6.4. – 9.4.2023
On Thursday we joined the Easter traffic and set off towards Auckland. Here the children have a two-week holiday during Easter, so there was a bit more traffic than usual. It wasn’t until we got to the outskirts of Auckland that the traffic was really bad. Fortunately there was more traffic on the way out of Auckland, so we made it relatively quickly to the Lucky Campers office near the airport. As we had taken a full insurance on our car, it was quick to return it. No need to examine each scratch and dent individually to see if they were ours or did they originate from the preceding 379 000 kilometers the van had clocked in already. The mileage during this trip was 4197km, of which Marko drove every single one. Jaana was just navigating for the whole trip.
We took a taxi to the YHA hostel in the centre of Auckland, and got in our room. As the weather was rainy and it was already quite late, we didn’t leave the hostel again that day.
The next day the weather was sunny, so we went to see the view from the Sky Tower at 220 meters. In total, the tower is 328m high, but the top observation deck is more than 100m below the top. Luckily the lift worked, as climbing 1267 stairs all the way up would have been a bit much. The scenery was spectacular and it was safe to admire it, as the tower is designed to remain standing in the unlikely event of a magnitude 8.0 (Richter scale) earthquake occurring within 20 kilometres of the Sky Tower.
There was also a magic show for the children on the ground floor of the tower, which we also went to see. We hadn’t planned anything special to do in Auckland, so we ended up going bowling. After that, Marko went for a walk alone in Auckland, and Jaana and the kids went to the cinema to see Super Mario. The kids seemed to understand most of the film, even though it was in English, so this six-week language course in New Zealand has worked, especially for Ronja. It’s great to see how both children’s language skills have developed during this trip. Ronja in particular has become much more confident in speaking and no longer asks and confirms every word or phrase she says. In the parks, playing with the local children is easy, and both are able to participate in the conversations we have had with different people here during the trip.
When we went to bed that night, we noticed that the bruise on Jaana’s leg from the playground had only gotten bigger. There was also a strange lump on her thigh the size of half an egg, which was still quite painful. So we decided to check out the local health services just in case, as we had a flight in a couple of days. Jaana and Marko went together to the hospital while the children stayed in our hostel room to sleep. Fortunately, the children are old enough to manage on their own for a few hours.
The local hospital was only a little less than a kilometre away, so it was an easy walk there (uphill of course). Jaana had blood tests to check for blood clots and inflammation, but fortunately everything was ok. The doctor just said that there was no point in taking bikini pictures for a while, but otherwise everything seemed to be fine. The lump was just swelling where the leg was hit the hardest, which hadn’t gone down at the same rate as the rest of the swelling. Now we have the doctor’s blessing that Jaana can fly out from New Zealand without worrying. We were back at the hostel closer to two in the morning, but luckily the next day we didn’t have to wake up early.
On the last day in Auckland, the boys decided to go for a haircut. They got a haircut without an appointment after a short wait. First Risto and later Marko. Ronja’s and Jaana’s hair was not to be cut. When the hairdresser commented on Ronja’s long hair that her hair needed a little trimming, Ronja decided to let the hairdresser touch her hair. The ponytail is now probably about 10cm shorter, but there is still quite a bit of hair left.
After the visit to the hairdresser we went for a walk into the centre of Auckland. Now that the shops were open, unlike on Good Friday, there were plenty of people around. We enjoyed a delicious taco meal close to the harbour, and returned to the hostel to pack our backpacks for departure. Now New Zealand is almost wrapped up, and it’s time to move on to new adventures again.
