The End is Nigher

Still running out of titles, so I had to invent a new word (I think?)

Again, dry and not too cool for our last full day in New Zealand. I think we have both psyched ourselves into the state where it is time to move on. The only real thing on the itinerary today was to reach Auckland, which we did.

Again we avoided the main roads as much as possible, and took the longer coastal route. Unfortunately we didn’t see much coast, as the route was too far in land.

From the Passenger Seat

Approaching Auckland

We reached the hotel at Auckland airport with more than  little trepidation. It had been booked on line for NZ $85 (which is the cheapest we have paid in NZ), and although the pictures looked OK there was no telling what we might find. The outside of the building confirmed our fears, the place looked tired and run down. However, once in our room all was fine. The room was well equipped, clean and spacious with a 42″ LCD TV and unlimited free internet!

REFLECTIONS

• New Zealand is a fantastic place.
• The people are friendly
• The drivers are polite
• Drivers are incapable of exceeding the speed limit
• Drivers stop when the traffic lights change to amber
• Hot and cold water taps are randomly inserted. Hot will be on the left one night and the right another
• The water does rotate the opposite way down the drain
• New Zealand still has a bountiful supply of fresh cream cakes
• There are no big box stores
• It didn’t rain as much as we expected
• Gas is expensive ~CDN $1.75 / litre

STATISTICS

• Days in NZ 31
• Distance Traveled 6247km
• Average Fuel Consumption 45.1mpg
• Average Speed 57 kph
• Time Spent Driving 111.5 hours

I have to admit, writing the blog became a bit of a challenge at times, as without being where we were it was difficult to describe what we saw. Reading through the blog may lead to the impression that some days were just plain boring, this is not the case all the days we spent here, with the possible exception of the one day when the skies opened were fantastic.

Tomorrow may be blogless as we get into Sydney around 7PM and we are hoping to at least get to see the Opera House and the Bridge before it gets too dark. Hopefully I’ll be able to get something together once we settle in Korea.