ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO OZ....

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010 - AUCKLAND - PARNEL AREA - ESQUIRES COFFEE SHOP - 11:30 am - Love the town of Auckland...had a ball with Geoff yesterday evening...a special art exhibit that is lighted 24 hours a day, a couple fun pubs and beers, a fabulous dinner at the viaduct at an Italian restaurant "Portofino" and some great Italian wine with the yummy food, followed by dessert at 10 PM the top of the Sky Tower (what a great view and it made Geoff and I both think ofthe Space Needle!)!   All in all, a perfect end to our day.  
    Later today we fly to Gold Coast, Australia (aka "Oz")...looking forward to it!   Love, Sue & Geoff xo

                                             Lights of Auckland from atop Sky Tower

Older notes:

Tuesday, December  14, 2010 – Manukau City (outside Auckland) – We drove from Mount Maunganui  (there were two cruise ships in port the night before that we saw leave) to Manukau City and staying at the Top 10 Holiday Park here because it is only a short distance to the place to return the campervan tomorrow…started the process of cleaning out what we don’t need/want but will do the packing and final clean in the morning.   Finished off our last can of beans (on toast and some wheat crackers—very tasty) and finished off our last half bottle of the pink moscato wine!

On the way here we went through a beautiful gorge (Karangahake)—the river running through the gorge was just beautiful and it was my favorite part of the trip from Mount Maunganui to  Manukau City!  We also went through Pearoa where the drink Geoff introduced me too earlier in the trip (Lemon and Pearoa) is made and I saw a giant L & P bottle at each end of town—very cool but it was too I overcast and drizzly for me to take a picture.   We also went through Katikati and I got to see all the murals on the buildings there—very lovely and unique (last time through we went the other way and you couldn’t see all the murals from that direction).   It was a nice trip and I am going to miss our little “love bug” campervan but it will be a treat to have a bathroom as part of our accommodations and not have to worry about traipsing through the night to the “loo” (as Geoff would say)—“crapper” (as Sue says!).

I got a chance to chat with Shelley (and Tim, too) and find out all about when Jon and Jordan will be home on their Christmas breaks (later this week) and just have a fun conversation with her.   All seems to be well in Lacey/Olympia.   She is making plans for a quiet Christmas Eve at their house with Gramma.

As Geoff says, “nothing stays the same”…he is SO right!   Love, Sue & Geoff xo

Wednesday – December 15, 2010 – Downtown Auckland – Jucy Hotel – 2:30 PM – It’s been a busy day already…packing, cleaning out campervan, getting it washed and returned and a taxi ride into the city!   Bless Geoff, he did ALL the hard work—defrosting the fridge and cleaning the outside of the campervan at a self service car wash!    He deserves a medal—but I will let him rest right now on our nice bed here at the Jucy Hotel!   I love the color scheme:  purple and lime green (their rental cars/vans are the same colors) and the sign on the wall is priceless:

After a rest we will go explore Auckland since I have never been in the downtown area before.   Geoff has dinner planned at a favorite restaurant (will report on that later).   I hope to see the Sky Tower and perhaps go up inside it for the views!   Our taxi driver advised going at sunset but we will see how it goes.  Just listening to Christmas music and chilling!   Love, Sue & Geoff xo