By the numbers
Bag 1 16 kg
Bag 2 13 kg
The weather looked like it was going to be a nice day when I got up. The plan for the day was to head into Auckland to stay in the airport before the flight on the Sunday. We had an early start as we wanted to get away and have a look at some places on the way to Auckland as we had a time to be at the car rental place. We did leave around 8ish in the morning and along the way stopped at a lookout that was also a farm. I got a shock when the farmer rode by a shipping container and several Turkeys popped out from the side.
It wasn’t too bad a drive over the Bryderwyn hills that you have to drive over to either Whangarei or towards Auckland. As we drove through Dome Valley we went to stop at a café that was around a walking track called Top of the Done. I thought the track would take to long as it was half hour one way, besides the café was actually closed so we had to stop in Wellsford for a pitstop. Nearby there were information panels talking about what the area was like before European settlement. Our coffee stop was actually in Warkworth and the town was pretty busy for a Saturday morning. We had to park where the wharves are. After a coffee and a pie, we took a short stroll through town and back down to the wharves. There is a historic boat called the Jane Gifford that worked in the area in the 1930s. Our break over it was back into the car and ever closer to Auckland.
One of the places I wanted to visit sometime and I had also written on a list of places to visit on my trip to New Zealand as I was looking for ideas was Puhoi. It as far as I knew had a museum and a cheese factory. Turns out it is a historic village with old buildings. We couldn’t stop there for very long and once we found it the cheese factory was closed. I did have a look at the library and the landing where the boats would come plying their trade in the area. The biggest problem was it was wet and you would sink in the grass when walking over it. We would have to have a longer visit next time when we did not have time running away from us. We were avoiding the tunnel so took the way without the tolls into Auckland.
Instead of taking the State Highway 1, we ended up going coastal on the Twin Coast discovery highway and I am pretty sure on bus journeys I had seen Waiwera and wanted to visit it. I remember the bridge, but I think that was before the toll road either began or when the bus took another route north. We did stop at a lookout at Orewa. Our next stop would be in Albany to find the house mum lived in when she was a child. We found the house alright and the homeowner found us in the driveway. I near shat myself and mum started chatting to her. Told her that she used to live in the house around 50 years ago. Turns out the owners had bought the house off the previous owner in 1987 and they were the second owner. Mum’s dad at the time had built the house and the whole area was all farmland. Now it was a busy suburban area with very little farmland left. After a little chat and pictures later, we had to stop at the servo. It was then we found the GPS was having issues and didn’t want to work. I turned into the navigator supreme telling mum which road to take to avoid central Auckland.
A drive that took us through tunnels and past the city central, which would have been crazy to head over the main bridge, we made it to the hire car place. They dropped us off at the airport where we would be staying until our early morning plane trip. We went to weigh our bags as I hadn’t packed mine properly before we left Whangarei. They didn’t weigh that much yet. Once we checked in, we repacked our bags and I went o have a look at what was still open. Turns out not much was open at all and that included the airport bar. Maccas was open and that was about it apart from the retail shops. We did attempt to eat at the hotel, but it was bistro only and at a cost of $54 each we went to Maccas instead. Since we would be up extremely early as in 230am, we went to bed early so that we would get some sleep.
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