Auckland & Tairua - Day 2

We started our second day with breakfast at the vegetarian Raw Power Cafe. Delicious omelette for Jörg and scrambled tofu for Janina, along with a fruit salad with honey :) Then we visited the Vodafone shop to get a local sim card. This confirmed our impression from yesterday and from the Dubai airport terminal: the employees are mostly Chinese and many shops have a Chinese influence. Do the locals not want to do these jobs or has there been an invasion of Chinese investors in the Year of the Dog?

Now it was time for the most challenging part of the day: picking up the rental car and driving in New Zealand's left-hand traffic! Admittedly, navigating out of the parking garage with the unfamiliar large car (right-hand drive, automatic transmission, where does the hood end - Holden Cruze) was the most difficult part, which Jörg generously left to Janina. In his defense, the car was parked in a way that a graceful body was absolutely necessary for getting in. Without any further damage to the car, we made it to the apartment, where we loaded our luggage into the car and set off on our adventure! Jörg also did well in the left-hand traffic, mainly thanks to Janina's great navigation from the passenger side ;-) He also learned that a bay is shorter than a lane :-D

However, our first stop was still in Auckland, as we wanted to visit Mount Eden. This is the highest natural (volcanic) peak in the city, as Auckland was built on a volcanic field. The last eruption, however, was 600 years ago, luckily!? Since we didn't make it to the Sky Tower yesterday, we wanted to enjoy the view of the city this way. However, we only drove to Eden Garden, a nice park with a small waterfall. The view was very beautiful, as you can see in the photos.

Right in time for rush hour, we set off from the city towards the Coromandel Peninsula. The landscape changed from slightly hilly, wavy, green, with cows (and few sheep) to Sauerland mountainous and overgrown with jungle. This is how we imagined New Zealand! Along the way, we stopped at a viewpoint and reached the supermarket in the picturesque town of Tairua just before closing time (7 pm).

Our accommodation (wonderful! lovely!) was on Mount Paku with a view of the open sea. From the bed, we could see a hammock and two giant ferns (which look like palm trees) and on the terrace to the right was our personal jacuzzi.