Meet and Greet with Dibi 14th - 15th November 2016

After Claudi worked on the kiwi plantation for a few weeks and cleaned with Birgit and her landlord for the final week, I was also able to earn money as a boat builder for 3 more weeks. Now it was time to continue traveling.

On Monday morning, after some delay (once again stuck at a gas station - luckily a man was able to get the car running again with a touch on the battery. The contact was loose), we drove to Auckland to meet up with Dibi.

There we showed Dibi the Auckland Domain and climbed Mount Eden, where we enjoyed the view of the skyline. At a perceived wind force of 10, we came up with the glorious idea of folding a city map, which we managed to fold back together in about 15 minutes. In the evening, we went to the Italian restaurant on Parnell Road. We spent the night at our adoptive parents Janet and Malcom. They are the couple we met during our first car breakdown. They helped us with the repair back then and offered us a place to sleep. Now we made use of it. We were allowed to sleep there during our entire stay in Auckland. The two live on the outskirts of Auckland in a small house. Our quarters were in the basement in the guest room. We also got breakfast. :)

Janet works as a caregiver for the elderly and Malcom is a sailor in the Navy. Both of them are very warm-hearted and we have also taken their dog Tom to our hearts.

The next morning, I met up with Dibi at the cat cafe "Cat Lounge" for breakfast. In the cat cafe, you could eat and drink and play with small, cute, fluffy cats on the side. Witzi had to (wanted to) stay at home because of his cat allergy.

Cats about cats

For lunch, we drove back to Janet and Malcom, who were both at work, but left us their front door key. At home, we entertained the little dog Tom. After that, we went to Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life, where we viewed the underwater world from dry land. We observed small and large penguins brooding, and we also saw stingrays, sharks, turtles, lobsters, octopuses, and seahorses. In the evening, we had dinner together at Better Burger in Auckland. We were allowed to spend the night with our warm-hearted hosts again.