Category: Auckland

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 385: Auckland – Final Day in NZ!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were woken by the construction next door around 09:00. Kim made a coffee and we had that whilst chatting with our host for a while.

After this, we got showered and packed everything up.

We had a plan to watch a film to pass time, so we left our bags and walked down to the shopping centre.

We had some time, so we went to the bank to put the money we got for the car into the bank.

We then went to the cinema, got our food and drink and went to watch Glass. It wasn’t what we were expecting, but it was certainly a great film!

We left the cinema and walked back to the apartment to get our bags. We said goodbye to our host and waited for Danielle and Josh to arrive as they were giving us a lift to the airport.

Once we arrived, they looked after our bags whilst we got changed and then we said goodbye to them and off we went to check in our bags.

The bags were checked easily, via the self service, and then we went to grab some food.

We went to a Japanese place and got sone chicken karaage, a teriyaki pork don & a chicken katsu curry. It was really delicious!

Whilst we ate, Curtis called to cancel his phone number and convert Kim’s to a prepaid so she can still receive texts on it.

Once that was done and we finished eating, we went through security.

Now, we are sitting around waiting for our flight. This is the last day here in New Zealand and its kinda sad to say goodbye to people but we are also so excited for our next destination!

We have a long flight, hence doing the blog so early, and then we drop a lot in temperature, too.

See you on the other side.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

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Auckland

Place 49 – Day 384: Auckland – The Car Is Sold!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We had a but of a lay in this morning, which was much needed! We had an appointment at 12:30 which we had to get to, so once we got up and got some stuff sorted Kim spoke to her family, we had to head out.

Once we got there, we had to wait a bit and then we were seen by someone.

We were getting the car valued and seeing if the company wanted to buy it, as a last resort. They didn’t give us the best offer, so we held off umin case we got a better offer privately.

We then drove from here to Silvia Park where we wanted to ask a question about our mobile phones to the phone company and then we drove back to the apartment.

Once we got back, we took the laundry we had up to the laundromat. This laundromat works with a key system, so we had to purchase a key and top it up and then use the laundromat. We washed and dried our clothes, walked to the cinema to book tickets for tomorrow and then came back to the apartment.

We then got a great offer for the car from someone coming all the way from Hamilton! We arranged to meet them and then went for a farewell dinner with Josh & Danielle in New Lynn.

We met them and ordered some drinks and food and then the lady arrived to get the car!

She gave us the money and was very excited about the car, so that was that! We finally sold the car and that is now done.

We sat and ate with Josh and Danielle and then they drove us back.

We got back and had an hour long chat with our host who is really lovely! We then finished some packing and went to bed.

We are watching a film tomorrow to kill time as our flight isn’t until 20:05.

Last night in New Zealand!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 383: Auckland – Admin Success & Old Friend Meetup

Kim & Curtis Hale

We started the day far too early at 08:00.

We had a quick breakfast and got out the door for about 08:20.

First stop was the visa application centre which Kim had to go to for her biometrics. That being said, she had accidentally deleted her appointment the other day, so she was hoping they would be able to reinstate it, which they were! Result! Kim’s appointment wasn’t until 11:15, though, and she got there for 09:00.

Curtis waited to pick Kim up until he found out about the fact she would be there for a couple of hours, so instead he drove all the way to Henderson to get the car serviced.

Once he dropped the car off, Curtis had at least a couple of hours to kill, so he found a McDonald’s to get a coffee. The McDonald’s was about a 25 minute walk away, but Curtis had nothing else to do so he walked there in the scorching heat.

Curtis got to McDonald’s and got his coffee and it was perfect, as always.

Curtis chilled for a while before making the walk back to the garage to get the car. Curtis had to wait a bit longer for the car when he got there, but eventually it was done and Curtis then went to collect Kim from the city.

Once he got Kim, we headed up north to get the car cleaned, but first, a pitstop! we went to Honey Cafe and Curtis got a fruit juice and kim got some french toast.

We found a self service car wash and got that done, not that it made much difference!

Woooo carwash!

We had a lot of time to kill before the next thing we needed to do, so we went to Birkenhead for no reason at all!

Once it got to 14:30, we left Birkenhead and drove back to our old apartment. We were selling someone a sofa who was to meet us there before 15:00.

The delivery driver arrived to us, but the person buying it did not! We waited with the driver for a while but the person never arrived and then said they were running late, so the driver left!

Eventually, the lady arrived and paid us, but with no driver she had to organise a pickup.

We left here and wanted a final coffee from Little Things, so we drove up to Glenfield to get one. Along with coffee, we got a sponge to clean parts of the car as well as steak for our dinner.

Once we got back, we had a chat with our host and then Curtis drove Kim to see a friend from the UK, Rebecca, down in the city. Kim had a really great time catching up.

Once we got back home, Kim cooked up a delicious steak meal and then we went to bed, as we ate dinner at 22:30!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 382: Auckland – Fred!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We planned to leave for 09:00 this morning to head back to Auckland, but none of us woke up on time, so that didn’t happen!

Danielle’s mum made us some pancakes for breakfast and then we all packed up and headed out back to Auckland.

There was a lot of traffic on the way back, so it took us about 5 hours all in all! We did make a quick bakery stop on the way back, but that didn’t delay us too much.

Once we got to Auckland we met our host for our remaining few days in New Zealand. Our host is lovely and has a bulldog who is very excitable. His name is Fred.

We got settled, had a chat with our host and then when she went out we got showered and relaxed.

Kim went out in the evening to see Tabitha for the last time before we leave. They went to a night market and wandered around there for a bit, eating some food, and then Kim came back and we chilled out watching some TV. Curtis got some much needed admin done whilst Kim was out, so that was a win!

We have all the admin to get done tomorrow, so it means waking up early for nothing fun.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 381: Auckland – Fancy Affogato & ‘1000 Doors’

Kim & Curtis Hale

We did absolutely nothing until and 16:15 when we took the 35 minute walk to the city.

We wanted to go to an ice cream and waffle shop to get an affogato as it had been recommended to Kim multiple times. The place was called OKO and is in the centre of Auckland, in Aotea Square.

We each got an affogato, Curtis’ was with chocolate and stracciatella ice cream and Kim’s was with caramel and chocolate. There were double shots of coffee too, so they were certainly strong!

After our coffee, there was something called ‘1000 doors’ next to us which we just had to check out.

We paid $10 each to enter. This was a maze type thing in which there were all different rooms with different films and different things to look at and touch. A lot of the rooms smelled bad, too, but we aren’t sure if that was part of it, though.

We left this area and walked towards the water for a stroll around.

We got to KFC and decided to have dinner here, which was OK.

We walked from here back to the hostel which took about 20 minutes.

We got back and we got everything booked for the rest of our time in New Zealand which was useful!

We then watched some TV and that was that. We also packed our stuff up as we have a new place to go tomorrow…jumping back into HelpX!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 380: Auckland – Fresh New Locks, Damn Cars & Arcade Games

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up at 07:45 so Kim could go out for breakfast with Kelsey & Liz as a ‘goodbye’ meetup. They chatted for a while and then Kim walked back to the hostel, stopping to get Curtis some breakfast on the way.

We watched some TV whilst Curtis ate his croissant and drank his coffee.

Post breakfast, Curtis went for a shower and got ready to go out.

Kim had an appointment to go to in Birkenhead, so we drove out to there, which surprisingly to us only took us 15 minutes!

We took a bag of clothes that we no longer want as well as some other stuff and the first port of call was to drop that at a charity shop. The first place we went to wasn’t taking donations but the second was, so we left it there and that is one less thing to do.

We then walked towards where Kim needed to go and Curtis spotted a barber that seemed nice so he went in there to get a haircut. After a short wait, Curtis was seen as got a fresh new look, exactly how he likes it.

Kim was not finished with her appointment, so Curtis wandered around Birkenhead to kill some time.

Once Kim was done, we went to the car and noticed that the engine warning light was on, which was typical when we’re just about to sell it! After checking the oil, it seems we were a little low, so we drove to a shop and bought some more to put in. We put enough in but it was still showing the light. The resident mechanic at the parts shop said we can get the ECU checked to see what the error codes are, but they can’t do it at their store at the moment, so we’d need to drive to the other end of town to get it done. We called ahead and it was Ok to go, so we drove across town for 25/30 minutes to get this done.

The staff had trouble finding our car model on the system for some reason, but eventually found it and scanned the ECU. The first attempt crashed the tablet and the 2nd attempt said there were 3 errors but showed no codes or descriptions! The recommendation was to take it to a mechanic, so we will need to, but none are open until Monday!

After this news, we met up with Josh and Danielle very local to where we were to get some food and watch a movie.

The restaurant Josh wanted to go to, as his birthday celebration, was no longer there, so we had to choose something else.

We found a pretty new chicken & ribs place. We both shared 1/4 chicken with hot sauce and 1/2 pound of ribs with some kumara fries whilst Josh had ribs and tatertots and Danielle ate a cheeseburger and curly fries. It was all pretty good food, but didn’t blow us away. Probably a 6.5/10.

We finished up and went to the cinema, about an hour early! We spent some time in the arcade just playing some games. Kim and Danielle played against each other in the basketball and then Josh wiped the floor with Curtis at it.

After basketball, we played against each other in a hard fought battle of bubble hockey! It went to overtime with Curtis winning with a lucky goal.

Josh and Danielle then raced each other on the racing game and the winner gets a free game, which was awesome! Josh then played about 6 free races and people kept coming and going and he kept winning! This kept us entertained until the film.

We watched the film ‘instant family’ which was meant to a comedy but was pretty sad/heartwarming. A very good film, actually!

We left the cinema quite late, came back to the hostel and now here we are. Looking forward to sleeping!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 379: Auckland – Biometrics & Back in The Hostel Life

Kim & Curtis Hale

Waking at 05:45, we all hopped in the car with Kim’s family’s bags and drove to the airport. There was no traffic, but we did need to stop for some fuel on the way.

We got to the airport and it was pretty busy! We walked all the way to the correct check in location and left Tom & Maggie there. It was pretty emotional for Kim!

We deove back and we were very tired. We had a late checkout from the hotel, so we didn’t have to leave until 12:00.

We slept when we got back until around 09:45. Curtis then had a coffee and we got packed and did a bit of admin.

We eventually checked out at 12:00 and moved all of our baggage to the car. We walked to a coffee shop in the centre of town, got a ham and cheese croissant each and a coffee for breakfast.

We left the coffee shop and Kim did a bit of shopping around the city centre. Once Kim had finished, we walked up to the Visa Application Centre for Curtis to get his biometrics for his visa completed. We turned up 15 minutes early but were seen anyway and had it completed just after the original planned time, which was a result.

Once we finished there, we went to get Curtis’ hair cut. We went to his usual place and were told it would be 20 minutes. We waited for 45 and were then told it’s another 30 minutes and the were 2 people ahead. We didn’t want to wait any longer so we left and went back to the hotel.

We picked up the car and drove to our next accommodation.

We are officially back in hostel life! At least for the moment. We got to the place and no-one was there to check us in. We called and they said we cannot check in until 16:00. We spoke with them and asked which room we are in and we were allowed in. We went to the room and it was disgusting with bugs everywhere and also a lot of mould, so we asked to move to another room we had seen which looks nicer.

Once we were in the new room, we waited to get our key at 16:00 and then had fun with them regarding payment…we went to the shop to get some drinks as we were very thirsty!

Once we got back, we moved all of our bags in and Curtis started to feel a bit unwell so we relaxed for a bit until he felt better.

We went out for a late dinner at a cheap Italian place which was OK but nothing special.

What was special was the sky after our dinner during our walk around!

We got back and did more admin as well as catch up on some TV.

It’s weird, and certainly not as nice, to be in a hostel again, even if it is a private room (shared bathroom)!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 378: Auckland – Big Breakfast, Bubble Tea & The Packing Game

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up pretty early as we wanted to go out somewhere for breakfast.

We all wanted a big, greasy, cooked breakfast and the only logical place nearby was Denny’s!

We got to Denny’s and ordered enough food to sink a battleship. All of this came with refillable filtered coffee, of course.

We all ate ourselves silly and then went back to the hotel so Curtis could print some documents that he has to take to a visa application centre tomorrow.

Once we did that, we all did a bit of the packing game to get all our bags sorted and the correct weights.

We got most of that sorted and then went out for another wander around. We went to The Warehouse first and then to a camping shop to find luggage straps. We eventually found some in the camping shops so bought those and then kept walking.

Whilst in the city, we thought it’d make sense to speak to the bank and ask a few questions we had.

We left the bank and then popped to mcdonald’s to get a drink before wandering to a few possible dinner places to look at their menu. We made our decision and went back to the hotel to chill out.

Kim started her work visa application for the next country as she got invited too! We then left to get some dinner.

We went to Dr Rudi’s, which we also went to with Curtis’ family. We decided on 3 pizzas to share;

  • Pork Belly
  • Chicken & Bacon
  • Mediterranean Lamb

We ate as much as we could, took a doggy bag and waddled towards the hotel.

Tom and Kim stopped off to get a bubble tea on the way back, too.

Once we were all back, we finished a bit of packing and then sat down to watch TV. After we watched some TV shows, we sat and watched the film Apollo 13. It was a long one but a solid film for sure.

After this, we took Kim’s parents’ bags downstairs to the car as we need to take them to the airport nice and early tomorrow so they can get back to England!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 377: Auckland – Complimentary Upgrade

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at 07:00 to get the car packed up and head off on the road to Auckland.

We were in the car for a couple of hours and then stopped just past Hamilton where we met the family we met up with in Rotorua.

We checked out their place and had a drink and snack whilst chatting away. Lovely piece of land they have!

After a couple of hours, we got a move on and drove to Auckland, but not before a brief stop at a recommended ice cream shop where there were huge ice cream scoops!

We got back on the road for the remaining 45 minutes and headed to our hotel. Kim booked a nice hotel for us to lounge in for a couple of days before her parents leave the country. We got to the hotel and brought in everything from the car and we then checked in. When checking in, we were given a complimentary upgrade on each room, which was perfect!

We checked out the rooms and put our bags in and then jumped back in the car and went to Takapuna for some lunch. We stopped at Nam Nam first for a Banh Mi and then went to Tok Tok for a Vietnamese coffee.

Post lunch, we drove to our former apartment and got all of our bags and put them in our car.

We drove to the hotel again to drop our car off and then Kim and Tom took the rental car back as required.

We got back to the hotel and got some items packed and then all sat together and watched the film Unbreakable.

We left after watching the film to find some dinner.

We wanted a Japanese noodle box but our usual place was closed, so we kept walking. Kim noticed a hidden place that has delicous sounding Japanese food.

Once we found the entrance, it was beauitful and looked like Japan!

We ordered a smorgasbord of food, each of us getting chicken katsu curry but we got tempura prawns and chicken karage for the table. It was excellent Japanese food and very authentic.

We left here and walked back to our hotel, with a beautiful view of the city.

We got back to the hotel and headed right to bed.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 376: Auckland – 2 Hour Massage, Ferry Trip & Afternoon Tea!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Kim had a massage booked for herself and her mum this morning, meaning Curtis and Kim’s dad (Tom) had nothing to do.

To combat having nothing to do, Curtis and Tom took a walk to a ferry port, about 35 minute walk away. The sun was beating down but there was a bit of wind so the walk was actually quite nice.

Once they got to the port, they had to wait for 30 minutes or so for the boat, so they sat and watched the world go by. They were right next to the harbour bridge so had a great view!

City_of_auckland_bridge_skytower_water

Once on the ferry, it only took about 10 minutes before arriving in the city.

Curtis took Tom the wrong way to the city, so they had a 30 minute diversion but it was nice! There was a hill to walk up followed by a park called Albert Park right by the university which had a gargantuan tree!

Big_tree_albert_park

They eventually got to the city centre and went to McDonald’s for a coffee whilst waiting for Kim & her mum.

Kim and Maggie had a terrific time with their massage! It was 2 hours of vigorous massage, but it helped them both greatly!

Feet_slippers_thai_massage

Massage_table

We met up again in the city and went for afternoon tea at a 5 star hotel!

We had an assortment of savory items, some scones and some sweet treats. There were sandwiches, curry pasties, macaroons, mini pavlova and more! We also had unlimited tea and coffee. This was very tasty and actually filled us up! Curtis gives it a 4.5/10 as nothing really blew him away. Kim gives it an 8/10.

Afternoon_tea

After we finished this, we waddled back to the car and drove home to relax for a bit, which didn’t happen!

Someone wanted to buy our bed, so we had to take that downstairs. Once we took it downstairs, we packed everything up and got it ready, both for our roadtrip and for leaving Auckland!

We got the room completely empty and tidy so that it could be shown to potential new tenants when we aren’t here.

We went out again in the evening to see Danielle and Josh and introduce them to Kim’s parents.

We went out to a BBQ place and the food was pretty good. Curtis had a 200G sirloin steak with bernaise sauce, chips & coleslaw. Meanwhile, Kim had a burger which had no bun but had fried mac & cheese as a replacement! Curtis gives his food a 6.7/10 and Kim gives hers a 8/10.

It was great to catch up with Josh and Danielle after such a long time and to introduce them to Kim’s parents.

Once we got home, we watched some YouTube videos and had dessert and then went to bed as we all need to be up early tomorrow.

We haven’t got a bed, so we are setup on the sofa/floor for tonight!

We are all flying together tomorrow! Should be fun but also tiring.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale