Day 4 - From Auckland to the North

18.12.2014

Here we go: Over 6 weeks through paradise begins!

I wake up several times during the night, but still feel pretty good at 7am in the morning and I'm starving. The last meal I had was yesterday morning on the flight to Auckland. My SIM card with the 5 GB works perfectly in my tablet and I check the weather forecast and chat a little with home. The inclusive breakfast is extremely meager, including instant coffee. There's only toast and one kind of jam - but it fills my stomach.

At 9:00 am, I'm back in the shuttle to the airport. The hotel charges 2 dollars for it, which is cheap. It would cost 10-12 dollars by taxi. After a short wait at Europcar, I get a car with 5 doors, even though I booked a 2-door as the smallest and cheapest option. 42 days for 1,450 euros. However, I'll lose the current car on January 3rd when I drive to the South Island and Europcar does not allow the car to be transported to the other island.

The car is from a brand called Holden, which I've never heard of before, and I don't even see the rear two doors at first because the handles are placed completely oddly. Fortunately, the trunk has a horizontal divider in the floor that I remove so my large bag can fit under the upper trunk cover. I take my time to organize myself and then I start driving on the left side of the road.

Auckland has a lot of traffic and it's not as relaxed as last January in Christchurch when I started driving on the 'wrong' side. Multi-lane highways, exits, and having to rethink driving on the left. Now the windshield wipers and turn signals are reversed again, and I 'blink' several times with the wipers, which of course no one sees when I suddenly change lanes with them. But for now, I'm only driving 2 km to a supermarket next to the hotel where I lived 11 months ago. Stocked with water, strawberries, melon, yogurt, rolls, and cheese, I finally start driving and it's already 10:30 am. Today's route is about 240 km.

It takes another hour until I finally leave the traffic of and around Auckland. Unbelievable. But at Silverdale, I turn off onto a country road instead of continuing on Highway 1. After about 30 km, I take Highway 16 toward the North. Highway 1 would certainly be faster to the North, but this way is more comfortable and at some point I'll have to turn west anyway.

The landscape is green and hilly, sometimes flat with herds of cattle. Here and there are small houses, but the towns are tiny and consist of only 4-6 visible houses. Unfortunately, everything is often covered in thick clouds. The weather is not much better than yesterday, and the newspaper said that yesterday there was so much rain in Northland that in some places the power went out and several roads are impassable because trees have fallen and branches are on the roads.

At Brynderwyn, I turn west onto Highway 12, another country road that takes me 50 km further northwest to Dargaville. 11 km further is Baylys Beach, where I rented a cabin in the Holiday Park. 3 days for 225 dollars.

It's already 5 pm when I arrive there, after I had a little coffee break. The cottage is nice, and the neighbors Jacco and Dorine from Zwolle in the Netherlands invite me for one or two bottles of wine. I haven't eaten anything and when we say goodnight at 9:30 pm, I'm not sure if I'm suffering from jet lag or too much wine, and that's why the floor is wavy. I eat a few tomatoes and yogurt, but I'm so groggy that I don't rearrange my bag or write in my diary.

Daily distance: 240 km