Traveling. One day at a time.: New Zealand Day 4 & 5 (Nov. 28th and 29th)

We spent the day wandering around Wellington. It was Friday for us, but in the U.S it was actually Thanksgiving, so we had an impromptu Thanksgiving lunch. R. made himself a steak that wasn't apparently very good, and I had some portobello mushrooms, and some sauted onions and wine. We ate out on the waterfront, and it was about 75 degrees. It felt weird, being Thanksgiving and so warm. We got out of Wellington around 5, and headed north toward Auckland. R. met a nice woman at a gas station who let us come back to her house and use her internet to check his email. It was amazing. We'd never had an experience like that. He had asked her where an internet cafe was, and she said it would be closed, but we could come to her place and check it. So we did. Then we sat and chatted with her for a bit and finally got back on the road.

We didn't drive that much further, and then we headed down a small road and out to a beach. We pulled the camper van into the beachy-parking area and just stayed there for the night. It was lovely.

In the morning, we spent some time wandering around the beach, then headed out of town. We needed to drive a good distance, because we had to have the campervan back to Auckland the following day. So, most of the day was spent driving. We did see Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings! Mount Doom!!!! It made me very happy. We saw it when we were driving on what was called the Desert Road. It isn't really what North Americans would think of as a desert, but it is as deserty as New Zealand gets. We hit some stressful annoying driving in Taupo because there was a bike race going on. But, we eventually got through that and pulled over for the campervan over for the night on the side of a country road. The day was another day of beautiful driving and amazing scenery. New Zealand is a truly magnificent country.