garyandpearl

Day 12 January 28

Today we took Laura to school. We let her sleep in one last time and then headed to Auckland for lunch. The sky was clear and so we were able to appreciate the beautiful surroundings.

Gary and Laura navigated downtown really well with the help of our GPS!

We found a Mexican restaurant which was called Mexicali Fresh: it is a taco/burrito restaurant which is like Subway…you ask for the toppings that you want and they build it for you. It was taco Tuesday: $3 a taco, and so delicious! It was right on the wharf, so we enjoyed the view as we ate.

The GPS was then set for Monavale Homestead which is just outside of Cambridge. We found a lot of cattle, orchards, corn fields, and finally sheep as we travelled two hours south of Auckland.

This is Laura’s dining hall:

There are beautiful gardens filled with perennials:

They even have chickens!!

Laura has two roommates: one from Lethbridge and one from Papua New Guinea. She has to pay for Wifi, so this could be a long 5 months for her!! We left her to her unpacking, and Gary and I continued on our journey after hugs and goodbyes.

We decided to “Wing it” as my brother would do; we pulled out a map and decided which way to go. We ended up at the Bay of Plenty in the city of Tauranga. After searching for a hotel room and finding many with no vacancy, we came upon the Durham Motor Inn just a few blocks from the Harbour. The last room was $145, so it may be cheaper for us to not “wing it” tomorrow night in Rotarua!!

We wandered down to the Harbour where there were many restaurants serving several types of food: we settled upon an Italian place and tried their tray of Tapas which was delicious! I was too full even for dessert!

It is much cooler here than Australia and not as humid. The Kiwi people are very friendly, too!

Verse of the day: Proverbs 12:28

“In the path of righteousness is life,
and in its pathway there is no death.” ESV