Another early start today as we have a fair amount of kilometres to cover today

We check out and grab a coffee from Two Tides Bakery followed by hitting the road

The drive is rather rainy but we do make it to TJ’s Car Wash, just outside of Auckland, to give the car a spritz – it’s safe to say we enjoyed the speedy coin-operated experience

Just over a rail bridge is a McDonald’s so we pop there for some brunch and then fill the car with fuel before dropping the car back to the rental company

Without too much of a look, they refund the initial deposit and drop us back to the airport where we pick up the SkyDrive bus to Auckland centre

The bus depot has lockers for us to leave most of our luggage for us to be able to get on with some jobs; first is to go to the AA Centre to verify our identities to organise tax numbers for working here

Once that’s done, we wander around the city centre and then find that Public Bar in the Harbour Eats food court for a happy hour drink

As it is after 2 pm, we can get to somewhere we found that we liked from our last visit, Provedor, for a couple of pizzas and a beer jug

A pepperoni and BBQ chicken pizza with 1.8 litre Provedor larger

After, we have to get back to the bus depot for our bags where it seems two protests are being held with one side supporting Israel and the other Palestine (see the featured image) with an emphasis on the NZ media not presenting enough media coverage

We get the 95B bus which takes us just under an hour to reach the family we’re staying with here

A nice catch up and warm welcome as well as dinner

Lovingly home cooked chicken skewers with satay sauce, veggies and rice

Not long later, we get some very needed rest