Auckland Day 185 22/03/2015

We were up early in hope of seeing the sunrise and to set off on the drive back to Auckland. There was still some cloud in the sky and we weren't able to see the sun although it was lovely to see the day break and the small fishing boats heading out to sea. We left the campsite just before 8am, heading south. The journey took a bit longer than expected with a 30 minute diversion due to roadworks. We stopped just near Auckland harbour and had our last lunch in our van before driving to the rental depot near the airport. Simon had managed to push the dints out of the bonnet and they agreed not to charge us for repairing the scratches from our collision on the ferry (the bonnet needed respraying anyway so we would have been pretty unhappy had they charged us). We got a lift to the airport and the shuttle bus into Auckland where we checked in at the CityLife hotel. Our room must have been at least four times the size of the campervan! We'd got some shopping to do so headed out to replenish our medical supplies, deciding to leave buying Simon's new boots for tomorrow, before returning and starting to sort out our bags. Our contents have definitely grown over the last 3 months as we've travelled around in cars and campervans and we need to do some serious reorganising to get everything in. In the evening we met up with Lesley and Richard for a farewell dinner at Wynyard Quarter. It's hard to believe it's nearly 4 weeks since we saw them last in Wellington. We had a great meal and shared stories of the places we'd visited over the last 6 weeks before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the hotel for more reorganising.

Day breaking over Tauranga Bay

Packed up and ready to head back to Auckland 

Enjoying a farewell dinner with Lesley and Richard