The flight left HCMC in the evening and arrived in Auckland early afternoon. When we stepped out othrough the airport doors, the cold hit us. In Vietnam, the average outside temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius. In NZ, it was less than 20. The others had thought to bring a jacket in their carry-on. I hadn't. Thankfully, it was only a short walk to the car that we would use while in Auckland. We were staying at Bucklands Beach, in a two-room motel unit. We didn't get much sleep during the flight, so by the time we went to have dinner at our grandparent's, I had been awake for 36 hours straight! It was a relief to collapse into a warm bed with an electric blanket in the evening.
It was in Auckland that we first started watching the America's Cup. Until it came down to just Team NZ and Oracle, we hadn't paid any attention to it at all. We watched eagerly as we approached match point, leaving Oracle in the dust, then had our confidence of a win shattered as Oracle won 8 races in a row, coming from nowhere to steal the cup. If it hadn't been for that 40 minute time limit, we would have taken it, but during several races, we were close to victory only to have the race cancelled, or a penalty called, and belatedly we would watch Oracle sail through the finish line first time after time.
We travelled around several areas of the North Island, having the holiday that we couldn't afford to have when we lived there! We stayed in motels and hired a car for three weeks, eating out and visiting sites along the way. We went to Auckland, Awakeri, Wellington and Rotorua, seeing friends and relatives everywhere we went, but the highlight of our trip was Papamoa!
We were the first to arrive, and the lack of campers surprised us. There were no tents and only one or two caravans, the occupants of which we didn't see. It was a ghost camp. Usually when camping at Papamoa, we would have a large tent, but this time we booked the Collin's lodge for the entire FAFF: Us, the Smiths, the Jeffcotes and the Mackenzies. It wasn't until the second day that everyone arrived, and Dale unfortunately couldn't make it due to an eye issue, but Michelle and the kids arrived just in time to see what would have been our winning boat race cancelled due to the time limit expiring.
Dinner that night was interesting; all the younger generation formed a "kid's council" of sorts to decide what we wanted to eat while the adults went out. Eventually, we decided to ask for $5 each which we would pool and send with representatives to 4 square to buy food. We had mac cheese, pizza, chips, and ice cream for dessert. Later that evening, after a swim in the spa, we found out that a deserted campground made an excellent manhunt arena (manhunt is really just hide and seek, but with a better name). I won both games, but it was a pyrrhic victory as to do so requires half an hour or so per game of sitting in a dark, uncomfortable spot hoping no-one finds you.
The last place we stayed before heading back to Vietnam was Wellington, and within an hour of our arrival, Dad managed to smash the right-hand taillight on a garage outside the bach we had booked. While in Wellington, we saw two of our relatives: our Uncle Glenn and his family and Uncle Michael and his family. We saw Glenn almost every day we were there, either at his place or out in the city.
Sadly, during the last couple of days I wasn't able to do a lot as I caught a cold, as could be expected when someone used to a hot environment goes suddenly to switching between near-freezing and room temperature. The last three mornings, I stayed home while the others toured the Beehive and the gardens. Still, I had a great three weeks, as did everyone, and we were sad to have to leave again, but leave we did, and what was even sadder was that we had to leave at 3 A.M.! We were half-asleep the entire plane trip and were barely conscious when we walked back through our front door. I didn't even make it to the shower, falling asleep with the light on waiting for the bathroom to be free. It was good to be back.
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