21 February 2020 - Auckland, New Zealand

My list of places I want to visit is constantly evolving. Closer to the top, for many years, has been the Island Nation of New Zealand. Many Americans I've spoken with don't even know where this place is, but it has become more popular thanks to movies such as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Naria. Last October, I found a really nice airfare and took a risk and booked a few weeks journey.

Starting Wednesday night at LAX, stopping briefly at BNE and arriving Friday afternoon at AKL, it was a long way to travel. I think the next time, we will either do a direct LAX flight on a carrier such as Air NZ or book a few extra days to enjoy a city in Australia.

We spent some time exploring the downtown area of the city before heading to our hotel for some quality sleep. I had been told that there is not much to do in Auckland, but I think there are a few days worth of activities worth exploring.

The next morning we started with a decent breakfast and then headed off to pick up a campervan rental. I already like the concept of car camping and combined with New Zealand's Freedom Camping solution this seemed like a good way to explore the countryside.

Our goal was to explore the North Island. According to most of the guides I read, you need about 3-4 weeks per island to properly explore. Also, many of the roads are rough and have lots of curves so most drive times are longer than apps like google maps predicts.

We headed off for Hahei Beach to start our exploration of the Coromandel Peninsula.