I am in familiar places let alone when we are in a new country and we want to experience all the authentic local spots, but it seemed like a necessary evil. Fast and close. After our gourmet dining experience, we returned to the camp site and all took showers. It felt so good to be clean! The kids feel asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows in their cozy little alcove above the driver’s seat. Matt and I followed their lead.