15 Sept: Arrival

We arrived at Auckland and were through the easy and low-key customs by 5:30am, with hours to kill before the 8am arrival of the Britz transport van. Purchased an hour of wi-fi time and posted a brief blog entry to celebrate the smooth working of the cell phone, and had time left to check email.

The Britz van pulled up on the dot of 8am.

The staff were very helpful. They provided a nicely-produced 15-minute DVD to introduce the van's features, then gave us all the time we needed to unpack and check it out. Marian's first take was, where do we put everything?!?

We more or less slung everything somewhere and started out. First stop was a big grocery store, not significantly different from a Safeway except for the higher prices. I'm sure we'll have more to say about prices of things later.

Then off for our first day's transit, an easy 70km run from the airport south of Auckland, to Shakespear (sic) Regional Park about as far north. Here's the Auckland Harbor Bridge, snapped out the window as we sped through the city.

More on Shakespear park in the next post. A few points about the rental van.

• It is a VW van with a rattly diesel engine.
• It is 2.6 meters high, almost the same height as Vincent, our RV at home.
• It is 6.6 meters long, at least a meter longer than Vincent.
• The steering wheel is rather flat, so there is a very city-bus-like feel to cornering.
• It has a manual 5-speed floor shift operated with the left hand.

Some people might find themselves a bit at sea when asked to drive a 22-foot-long manual-shift diesel on the left side of the road after a 12-hour flight. We were not fazed at all because David—who once was proud holder of an English driver's license—had done thousands of miles around England, flogging a floor shift with his left hand. (But Marian's not sure she will ever drive this vehicle.) We eased into our destination campground about 1pm.