Arriving in Auckland...

Our first mission...  Go buy groceries!  "OK, go right out of our lot, left at the light, get on highway 10 for 6km, get off at ..."  We finally get to the grocery store.  Whew!  First leg of piloting the behemoth campervan through the country.  Success!  We gather our food and try to pay and discover...  that I left my Visa card back at Maui.  Shit.  Out comes the cash (they didn't take plastic anyway).

The McDonalds in the grocery parking lot (not the one pictured below) was calling our name.  Here we discovered the Kiwi Berger!  Picture a McDonalds Quarter Pounder, plus a fried egg and a slice of beet!  This is what Kiwi's (New Zealanders) consider a hamburger!  Tastes good, to me at least.

OK, back on the road to get my Visa card... but we didn't have detailed directions back to Maui.  We did not plan to go back to Maui since we were planning to turn the campervan back in in Christchurch on the South Island.  We finally found the place and retrieved my card (and had the wind screen (windshield) wipers replaced).

Omnipresent McDonalds near the Auckland bay bridge. 

We finally find Kelly Tarlton's underwater aquarium.  Kind of like the Shark Encounter at Sea World, with a plexiglass tunnel beneath a tank filled with rays, sharks, lobsters, and tropical fish.  Tarlton's is built in an underground converted sewer system immediately adjacent to the bay.  Along with the aquariums, this center has simulated underwater ride to the south pole, and mockups of living quarters for early explores to the south pole.  Outside, the wind is blowing about 40km/h and kicking up the surf.  Erik and I had fun playing in the wind.

[tarlton's pix]

Also during the day, we went to the national museum which has history on NZ's participation in WWII, a large Maori exhibit, and the story of the British Empire's conquest of the islands, starting with Captain Cook's explorations.  For kicks, we decided to cruze downtown at rush hour.  Duh!  This is one of the biggest citys in the country.  Downtown is just like any major city...  Lots of shops, things to do, see, ...  So we looked for a parking place.  Yea, right.  Never mind.

For our final challenge we had to find our campervan park for the night.  Silly us to listen to the directions that the young lady at Mani gave us!  Way off!  After 2-hours of searching, we finally found home and settled in for our first night in NZ.