A road trip I'll never forget - Part 1
Hi readers,
Thank you for viewing my post, I was origionally going to write only one post but it would have been too long. The events that led up to the roadtrip were just as important as the trip itself. You'll see why in part 2.
This post is about a roadtrip I went on during my stay in Auckland. What made this trip so special was how it all came to.
Let me explain.
Me and my girlfreind at the time had just moved out of an Air bnb. Unfortunately all the others were booked the next night as were all the hostels. The weather was horrible. Cold, windy and raining all day. We seeked shelter in a shopping mall where there was food, water and wifi for us to carry on our search. We spent pretty much the whole day in the food court, it was probably the most depressing day of my travels.
Imagine sitting in a food court all day having the feeling that that night, you could end up sleeping on the streets. It really makes me think of the will power of homeless people.
Finally we had a response from couch surfing. A host named John said he wouldn't mind having us for a few nights. His house was quite far away from the city center and just as we were booking a taxi he text us to say he'll come pick us up. Great! We thought as it saved us a hefty taxi fare.
Little did we know from this moment on, everything would change.
First instead of taking us to the house, he took us to one tree hill. A red flag went up in my mind straight away as he didn't mention this before. I remained freindly and relaxed but my gaurd was definitely up. After a quick Google map search I noticed it was on the way to his house and I knew it was a popular area.
Then he took us to a quiet place on the coast. I believe it was Achillies point, not far from St Heliers where he lived. The water there was completely different from the water at Auckland harbour. It was blue and almost turquoise in colour, the sun was begoning to set and the overall atmosphere was calm. It was a breath of fresh air for us both.
In case you're wondering, the Volcano in the background is Rangitoto and yes it is active!
John then asked us if we could help with some shopping. "Sure" we said. So we did.
Finally he took us to his house, by this time we had got to know him quite well, he was Lawyer and clearly had a good income, nothing like the hippie couchsurfers we'd stayed with in the past. No, this was completely different.
As we chatted in the kitchen, he mentioned he had a chocolate collection and asked if we wanted to try some? I've never seen so much chocolate in one house! It was awesome! There must of been about 15 huge bars of whittakers chocolate and he just layed them all out on the table.
Mmmmmmm (he had more than this)
After a bit of chocolate tasting and a few gin and tonics he asked us if we wanted to go on a roadtrip the next day? He explained that sometimes he takes couchsurfers on a roadtrip on the weekend. It was Friday night and it meant getting up at 5am the next morning for ALOT of driving. John explained the roadtrip was going to be around most of the Northen peninsula of New Zealand.
Image source
He hadn't murdered us yet so again, we said yes.
That night, we chatted in the kitchen for a very long time. We were all very tired and I wondered why he kept the conversation going on for so long? I thought it was a little wierd...
I had to get some sleep so apologised for bugging out and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and headed out...
Thank you for reading. I'm working on part 2...
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