12/29 was a very busy day! Breakfast at the hotel; Uber to the Auckland Domain (a huge park with the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Wintergarten, a Cafe, and lots of trails that we explored); Albert Park; Queen Street (the main thoroughfare); the Sky Tower ( we watched the bungee jumpers! Also saw a great 360 view of the city and surrounding areas:); and most special was connecting with a member of our lacrosse family – Dave Dunham – and we got to finally meet Kris! Also met a Kiwi official, Nicole, who lives in Aukland. And we dined at a great little restaurant in Auckland – The Depot.
12/30/22 was pick up the camper day! An interesting experience… Think we knew more about the camper than our rep who was new on the job🤓. Once the camper was ready to go and we were sufficiently “educated” we took off for Rotorua… slow going .. less than 10 miles from the pick up we realized we did not have a full tank of gas🤨. Filled up and then called Britz ( the rental company) to get a credit at the end of out trip. Fifteen minutes later we are driving along & chatting and a warning light and beep go off on the dashboard… with an image of a battery and the following text – “Stop Driving and do NOT turn off the engine”… what in the world?!?! So we call the company and the guy says no worries, just push the “back button” and the warning will go off. Will this be a problem in the future of our trip???? Continuing for another hour we decide it is time to stop and get some groceries.. That became a very interesting hour long shopping experience😊. When we finally reached Rotorua at about 4 pm, we parked the camper grabbed some gear and headed to town for a mineral springs soak at the Polynesian Spa… nice!!! As it was getting late we decided we were not going to cook and went to “The Pig and Whistle”…fantastic dinner😋. Time to return to our campsite. It is very warm in the camper as I lie here typing… we will definitely be getting a fan tomorrow!!!
New Zealand & Australia 