Arrival to Kiwi Land

We made it to New Zealand!!!  We got to Auckland at 8am went through customs that were very serious about seeds and other hitchhikers affecting the flora and fauna of the country.  They examined our boots and our tent and the guy told Eugene we passed and he liked the tent!! We had just enough money to catch the Airbus shuttle to our hostel.  We were feeling energized and we couldn't check in until later so we got down to business.  We found a cheap phone, found some vans to check out and made a call to look at one.  The next two days we got a bank account, an IRD number for our visa, and finalized the van purchase.   We bought a Toyota Town Ace from a nice French couple who were clean and honest and had been traveling around and living out of the van for the past 8 months.   So we call our van Frenchy!!!    Auckland is a nice city, bustling with young people , filled with energy and nothing compared to Bangkok.  It was a nice change; however we were ready to hit the open road after we got the van set up.

Eugene wanted to hit the surf town of Raglan since Thailand had no surf, and he was ready to paddle out.  Raglan is about 2 hours south west of Auckland, a good first road trip in the van driving on the opposite side of the vehicle and the road with a manual transmission.  We arrived in the very tiny town of Raglan and went straight to the surf shop to get Eugene a board.  He was successful.  The next day he hit the waves and they were good.  The following day we noticed busloads of high school surfer groms buzzing around.  Turned out there was a surf competition for the next two days and the surf spot would be off limits!!!  He was disappointed.  On the bright side the sun came out and we went for a grueling hike up the Te Toto Gorge to a wonderful lookout over the valley and Raglan town. It was awesome! 

We know two people from the states who live in this town, and it’s so small that we ran into both of them on the street!!   We have a dinner date and then after we are heading to the next destination.  We plan on heading to the Cormandel Pennisula where we are told it is like Hawaii, but colder!!!!