tuesday

if this is tuesday we must be in Auckland.

we pack up and leave rotorua at 8am. the plan is, to drive an hour to matamata for late breakfast, then on to Auckland.

we set the gps to matamata and it has no idea where that is. okay, the gps claims to know but wants to go somewhere else. we end up following road signs, which works well. just as we are about to enter the town, the gps wants us to turn left and drive another 62km... we switch it off.

mm is a small but busy country town with a highway through the middle. we stop for breakfast at a cafe called Eat.

this is the best breakfast that i have eaten in new Zealand! bacon, egg, sausage, mushroom, toast. all delicious. the mushrooms could almost have been cooked here! last night's meal included mushrooms which had obviously come out of a tin.

come to think of it... this could be the best meal i have eaten since leaving home. simple. delicious. and it's a friendly place.

this town is close to Hobbiton, the reconstructed film set. i'm not interested in visiting, i'm more into the book than the movie. still, it's nice to know that we are near Hobbiton :-)

matamata is also the last town before we join the freeway system, so a good place to take a break. we take just a short break.

we reach auckland airport just after noon, to return the car. we still need to get to Auckland City -- but i want to catch a bus. i don't want to drive into the city.

from the rental car carpark it takes us five minutes to find the rental car office. we buy a bus ticket and just miss the bus. no worries, just twelve minutes to the next. very few people on the bus. traffic is horrendous.

the bus stops just a five minute walk from our accommodation, not too bad, but then i had planned for that.

our place is a rather flash AirBnB unit. self contained as long as you don't want to store many clothes, or cook. (there's a small microwave.)

we're just across the road from the skytower, so we  go up the tower for afternoon tea (coffee). makes for a very expensive coffee. impressive view though.

there are a couple of wires hanging down outside. it seems that people get tied on to the wires then pushed off the top of the building. no thanks...

for dinner, we walk to Britomax. it's an area which is famous for its fancy eateries. we think we are there. we find a car park, a small park, half a dozen eateries, one open. we eat in that one.

there are very few tourists. the place is -- relatively -- dead.

we walk back parallel to the waterfront. to the maritime museum then turn up towards home. that corner has plenty of restaurants -- open -- and is almost busy.

we are in Auckland to see The Book of Mormon, tomorrow night. there's an email. due to coronavirus, the Book is cancelled from today.

there's plenty to do in Auckland. Deb is making plans for the next two days. I'm ready to go home.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you." … B.B. King
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