Sadly for us our time had come to an end, and even sadder, our next homeswap property was located a 7.5 hour drive away! Scuttlebug performed magnificently as always and got us to Coopers Beach in Northland without any complaining at all.
We arrived just before dusk and were treated to an unbelievable view of the peninsula as the sun was dipping below the horizon. Perched atop a hill we had unobstructed views from both he front and back of the house, lush mountainous ranges in one direction, the Pacific Ocean in the other, not bad at all.
Each day we would wake to amazing views over Doubtless Bay and the South Pacific, except one day, when we woke up to the view of 2 steers staring straight back at us! The cheeky chaps had mounted an escape from next doors paddock overnight and had stationed themselves right outside our front windows to greet us early in the morning!
Not amused, but soon back on the slopes!
Not long after arriving we headed over to old friends, Julia and Blairs for drinks, before venturing into their suburb for dinner. We haven’t seen Julia and Blair for about 12 years when we last visited them just after their move from Singapore. We decided that we all hadn’t changed a bit, except for the 6 extra children (of course, The Princes can be blamed for the majority of that). They kindly treated us for dinner at a fantastic Mexican restaurant, with great Margaritas and yummy Tacos. It was really great to see them and to meet their lovely daughters.
Graham took it upon himself to be our unofficial Auckland tour guide, real estate agent and future life broker for our 2 days stay. He kindly drove us everywhere, took us for breakfast, lunch and a dinner with his family to celebrate Noriko’s birthday, gave us a whole tour of the best parts of Auckland, helped Dan sell Scuttlebug and even drove us to the airport to see us off. Of course, with the caveat that we come straight back and buy a place just next door!
The people we met, be them old friends or new, were all adamant that New Zealand is a great country and that we should get back as soon as possible, in some cases even jobs were offered!
Goodbye for now New Zealand, we had such an amazing time and we feel we have all left a part of ourselves with you (Dan's appendix unplanned!)
A massive thank you to everybody who met and helped us along our way!