Day 7 – Auckland

So as we wind up our holiday, let’s look at Carly’s other journey. She started with a sore throat, then she lost her voice, then she developed a cough, did I mention the headache? Well, to continue on with this wonderful tour of her wellnessless (like that new word?), she has now moved on to the next stage of the cycle – sleeping. I was tempted to take a photo of her propped up on about four pillows as she slept sitting up last night to reduce the whole coughing scenario. This morning she woke earlyish, dragged herself into the bath, back into bed, and then back to sleep. She clearly needed to rest – thank goodness we didn’t have to move on and were spending another day and night here.

By 9:45am, as she was still asleep, I decided I would eat my arm shortly if I didn't get some breakfast so wrote a note and prepared to leave. Just as I was walking out the door, Carly's eyes fluttered open. She assured me she did not want or need anything and urged me to go out and explore…and she would sleep. So, I did (but I did feel guilty!)

After grabbing a quick (non Trip Advisor) breakfast that was very nice, I hightailed it to the tallest building – Sky Tower – because that’s where the bus stop for the hop on, hop off bus is. You didn’t think I was going up in the glass lift did you? It seemed like a good landmark to find – look up and follow the big tall thingy. What followed was a solo adventure of hopping – on and off. I saw views from the top of hills, walked beside the harbour, visited an awesome aquarium, visited the Auckland Museum which was fabulous, and walked through a number of parks. The commentary on the bus was also interesting and informative. I did have some trouble with the Kiwi accent – at one point the guy said “look at the lift” and I was searching around for a lift. It took me a while to realise he said “look to the left” lol! Anyway, I have actually found the names of places (and people) really confusing here – unpronounceable and often incomprehensible – I reckon it is easier in non-English speaking countries!

I  then ended up back at the hotel by about 3pm where Carly had spent the day sleeping. Well, she did also own up to eating a muesli bar at some point, but regardless it would have to go down as a pretty quiet day for her. Keen to at least get out one time in the day, Carly joined me for Linner. I am a little ashamed to say we had McDonalds…but that’s what Carly felt like, and hey, I was starving! We spent an hour or so wandering down to the waterfront, checked out a few shops, and arrived back at the hotel with some yummy cookies in hand for supper later. I just couldn’t wait to get my shoes off! Lots of walking today.

Carly seems a bit better now – hopefully the worst is past. We head back home tomorrow having really enjoyed our short break here in NZ. It was unfortunate that Carly got sick, but hey, maybe that just means we’ll have to come back one day and do it all again!

Day 6 – Taupo to Auckland via Hamilton

It had to happen. We had a day of disaster upon disaster today. It all started with Carly having a shocker of a night with minimal sleep, lots of coughing, some (ahem) vomiting, and ending with sleeping in the bath. Poor thing, she was not operating on all cylinders as we packed up and headed off for breakfast. Make sure you check out the photos to compare our breakfasts – I had smashed avocado & tomato with poached egg and bacon while Carly had plain cream cheese on a plain bagel. Regardless, it was yummy…again…thank you Trip Advisor.

So we set off for our first activity – a two hour drive away. There was no party atmosphere with actions for 90s rap songs today. Carly caught up on sleep – I must admit I felt a bit like the clock had turned back 30 years to her baby years – to get her to sleep, just go for a drive! So it was raining and I was driving on winding back roads. We passed two crashes, one with a car flipped over by the side of the road, so I drove quite conservatively. The Sat Nav finally said we had arrived but unfortunately we were in the middle of nowhere. Hmm. A quick check found we had put the wrong road name in so we were off course…but not too far…so a mere 15 minutes later we arrived at the Glow Worm Caves. Calamity! The glow worm tours were all booked up for hours! So, we decided to do a different cave – we raced and just caught the 10:30am tour. Great! Except as we started to go into the cave, Carly realised that there were heights involved and she decided she did not feel well enough to face that stress so she bailed out and sat outside the cave for an hour and a half! It was a very interesting tour and I took heaps of photos so that she could check it out later. Poor Carly!

After that disaster we decided to head on over to Hamilton to check out their famous Gardens. Once again Carly took the opportunity to snooze and an hour later we were pulling in to the car park. Still not feeling well, Carly struggled but we were able to spend 45 minutes or so pleasantly exploring some very nice themed gardens.

It was only an hour and a half to Auckland. We had originally planned that we would drive to the airport, return the car, and then get a bus with our bags to our hotel. I could see this was going to be too much for Carly – poor thing was still not well. So, change of plan – we would drive to the hotel, I would drop Carly and the bags off, drive to the airport, drop the car off, and catch a bus back to the hotel. We left Hamilton a bit after 2pm, and I got back to the hotel at about 7pm. OMG – traffic jam capital of the world! Anyway, we finally made it, somewhat battle scarred, maybe down, but not out! Tomorrow is another day.

Room service, a hot bath, and an early night me thinks.