A quick breakfast and lots of coffee before we head to the airport. We say goodbye to Christine. We get to the airport at 10am we won’t arrive in NZ till 6pm kiwi time. Rowan and I look at each other and say we need a holiday from our holiday haha. It has been a rather full on trip. Now we can have the hangover.

When we arrive back in NZ it takes 2 hours to get through bio security. We picked the wrong lane and it took forever! My poor sister Emma waited for us in the car park.

Ellery my niece refused to go to sleep until she saw me. What a cutie, we had a quick chat and I told her to go to sleep and I will come to bed soon. I sleep in her room and have a proper sleepover. Emma & Paul had done a Sunday roast. Delicious we happily ate the leftovers. We didn’t stay up late, Emma had a big day at work ahead.

Monday is here, oh I forgot to mention we brought a car. Yes on a quick hit the buy now, don’t overthink it. We got a station wagon Toyota Mark X Zio for those who know what that is. To me it is a silver station wagon and it has a very important purpose for the next few months. The guy came and picked us up and we drove him back home. It made the whole thing seamless. For the grand total of four thousand dollars we now had petrol wheels. From his place west Auckland we headed South East Auckland to Dads house. We had a good cuppa and picked up our bikes. Hello old friends. It was a race to get them to 99 bikes to get them fixed. Rowan has two missing spikes and I had a flat. We were not long gone from the shop when we had a call that the wheel on Rowans bike has had it. So we had to get all the way to Glen Innes and back with a new wheel $170 later and a fair amount of traffic. Jack gets our bikes all fixed and we are good to go. We whack the bikes back on the tow bar, we borrowed from Paul. We get back and do a quick shop to cook some dinner. What a mission of a day, but it is not over yet. We find a cheap bike rack and head out to pick it up.

Tuesday we head north and visit Nana in Whangaparāoa. Then we mooch our way north to Clare’s house. I realise a lot of our gear has mold. We need to put a bunch through the wash. We end up staying two nights with Clare & Skylar.

Thursday we head up to the cape. We make it nearly the whole way and park on the side of the road to sleep. Our first night in the car. The twin coast discovery highway will be our best bet to get back to Paihia. There has been a lot of damage to the roads and state highway 1 is still closed. We have no idea how we are going to get up there but we need to be dropped off some how.

In Moerewa we stopped at an op shop. We got talking to the ladies there, Hazel & Aunty Rosie. We chat for ages and we talk Aunty into taking a walk to the cape that she has always wanted to do. When we went to leave Aunty Rosie gave me a pair of recycled rubber earrings cut out to look like feathers and she gave Rowan a $40 koha for our waka (car)! Super kind, we exchanged numbers and we will visit on our way south. Rowan and I will give a koha back. It really felt like being welcomed into the whanau.

Friday we explore around the cape early. Then start heading back. At the Ngapae campground we ask about being dropped off. They ask around for us if any locals are willing to drop us off. Unfortunately no. We head into Kaitaia for a look around and don’t get any luck. We then head back to Kerikeri then Paihia. When we reach the Waitangi campground we see fullers does a trip up to the cape. I call intercity to see if they can do one way and we can take our bikes. They respond with ask the bus driver. So I find out what time the bus comes in the morning.

Early Saturday morning we wait for the bus. It comes on time. We chat to the driver who is happy to fit bikes on. Perfect we head back to camp and wait for the fullers office to open. When we went back the lovely lady told us she could book us one way and we paid $220. Where the full round trip tour is $165 each. So we were pleased to get it cheaper. The holiday park is keeping our car for us $5 a day. Not that there is anything precious in there I just don’t want it sitting on the street for too long. Finally feeling like we are getting somewhere! Now we just need to plan our next steps south. We will need to pick up Joanne in Christchurch on the 2nd October to go do the Alps to Ocean.