Back to Auckland... For the Last Time

Having to constantly go back to Auckland was becoming a bit tedious. It had been really nice to have a proper base, but now I felt like it was getting in the way of my travelling. It was nice to go back 'home' to a place full of all of my friends, but their plans were all changing, and they were moving on to pastures new.

Chris came up to Auckland for his last 10 days in the country. He stayed at Oaklands Lodge and we had a lovely time. Matt followed him up a few days later. The 10 days that Chris was in Auckland went by so quickly, and I was very sad when he had to leave for Germany - but we agreed to meet up again after I'd travelled New Zealand.

At the 'Big Day Out' festival in Auckland

Auckland Anniversary Day - Fireworks viewed from the top of Mt. Eden

All of my close friends were leaving, and this prompted me to reassess my situation. Why were they leaving? Because they were here to travel. Why was I in New Zealand? To travel. So why wasn't I travelling?? Unfortunately it's an inconvenient truth that in order to travel, it's necessary to work every now and then to fund it, but I decided that 3 months was long enough to spend in one place. So I decided that I too would leave Auckland once my 3 month commitment was up, which was to be in the middle of February.

Once I'd handed in my notice, the time couldn't go by quickly enough. When my last working day finally came and went, I packed up all of my belongings (which had grown substantially in the past 3 months) bid a fond farewell to Oaklands Lodge and hit the road, bound for the Coromandel Peninsular.