Today wasn't exactly our favorite day in New Zealand... We woke up fairly late, around 8:30 and, after checking our internet at the cafe next door, we got started on packing up the car and all our stuff. It's amazing how jumbled together all your stuff can get when you've been living in a camper van for over 2 weeks!! It took us quite a while to pack up all our stuff, after which we headed to the dump station and to fill up the van's water. From there we went back to the Town Basin to go to the New Zealand Clock Museum. I'm not quite sure why, but I actually kinda wanted to go...yet on the way there around 11 we realized exactly how little time we had in order to be able to drive all the way back to Auckland and drop the car off at the rental place by 4:30 pm.
After deciding to skip the clock museum, we ate leftover pasta in the van and headed out on the road back to Auckland. We arrived in the city around 3 pm, the perfect time to check into our hotel for the night. After checking in and unloading the car, we made our way back out to drop off the van. At this point it was only like 3:30, plenty of time for us to get gas and be at the rental place by 4:30 (the GPS said we were due there around 3:50).
And then we were caught in traffic. FOR. EV. ER.
We slowly inched our way out of the city (seriously - why so much traffic on a Thursday afternoon!!??!) and stopped for gas. We made our way allllllll the way to the Jucy rental place, arriving at 4:30 pm on the dot. HUZZAH! I STILL can't believe it took us THAT long to get there!!!
We dropped off the car and confirmed our refunds with them for all the troubles we had had last week and then waited for our taxi.
I must say, it was a little bit sad dropping Roxanne (the van) and James (the GPS) off at the Jucy place. While our first day in the van had been QUITE the unique experience, we had really grown kind of accustomed to our life in the van and the freedom it provided. It was great being able to park in tons of free places around the country and being able to decide on a whim where we wanted to go.The van also provided us with everything that we needed in a nice, compact space. It really makes you think about how little you can survive on (and be happy with)! While I will be happy to be sleeping in a real bed, we'll also miss Roxanne and James quite a bit. Looking forward to our return travels when we come back in a few years to do the South Island!
We got our taxi back to the city...and within 3 minutes of us being in the car, the driver had already cursed several times AND made racist and sexist comments. I even called him out on them and he didn't seem to see what had been wrong with any of the things he'd said! It was awful! Needless to say it was NOT my favorite 45 minutes of the day.
After arriving back at the hotel, we took stock of all our stuff before heading out to the city for dinner. We wandered around the Britomart Precinct, Viaduct Harbor and Wynyard Quarter before ending up at Mac's for a delicious dinner of steak (for me) and jerk Jamaican chicken (for Jon) and an amazing chocolate lava cake for dessert. YUM!
After dinner we made our way back to the hotel for an early night's sleep after soooooooo much time on the road. Blah. Unfortunately, our bed is HORRID, so here's hoping we'll get ANY sleep...since it's basically plastic. As are the sheets. Awesome. Ugh.
Looking forward to exploring Auckland tomorrow!
Jess' and Jon's highlight of the day: going out to dinner
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