Bye Bye Campervan

March 21 - Things are really winding down now. The fridge in the campervan contains 2 yogurts, ½ bottle milk, some butter and cheese, 2 eggs and some rather geriatric bread. Oh yes, and some of the jam that we bought way back at the Agricultural and Pastoral Fair! We give the van back on Wednesday (today is Sunday) but we have decided to go to our B&B in Auckland a day early so we really only have 2 more nights in the van. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been living in it for 2 months. I’m so glad Mark persuaded me to keep this blog - things get hazy even a day or two after you’ve done them and this will be a wonderful reminder of the most amazing time we’ve had.
We left the Bay of Islands this morning and are heading back down south towards Auckland. We stopped today at a charmingly named place called Waipu which has a quaint little museum outlining how 940 intrepid Scots arrived here in 1851. They had left the Highlands in the early 19th century after the Clearances (once the landowners discovered that they could make money from sheep farming without all the nuisance crofters). So off they went to Nova Scotia, landing in Pictou where they discovered bars, brothels and other wicked things (still that way, eh Don?). Their leader was a religious zealot called Norman McLeod and he decided that they should build ships and set sail for Australia where life would undoubtedly be less wicked. They landed in Melbourne, right at the height of the gold rush, and discovered bars, brothels and other wicked things - again. So after some vicissitudes, off they went again to New Zealand, landing in Waipu where there was pretty much nothing. It actually was an amazing story and the museum has done a really good job of making the people and what happened to them come alive. We are staying at another lovely campground, right on the beach (see picture of G&J on an almost deserted stretch of white sand). The pleasant owner lent us boogie boards, so off we went into the surf again (sorry to rub salt in the wound, Gary). It was fun (see picture)!
March 22 - Closer and closer to Auckland. We landed in Takapuna today which is just north of the Big City. It was rather a dreary day, so we found a cinema and saw “Mao’s Last Dancer” which was really good (for those who don‘t know, it‘s the true story of a young Chinese boy who is trained to be a ballet dancer and eventually defects to the US). John was a bit wary, it being about a ballet dancer an’ all, but it was such a moving film and the fact that it was true made a big impact. We are both ready to say goodbye to the campervan - we go to our B&B tomorrow and have a day to clear out the van and get it reasonably clean before turning it in.
March 23 - we have arrived in heaven! The B&B is absolutely wonderful and we will be pampered to death in the next 8 days. Karen and Pete are our hosts and they have already gone out of their way to be helpful. We have our own little apartment with a fridge and microwave and Karen has supplied all kinds of wonderful goodies to keep us happy! There is a TV (which we haven’t watched for months) and OUR OWN BATHROOM!!! Devonport, where they live, is across the bay from Auckland City where it looks like there are lots of boats to keep John happy! We left our last campground this morning after passing the torch to some very pleasant Kiwis who were our neighbours. The “torch” was actually a bottle of whiskey which had been given to us by a lovely Dutch couple back in Rotorua. The husband had suddenly decided to stop drinking, so he passed on an almost full bottle of whiskey to us, which we accepted on the understanding that if we didn’t finish it (which we knew we wouldn’t) we would pass it along to some other travellers. So the Kiwis were happy and we were happy (and I remembered that I really don’t much like whiskey!) So tomorrow we clean up the van and take it back and pick up a car for our last week here.