The Leaving of New Zealand

Friday 03 April 22C Sunny and partly cloudy. Drove 50km

Cleaning up a hire car at the end of a rental period is fun. The things you find hidden away under the seat, in the boot, lurking in with the spare tyre. Today's haul included sea shells, a small kitchen knife, lots of travel brochures and a bag full of plastic cutlery. I can explain the cutlery and knife, we bought them when we arrived in NZ to use for al fresco lunches. I'm sure that the Motel at Orewa will be somewhat puzzled by the collection of things we left in their cubpboards which included, 4 roll of toilet paper, the aformentioned cutlery, plastic cups and plates, a jar of salsa (that had defied opening), half a loaf of bread and the remains of a jar of marmalade. The other thing about the car is not to get it too clean and tidy and, hopefully, any chips or small marks inflicted on the car on the gravel roads will be missed or ignored.

How did we get everything in the bags on our way out here? Several things have lived in the car for the last month, cagoules, snorkel and mask and fleece, now they have to be stuffed back into the bags again. One conundrum we have to puzzle over is our baggage allowance. From UK to LA and from LA to Auckland our baggage allowance was for 2 pieces of checked in luggage each, of indeterminate weight. For this sector from Auckland to Hong Kong, we have a baggage allowance of 20kg each. Could be interesting.

After packing the car one last time, we leave the motel and join the SH1 motorway back into Auckland. Once in the city, we follow the signs to the Airport through the suburbs of Newmarket and Epsom; what were those settlers thinking off when they named them? At the Airport we park and drag our bags inside and manage to leave them at the tourist information office for the sum of $NZ 30. Now the car really is empty.

Leaving the airport, we head across to Manukau and the Regional Botanical Gardens. These gardens are relatively new, only opened to the public in the mid 80s, and are still under development. Although the site is right next to the motorway, it is a great place to wander around. There are a mixture of formal gardens and informal collections of plants, shrubs and trees. The only down side was that they had emptied the two large lakes for cleaning. We wandered around for an hour or so and then ate lunch at the cafe in the gardens. Cafes in Botanical Gardens follow the same rules as those in garden centres, yummy imaginative food!

Eventually, we head back into the heart of Auckland to abandon our trusty, dusty, Toyata Corolla. Arriving at the rental office we park in a corner and then remember we have to fill the petrol tank. Back around the block for fuel and then hand in the keys. Car-less again.

We walk into town and buy a cheap guide book to Hong Kong as we realise that we have to figure out how to get from Hong Kong airport to Hong Kong Island. That may seen silly, but Hong Kong airport is on Lantau Island and Hong Kong island is some way away. From the bookshop we walk back down to Auckland harbour and on the spur of the moment, take the ferry across the harbour to Devonport.

Devonport is home to the Royal New Zealand Navy and also a very pleasant little laid-back town. After strolling around taking in the sights, we head back across the harbour to find something for dinner. We end up in an Italian restaurant with a balcony overlooking Queens Street, the main street of Auckland. The airport bus stopped almost outside the restaurant too, and after eating we waited for 20 minutes until a bus turned up and took us to the airport.



The baggage issue was apparently not a problem as the weight of our bags wasn't discussed other than to attach a label to both bags marked "Heavy". After passing through immigration again, we ended up sitting in the departure area for a couple of hours before boarding our flight shortly before midnight.