Drove it exactly one block to the detailing guy Jonathan for a clean-up. Just as friendly, he had a spit-polished speed shop where Art met an old friend, an E-type tricked out to within an inch of its life.
Meandered back through yet another charming Auckland city park, with a fun swing and happy boy.
Went to AA (NZ's version of AAA, despite what you're thinking) and moved car registration and got new sticker, a surprisingly painless process.
Yesterday, up for a fridge clean-out breakfast: kumara, egg, blueberries, prunes, banana. Packed and stashed our bags in the lobby for an hour and headed back to AA for maps--lots of 'em. We're picking up the Rover today and departing Auckland after 15 days and we are READY.
To the coffee shop next door for a celebratory flat white.
(Thinking: road trip road trip road trip!)
Said goodbye to our beloved and capable front-desk staff at Barclays. "And the trip begins!" says Aerie, almost as excited as we are. Taxi to Jonathon's to load the Rover--whoop! Just like home.
Time to gas up and hit the left side of the road...
Auckland 90 min south to Hamilton to check out a caravan (camper) for sale on TradeMe, NZ's version of ebay. Delightful Rosemary answered all our questions and told us it had been the hottest summer on record in NZ. Not a bad camper (a 1976 Chevron Lightweight), but needs some work and we are beyond ready to move. Renting/buying a caravan has been a bit more challenging than we imagined.
Found a modest motel in Hamilton. The word motel has a different connotation here. It means self-catering, which means kitchen facilities like sink, range, dishes, fridge. micro. Also, any time you check into one of these, they give you a little carton of milk, to go with the tea and instant coffee they provide. A new tradition.
But after this long day it's not milk we have in mind...
Then we walked around
town, made a picture of decorative public toilets (why don't we have these in Chi?), savored some winning Indian food--butter chicken--so tired, the end.
PS: not only did our driver do an exceptional job today, he's got a pretty nice ride.
PPS: the wire transfer from Chicago was $40 short. And that really is all I'm going to say about it.
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