Kiwi Kampervan Foray

After a pretty spiffy breakfast at the hotel, we took a 15 minute walk to the Britz depot. After rain all night and showering on and off we weren't sure if we would need a taxi or risk the weather, but after sitting all yesterday we took the risk and enjoyed our walk thru the industrial park.
Received a nice warm welcome from the ladies at Britz and after filling out a most complicated check-in form on an iPad and signing a heap of contract agreements we were introduced to our campervans.
Sue & Peter were changed to a Maui van and Simon & Michelle had the Britz, the difference being that when a van gets more than 140,000km, they slap a Britz sticker over the Maui sign. A quick run down on the gas, toilet, water and identifying any chips & scratches and we were OFF.
Not quite. We had to return to the hotel to collect our bags first.
We decided not to spend much time in Auckland given it looked like more rain and despite being a Sat the roads were jammed. So took a detour and found our way to Mt Eden, an extinct volcano which offers a great lookout of the city. Got to park our vans in the bus area, along with the real busses, before embarking on a 15 min walk up to the summit. Not too strenuous a walk but just as we reached the top, down the rain came. And being smart country folk from the driest continent on earth, we neglected to take either raincoats or umbrellas, they were safety tucked away in our vans, warm & dry!
Anyway, took a couple of quick photos and bolted back down the hill and received a good-old drenching for our troubles. Lucky we had the van so the girls did a quick change into some warm dry gear.
Funny rain tho, came down pretty solid, but softly, as if it was falling from just above us and really didn't want to cause too much trouble. At home that sort of rain would have teemed down and flooded cars & shops.
So time to hit the highway - only trouble was that about 1/2 of Auckland had the same idea and it took about 1 hour just to clear the city.
Onto the main highway 1, south and we decide to detour for coffee into a little town called Bombay, all good except there are no shops, only vegy farms and some cows. Trying to turn around & Peter stalls the van in the middle of the intersection and then won't start. Hazard lights on, stopping traffic for a while before it kicks over and we are off again, this time taking the short drive into Pukekoe, home of the world renowned Pukekoe Creamgold onion. Beautiful brown soil allows them to grow a whole range of vegies including some massive greenhouses.
Enjoyed an excellent hamburger lunch, called a Kiwi Burger, i am surprised that Kiwi tastes a lot like beef, while we watched the rain showers pass by, again.
Taking the opportunity we hit the supermarket and stocked up on some vital supplies like beer, wine and chocolate.
Sick of the highway we took the B roads south, through some magnificent grazing, although hilly, country, finally arriving in Raglan, a seaside town on the west coast. No time to check out the town we went straight to the caravan park and got 2 of the best sites available, parked and spent 1/2 hour trying to set up our beds etc. All very new to petensue, the kampervan newbies! After achieving this it was time for a drink before cooking a steak and using the excellent facilities of the park. Big kitchen & dining area, bbqs, games rooms, got the lot. Pretty quiet so easy to get ourselves settled in. After disussing the day & making rough plans for tomorrow, retired early to enjoy outr kampervan double bed.

Highlights of the day:
* getting out of Auckland,
* lots of beaut farming land,
* good company

Weather was showers to rain all day with a few sunny spots. Not cold but cool about 20CRead more