Kickin' It Kiwi: Day 16 and 17: Auckland

Slou and I arrived in Auckland after an easy drive from the glow worm caves and checked into our hotel. 

Slou was over hosteling, so I had agreed to book a cheap hotel for the last three nights instead. We were so excited for the Econo Lodge! To have a little extra space, no strangers, and a clean bathroom. Unfortunately, we ended up with a tiny closet-sized room, paper thin walls (I heard things!), and another tiny sink (what is with this country and their tiny sinks?). 

The room was in fact terrible, and we had to pay a billion dollars to park, but by this point we were so tired we could only laugh and collapse onto our very tiny beds. 

We hadn't made any plans for Auckland, so we ended up just wandering for a couple days. We took the ferry across the harbour to Devonport hoping to lie on the beach, but the sun never quite fought it's way through the clouds, so ended up back at the "hotel" for a nap instead. 

We did some souvenir shopping, had ice cream at the top of the SkyTower, and had a pizza party in our room, which may have been one of the highlights of the while trip so far. That's the thing about traveling with camp friends--you can be in the most spectacular country in the world, seeing the most spectacular sights on the planet and still love cabin time the most. 

There was plenty more to see on the North Island (black sand beaches at Raglan, the Bay of Isles, the 90-mile beach), but to be honest, we were sick of driving, tired of tourists, and in need of some down time. Slou has to go back to school as soon as she gets home, and I have a jam-packed week ahead of me, so we decided that we were totally okay with relaxing at the hotel for most of the time. Like we had said in Wellington, we weren't so interested in the city, and the weather never warmed up enough to lounge on one of the many beaches.

We did hit up the grocery store and buy about $50 worth of New Zealand chocolate bars and Tim Tams. #AllHailTheTimTams

On Friday morning, we left the hotel around 3:30am and headed to the airport to part ways. I have one more week of traveling left, but I was quite sad to say goodbye to Slou. We don't get to see one another often enough, but it was fantasic that we were able to share this experience together! Now, I look forward to meeting up with Dela in Cairns and seeing what else Australia has to offer!