Land of the Kiwis

Ewan and I left Fiji with mixed feelings -- Ewan, excited to get going on our travels and camper van driving, me, depressed to be leaving sunny beaches and 85 degree weather for the New Zealand fall.Luckily for us (and unfortunately for the locals) the Kiwis had a terrible summer, so we arrived to sunny skies and some of the best weather in Auckland!



We started off in search of the rare Kiwi -- an endangered species standing 6 foot 5, sunburnt and with an out of place Edinburgh accent. We found one such specimen milling about the airport waiting for us - Graham MacGregor is an old friend from our Camp Cody days who left grey UK for Auckland two years ago, and we were thrilled to see him!



We spent the day touring Auckland like locals, seeing the Viaduct, sampling local beers and catching up with Graham. Auckland's known as the city of sails, so obviously Ewan was in seventh heaven checking out the boats and taking Ricky Gervais photos all over the city. We finally put our feet down when Japanese tourists started taking photos of Ewan posing for photos.. a weird never ending cycle that I'm learning is going to be a staple on this trip. (but hey, at least the bum photos have stopped, right mom?? ;)



Sunday we drove north to a gorgeous marine reserve beach with Graham and a few of his Kiwi roommates. The main beach was "too crowded" (there were five people there, and maybe a two year old) so we "tramped" over to a more secluded spot - it was paradise. Gorgeous weather, beautiful sandy beaches - it's everything you want the Oregon coast to be but warmer! The boys went swimming while the girls worked on our tans. 30 minutes later they came back telling us how we missed out on swimming with wild dolphins! We were pretty upset they didnt come to get us earlier...until Ewan started in on how he rode the dolphins in on a wave and they were singing God Save the Queen. Hm.



By sunset we'd picked up Howie Jr., our new home for the next 18 days. It's big enough for Ewan to imagine he's a truck driver...




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Location:Auckland, NZ