Whakaputaina: 15.12.2023
Drive back to the campervan rental and swap the camper for a car and then we just ticked off another possible point from the Auckland area that we hadn't managed before. Making the best of the situation and it really was a nice day at the end.
We ran the Omanawanui Track - or tried to :D
It was a good thing that we only had a car and not our van, because the route to the car park was quite winding, narrow and a gravel road (but there are a lot of those on the South Island). It is still very windy, when you reached the first mountain peak you were almost blown away. I only had a short break, I'm so bad uphill, and just as we wanted to take pictures of the great bay, a rain shower came. So we quickly got off with E in the stretcher and fled to the overgrown part of the path. As soon as we were out of the aisle, the wind got better and the rain stopped - this weather here was wow.
Then we drove to Cornwall Park in Auckland, where you were only allowed to park with a car (how appropriate). There was a nice coffee for us and a little play area for E. While we found out that the camper wouldn't be ready today and were looking for a place to stay overnight, E played independently. So far everything is going really well and she is looking forward to driving, sleeping with flow and having a great time. Children really need so little and our cuckoo version always works.
When we arrived at the hotel, we checked in and I took care of the overnight stays we had already booked. I was actually able to push everything back another day because we had buffers.
We asked E what she wanted to eat: pizza, pasta or fish, and after a long thought and silence she called fish fish :D So then we walked to the Swashbucklers restaurant at the harbor. Eating fancy fish. It was really delicious and very child-friendly.
At the end there was a bathroom for E and a bathroom for me, yay, we had to make use of the fancy hotel room. Goodnight Auckland.