Yesterday I left Hawkes Bay and drove up to Auckland in Harry. I don’t know when I will get a chance to visit again and I’m going to miss all the friends that I made while I was here. The drive was fine – I had packed the night before and managed to get on the road fairly early for a change. I picked up a hitch-hiker just as I was leaving Napier and surprise, surprise, he was German. He was a nice guy and pretty funny, just a young kid over for a year of work and travel in Australia and New Zealand before starting University. We talked about all the things we had learned while we were here and the differences we had seen between home and New Zealand. He was only going as far as Taupo and when we got there we had a coffee in a little cafe and he took his backpack and trudged on his way into the town while I got going again. I had no other stops on my way up and got into Auckland just after 4 pm and went and met a friend of a friend, C., who I stayed with for the night. We used the evening for a small sightseeing trip in Auckland, so now I can at least say I’ve seen it.
Now I’m sitting in the airport waiting to board the plain to Brisbane. I’ll probably have a lot of fun enjoying the warmer weather and doing lots of fun stuff over there, but it’s hard to be excited about that when you have to say goodbye to this great little country.