We took a taxi to the Avis office even though it was only a few streets away, as all our camping stuff (and rucksacks) would be a bit much to carry. Our taxidriver was a jolly Fijian with a thick Kiwi accent.

At Avis we got our car, a funky red Toyota Corolla. They only had an automatic though, otherwise we would have gotten an old car and she was brand new, only 7980 km on the mileage.

Keiron was a little nervous, but we jumped in and went to look for a supermarket. We found one pretty quickly and I was baffled by the amount of choice: fresh produce, all kinds of brands, fresh bread and pastries... and all very clean aisles. I haven't seen this kind of supermarket since I left the UK.

We took Highway 1 north to Whangarei, Keiron had to get used to the car a little but did great. We drove through hilly, green landscapes and stopped at a viewpoint to have a muffin and chelsea bun. We got to Whangarei without problems, thanks to my navigational skills and Keiron's driving (the other way around would have been disastrous on both counts - hihi).

We found a holiday park and set up our tent for the very first time and saw it was good. In the town centre we had dinner: a chicken burger at the Dickens' Inn, an English pub and then went back to try out our tent for the very first time.