Auckland

Up at eight for the trip to Auckland, Mum still didn't want to go, but I had had told my Aunt I would look up her nephew, Rikki. I said to Mum she didn't need to come and I'd drop her in Cambridge but she decided she would go. So off we went, then we came back for something we had forgotten, then set off again. We had been travelling about half an hour when we discovered we had left the maps on the kitchen table, far too late to turn back, guess work the order of the day. Luckily I had studied the maps with Fran last night and could remember some of the route. We arrived with very little bother indeed, we only took one wrong turn off and Mum spotted the right road. We parked up and went and knocked on the door. A tall slim chap answered, and told us Rikki wasn't there and his family were his tenants. He kindly invited us in whilst he looked for a mobile number, no wonder Rikki hadn't been answering the phone. We left with the number and decided to drive back along the coast towards Auckland city via Devonport, which Fran had recommended to us for the views. We passed through several small townships called this bay or that bay although we never saw the sea, and eventually arrived at a major town; tall buildings and lots of shops, and thought well this must be it.
We got a parking space practically outside the tourist information shop and the public loos, so I went to get a map while Mum headed off to the toilet. The i-site people were very helpful and told me we weren't actually in Devonport, but in Takapuna, just around the corner. Got a town map and we decided to have lunch and a wander around, it was a very nice place, then take in the seaside. A passer-by took our photo for us (top). We had lunch and a wander but as we were heading back to the car to drop off the shopping bags, suddenly realized it was half past two. Panicked. The car was meant to be back at half three and we were at least two hours away. Sod the sea-side, we had to set off back straight away. It caused some hilarity as Mother tried to take a photo of the Auckland skyline as we approached and managed to get a couple of lamposts, then a traffic sign but finally a view. We got back to Hamilton but I had no idea how to find the care- hire place as I had only been there from Cambridge, so to retrace that route I had to drive around the city to approach from the other direction. Fran phoned to find out where we had got to,he was picking us up, and redirected us. Even so it was difficult. Finally got the car back at 16.30, I forgot to take the final mileage but it was about 1800kms.
Fran ran us back to the unit and stopped off for a couple of beers and a snack before heading home. Diane, Charlotte and her boyfriend Damien had gone over to Mount Maunganui over night, yesterday, but had not yet arrived home when Fran had set off for us. Spent the rest of the evening with a couple more beers and watched a film on TV.