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December 7 - New Zealand: Russell to Auckland (North Island)

The rain and wind were INCREDIBLE last night.  I lost track of the number of times the side of our tent was blown inward and into our heads.  Jon says he heard on the radio this morning that the winds were 40-45 km/hour winds.  That's pretty strong gales for our tent to withstand.  Such a good little tent.

The weather forecast yesterday indicated that we would have rain all night and for most of the morning, but that it would clear up by the afternoon.  This would be very convenient for me and Jon, as we had to let the tent dry before we packed it up.

Long Beach

So Jon went for a run and I went for a walk. I took a left out of the campsite and followed the path to Long Beach.  It was raining (well, drizzling) but it felt kind of good.  And just as I reached the top of the hill I had a gorgeous view of the beach.  It wasn't a very large beach, but I was the only one on it and so was very happy.  I ran for a bit on the sand, but running is a bit difficult in hiking boots.  So I climbed on some rocks and found a bunch of mussels.  Then I made my way back to the campsite to shower.

Attack of the steep hills! - Run #25

This morning we both woke up at 7am so I could go for one last run in NZ and Heidi could go for a nice walk around the area.  I headed out in the direction that I new the beach was supposed to be and ran straight into a nice big hill.  No sweat, I figured it would lead to the beach and that would be downhill.  This was correct but once you got to the end of the downhill you were also at the end of the path/road, so it was back uphill!  I headed back up the hill and decided to go along Queens View, but was disappointed that I couldn't even see Brooklyn (bad New York joke)...anyway, this was further uphill.  Next I got a great view of about 75 sailboats moored in a small harbor and then went through the small town of Russell.  I still had a bit more time left to run so headed to what looked like a nice hill.

What had looked like a nice hill started to look worse as I approached.  When I started the worst of the hill I realized that I was only able to get about 2/3 of a normal stride, the hill was that steep.  Five minutes later I was finally up the hill.  Never walking but certainly not flying up this steep monstrosity!  After I while I turned around and had to go back down this beast, which took almost as long to go down as it did to go up, that's how steep it was.

I made my way back to the campground, adding a few blocks to the run to add some time and got to the campground just in time for the hot water in the showers to be turned off so they could work on the hot water heater--go figure!

The campsite was upgrading their water heaters, so the hot water was turned off between 9:00AM - 4:00PM.  I hopped in the shower at 8:45 just in time for the last bit of hot water while it was still on.  The only bummer was that the shower cost $.50 for 6 minutes of water.  This is the first metered shower we've had and I'm happy that we didn't have them the entire trip.

Kitchen Sink Omelets and Other Stuff

When Jon came back from his run, we did the laundry (including our sleeping bags!) and started breakfast.  We used up all the last of our vegetables, cheese, and eggs in our final "kitchen sink omelet" in New Zealand.  Then - during a brief respite in the rain - we collapsed the tent.  Jon had gone up to the laundry room to do something while I un-staked the tent.  Just then, a HUGE gust of wind came and lifted the tent up and away about 5 feet.  I went running after it and managed to stop it from sailing to Australia before we got there.  Jon thought it was the funniest thing he'd seen in a long time.

When the laundry was done, we finally packed up our backpacks and cleaned out the car.  We had three weeks of junk crowding up the back seat and the trunk (which is called "the boot" in this part of the world).  It was a bit difficult because of the rain, so we took over the laundry room and spread out our stuff in order to pack better.  When we were done with the backpacks, all we had to do was to pack up the cooler, kitchen utensils and the day packs.  Surprisingly, this took at least an hour.  We spent part of the time chatting with a couple from the UK who were in NZ for 2 years and lived in Wellington.

On the Road Again

Finally, around 3:00PM, we hit the road.  Before leaving the island, Jon wanted to measure his run.  So we drove along his run and he showed me his favorite sights, which included a house with his dream grill - built into the side of the house overlooking the bay.  

The view from one of the hills on Jon's Run

We drove past the Kiwi Reserve and we rolled down the windows to hear the kiwis chirp.  Unfortunately, they're nocturnal and so weren't out at 3:00 in the afternoon.  We did hear a few, but not as many as he'd heard on his run this morning.  We did some interesting birds, though.

No idea what kind of birds these are.  But they were pretty!

Auckland

So we went to the ferry - which had just arrived - and made our way back to the mainland.  This ferry ride was rainy and wet so we stayed in the car.  The drive to Auckland was rainy and uneventful.  The weather had cleared up by the time we got to Auckland at 7:30.  We went for dinner at Burger Fuel, which was the same burger joint where we had dinner last time we were in Auckland.  But we knew it was affordable and good, and we knew where to park which was a bonus.

So here was our decision for the rest of the night, just to fill you in on our thought process.  Our flight to Cairns leaves at 6:50AM tomorrow morning from Auckland Airport.  This means that check in will be at 4:50AM, and we will have to leave wherever we stay at 4:00AM.  So we'll have to get up at 3:00AM.  Now - I ask you - is there any point to paying for a room or campsite?  For that matter, is there any point to really sleeping?  The answer: NO.  We decided to stay out kind of late and sleep in the airport parking lot for a few hours.  Not because we're cheap, but because we DO want to get SOME sleep, and it's more efficient to sleep right next to the place we have to be.

Showers at Ponsonby Backpackers

We went to Ponsonby Backpackers, which is the house we stayed at when we first arrived in Auckland.  The owner - Steve from Yugoslavia - was very nice to us when we were there.  So we decided to stop by and ask him if we could use his showers.  Because it was 8:30 at night, he wasn't actually at the desk and was probably in his house next door.  So we went on in and helped ourselves to the bathroom and showers.  

OK.  Not the most honest thing in the world to do, but we weren't robbing him from revenue.  We just borrowed one of his assets briefly.  I was toying with the idea of leaving it out of the journal, but I want to remember that we actually did it.

Rock Star

In downtown Auckland, we drove around for a while looking for a movie theater.  We finally found one and were able to get student tickets, even though the sign said "Student Discounts on weekends for secondary students only".  The tickets were for the 9:20 showing of "Rock Star" with Mark Wahlberg (yum!) and Jennifer Aniston.  Jon went to find a parking place and I went to get seats.  Now, in New York, if you don't get to the theater at least 45 minutes ahead of time then you're stuck in the front row.  We figured the same applied to downtown Auckland on a Friday night.  Not so.  When I reached the theater at 9:00, the girls ushering had to check if it was open first.  Since it was, they let me in and I was the only person there for a good 10 minutes.

The movie was actually great.  The plot was interesting, the dialogue amusing, and Jon loved the heavy-metal music.  Besides, no one can complain about Mark Wahlberg in leather, and Jennifer Aniston actually played a role somewhat different from what she usually plays.  So we were happy all around.

Sleeping with the Airplanes

Around midnight, we were both incredibly tired and ready to get some sleep.  We made our ways to the airport and - after a wrong turn or two - finally got to the short-term parking lot.  Jon found a nice spot in the back corner of the lot where we it was a bit quieter.  We packed up the rest of our stuff, reclined our chairs, and tried to get some shuteye.  

We woke up at 4:45AM, after a few restless hours.  So read on for tomorrow

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