We may be out of our AirBnB and fully reliant on Timmy now, but still in the grips auf Auckland. Two days and one night more for Nina to finish her research at the Auckland Art Galery.

Thursday was all about getting used to our new lifestyle and putting the final touches on our setup. Buying some camping chairs, a few bits and bobs. Picking up my NZMCA membership card, so that we can take full advantage of that. We did a loop around the eastern outskirts of Auckland and gave the kids a chance to spend some time at the beach. That night, we spent the convenient but louder of Aucklands two freedom camping spots. Right at the motorway, it attracted an odd collection, but we got through the first night just fine.

On Friday, we left Nina in town for her bus to the Auckland Art Gallery. I upgraded to “stay-at-mobilehome-dad” and took the kids west all the way to Whatipu. We did a bush trail to see kauri trees and visited the black sanded Whatipu Beach. The kids had a blast, even with the 2 hours of driving over windy and even gravely roads. At mid-afternoon, we headed back to Auckland to pick up Nina and leave Auckland for good this time. It was a mildy cursed endeavour, first clipping the side mirror on a badly parked contruction truck, then stuck in traffic and finally we got a send off gift from Auckland’s finest: Turns out, the CBD has a general 30 limit, so we got a kind 120$ information at the last turn before the motorway as helpful reminder.

This night, we tried a NZMCA “Park-over-Place” for the first time. What a great thing – safe spaces organised by NZMCA members where one can spend the night for a small fee. So we enjoyed the parking lot of Woodturners Café entirely to ourselves. Much more quiet. Now, the holiday part can start …