It was beginning to feel as though I am a long way from home now with the sad news of yesterday. It is bad enough saying goodbye to someone, but when you are not there to say goodbye, it is hard to deal with on your own.

I was now back in Auckland again, with the mini nightmare of having my car to sell, I wasn’t much looking forward to the next few days, but it all had to be done.

It turned out to be just one of those days today, one that I wanted to be over with as soon as possible. It would be a long, long day. I had the enjoyable prospect of a long drive from Wellington in the south, to Auckland in the north.

Time to move on from the Bay of Islands today, albeit rather reluctantly, but my journey was ahead of me, and there was no point being sentimental about a place

I wanted to do a bit of work on the gears in my car today as they are crunching a little. It seemed like a good place to have a look, and I’m sure I can get help from the hostel owner if I have any problems.

With my lovely new car I set off North from Auckland in the search of adventure, and was not disappointed with what I found.

I hoped that today would bring me a car so that I could continue my travels, but as always, it wasn’t quite as simple as that…

Another day in Auckland, and I wanted to use this day to familiarise myself with the bus tours around New Zealand, namely the Kiwi Tours

After spending much of the day walking around Auckland city yesterday, I have managed to destroy my legs. They are extremely achy today, therefore the plan was to spend the day relaxing a bit, maybe do a bit of shopping.

Today would be my first full day in New Zealand, and I planned to use it well. I wanted to begin my sightseeing campaign and really begin my travelling adventure, but I had the small matter of jet-lag to contend with first.