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Today, October 8th, we leave Russell for Auckland. Our good friend Tatsio, who drove us from the KeriKeri airport to Russell is picking us up and driving us down. He gets to drive the Sprinter van today. Of course, as we are trying to leave and we have the veranda doors open… something is being smoked on the smoker and smoking us out of our rooms 🤣

Tatsio was early and was ready to load up the van as we made our way out with our luggage. The good thing about the sprinter van? It had plenty of room for us and our luggage, however there was a big partition separating our luggage from the rest of the van making it impossible to see out the back window.. which was not unusual in the sense that it was not our luggage causing us not to see out the back window.

Off we went to the car ferry to get off Russell. This time Pony had a place of honor.

Our first little stop for a restroom break was Kawakawa. As Tatsio says, “It is a bit funky”. And funky it was.

Once through with the stop, we headed for Whangarei where we would have a little walk about and stretch our legs before we continued on our journey to Auckland.

After walking around a bit, we all met at one of the cafes, and ordered a pie and coffee. I had feijoa juice, but we shared a pie. Not an apple pie, not a blueberry pie, not even a Boston Cream pie. Nope, nada, no way. It was a mince and cheese pie. Think ooey gooey gravy cheesy goodness wrapped in a flaky closed pie crust. I took a bite as we got it for takeaway, but we decided we should eat it before getting back into the van.

Back into the van we go and off we set to Auckland. Only 144 Km left. Did you know they don’t have eagles in New Zealand? I did not, but they do have falcons. So we assume this Maori is with a golden falcon and as we are quickly speeding passed the statue which is on Tatsio’s side of the car, because they drive on the left, I may have gotten a picture of him in the shot.

We drove through a tunnel. It was a short tunnel not like the Delaware Maryland tunnel bridge. And then Auckland appeared. We had a few minutes before true check in time so Tatsio drove us through town to a monument and garden built to recognize the first Labor Party President. The gardens were glorious. The poppies and pansies were about past their prime, but still a glorious exhibit of flowers with the bay in the background.

We checked into our hotel, found our suite of rooms: 3 beds, 2 baths and the ever glorious washer and dryer. We made a list and off Jim, Dotty, and I trod (after starting a load of laundry) down the street to New World Market for dinner foods. Oh the joy of buying food to have a sit in dinner and playing Rummikub before bedtime! I guess i missed taking a picture of our pork roast and salad for dinner.

#HowFortunateWeAre #MakeOurOwnSunshine #TripOfALifetime #NotAllWhoWanderAreLost