Travel: In every end, there is also a beginning 🏁

Today will be my last travel post about our stay in New Zealand. I’ll combine our last day we spent on the water in Mission Bay and the travel back home days. Especially the travel day isn’t that excited, so I made the decision to write it all in one story.

Goodmorning ☕

But first we found a spot in a small harbor last night somewhere in Auckland. Sounds like a movie script isn’t it? Well the sunrise was one Hollywood loves to use in a movie. Looks like NZ would give us one more beautiful view while waking up behind my coffee.

We’re not the only people who stayed here for the night. A few campers/cars are people who can’t afford a house in Auckland. Something we did hear a lot while traveling New Zealand. Things are getting way to expensive here. So, this morning we talked to one of the guys sleeping here, with a genius solution. He promotes himself on the internet as a house-sitter. He is actually a personal security guard when people are away for a longer period from their houses. But he’s not only keeping the house safe, he’s also keeping it tidy and in a good condition till the owners return. He’s sleeping here in his car for a few days because he couldn’t manage to get his last customers contiguous on each other. He told us about his son who’s living with his girlfriend. Both they have a great job with a more then average salary, but they still can’t afford a house in Auckland. Why does everyone want to live here? New Zealand is such a big country with so many beautiful places you could live…

We took the time today because we booked our SUP rentals later this morning. So, we enjoyed the sunshine and all the birds here at the harbor. Just no worries, only sunshine!

Mission Bay

The SUP adventure for today will be in Mission Bay in Auckland. This is a location for a perfect day at the beach, chilling, sporting and dining of course. When you’re tired of life above the water, you can go to the sea life aquarium. But don’t know if it’s any good, we didn’t check it out.

Funny trees growing here at Mission Bay

While renting the SUP we got included a lesson for today also from Garren. This guy is traveling the world with now and then a job as a sup/surf instructor or do some kayak tours. For now, we meet this guy working his last days for the SUP rental here in Mission Bay. He will go overseas in a few weeks for a new adventure in Bali.

Garren thought us some new tricks we actually already did (untaught). But those tricks we didn't perform them flawless, so they needed a little tweaking. For a quick turn we did learn the reverse paddle turn and for a better balance in the waves he showed us an easier way to get in the surf stance while keeping a better balance. He even looked at our paddle technique how to use the blade correctly. Like the height of your paddle, do we have a perfect stroke etc. Although we’re supping already for a few years it’s never wrong to get a lesson and let someone else have a look at your technique.

The rest of the day we scouted Mission Bay and hold little competitions with the techniques we learned. Like paddling fast with a left turn, paddle fast and get in surf stance quickly, who’s the first at the buoy.

After a day of supping there is only one thing you can day. Way too tired for cooking a meal so we just got ourselves a takeaway with a beautiful sunset while watching the Auckland Skyline from Mission Bay. We went for a Thai takeaway and we had some noodles with lemon grass and spicy mango passion. After our dinner we walked along the beach and called it a day.

Shopping for the homefront

First, we needed to find a supermarket to get some things for the people at home before we could park our van for the night. One thing learned from here I love the pineapple lumps so I robbed the whole shelf in the supermarket, and my girlfriend brought some favorite chocolate bars we eat a lot here with her. We can’t bring bigger gifts with us on the plane so bring some candy with the tastes of New Zealand suits for us as a perfect gift. Did you like the lumps @dboontje? 😉

After shopping we took our van to another beach here in Auckland. Think I'll miss this the most... freedom camping with all those beaches around you being with someone you love. 😍

Last day

Next day we woke up at actually a nice-looking beach. People who’re living here are really lucky! But we weren’t our trip will end today… So, time to clean our van and see some last things today in Auckland and return home.

While cleaning the van, we had some oops why didn’t we see that thing way earlier!? We found another bedding and even a real wooden cutting board (why did they choose the same wood as the backwall!?) hanging at the back of a cupboard. Well we had a lot of fun for sure while cleaning our van.

After cleaning we did go out and explore the small beach, nothing special but just a small quiet beach ending in some rocks with small caves in them.

Mount Eden

Today time for some tourist things, first stop would be Mount Eden, the volcano is the highest point of the city. It’s cloudy today but we do hope to get a clear view over the city. The gardens around this volcano should be beautiful to wander around as well. We parked the van and started our walk to the top. It’s not that high around 200m I guess. The info signs at the top mentions that the crater is still 50m deep. But it isn’t looking like a crater anymore with all the grass inside. But the views are spectacular. You can watch 360 degrees Auckland and all the waters surrounding it. Very touristic but it’s a must see. One funny fact, while enjoying the views here, you see two oceans and the harbors from Auckland. There aren’t many cities in the world with harbors touching two oceans.

Auckland War Memorial museum

After Mount Eden we head out for a lunch at the park around the Auckland War Memorial museum. It was kinda crowdy here, and the moment we entered the museum we know why. It was a special day for the kids and with an exhibition called Brickman: Wonders of the world you can do the math. We could wander over the heads inside the museum.

Ryan McNaught (aka Brickman) and his team have spent a jaw-dropping 4,944 hours building 50 incredible LEGO masterpieces. The museum made a nice movie about an interview with one of the builders. Doesn’t he have an awesome job!? The expedition is there till the 13th of May. So, if you’re in the area go check it out!

Now I begin with the sad part of this last travel story about New Zealand. But please no tears while reading. We had an awesome adventure traveling around and bring back a lot of beautiful memories. We’re saying goodbye to our beloved van Bumblebee with a last hug we left him at the depot of the rental company. The mechanics working there assured us they would take care of Bumblebee and that he’s in good hands with them.
Goodbye bumblebee!

Airport adventures

A taxi brought us to the airport where we thought the adventure ended, well guess what it’s not ending! Our plan was to have an easy flight back home. But that didn’t work out. The moment we wanted to check-in there was an error on the screen. Oh no not a good start indeed so, we went out for some help. Turns out we needed to buy our ESTA form to get in the USA. After we got our ESTA arranged, and while waiting for the moment we could board we heard the delay message from the airport speaker. The airco in the plane was broken and needed to be fixed. Problem for us the plane couldn’t leave. Repair time got us one hour plus at the original time of taking off. Wow our stopover will be a close call.

While we arrived in the USA, we got into a waiting line so while waiting our plane leaves without us. The airport speaker repeated our flight multiple times, but we couldn’t do anything about it. And now the fun part starts, while we got at our gate the guy from the ground crew said he was done with everything. He called for us multiple times over the speakers and now the plane is boarding. So, he said we needed to fix things by ourselves and he just walked away… First time I’m having this experience while flying. Think the guy didn’t have its day. Luckily for us a nice lady saw everything, and she told us to get at her desk (flight to Paris) a few hours later she would arrange a new flight for us, if we didn’t mind having a stopover extra in Paris. We totally don’t care thanks for the help! We took the extra time to enjoy some of the best things in the USA, the fast food! Burgers and milkshakes for us.

After boarding on our flight to Paris everything went smooth. No more delays and from Paris we got in Amsterdam. We had a great trip, and I’m really grateful I’m able to do these kinds of things.

Thanks, Dikkie for being there on my trip with all my whims and bad humor! 😘

The next day…

Sorry one more thing to end this story. You guys already know what view I like the most enjoying my coffee. Well guess what I did while waking up being back in Holland?

Indeed, I went out to the beach!😎 Missed our beaches way to much. Can't explain why but our sand is the best between your toes you got to believe me.

Thanks for reading along with me during my adventures in New Zealand. Lots of new adventures will come! Hope you will join me again on those. Cheers!