If you need to ask someone to validate that this story is true, I would be happy to give you 4 other girls that shared this experience with me. Because this weekend was really not me. It was spontaneous and we had absolutely no plans! We literally hoped in a van and drove. I did learn some valuable things about being spontaneous though.
So I got a text on Wednesday night from another au pair Amanda asking me if I wanted to go on a road trip on the weekend with her Nina, Jenni and Sinah. Nina, just bought a van and wanted to test it out! I was given some helpful advice from my cousin Ryan as he ran out the door from my goodbye party. He said completely serious, “Say yes to everything, except drugs” So following his advice, of course I said yes! We had some conversations about where we wanted to go but nothing was made certain. We knew that we wanted to explore the north of Auckland where there are amazing surfing beaches and small town markets. But I didn’t hear much after that until Friday morning, when still unsure about where we were going and when we would leave.
But we decided that we would go to the Auckland Night Market and have a movie night, then leave Saturday morning. The Auckland Night Market happens Thursday-Sunday in different suburbs each night. It is a deep fried food lovers heaven! Booths are set up next to each other selling fried foods and baked goods! And like nowhere else in New Zealand, its CHEAP! It was a neat experience and I know we will go back again! After we ate to our hearts content we came back to my host family’s house to eat some more and watch a movie. We got some ice cream and Pitch Perfect! The perfect combination!
Two of the girls slept over at my house so that we would be all ready to go by 10. But obviously we didn’t end up leaving until 11:30. I hate being late so this was a little difficult for me but I’m learning to just go with it. We had no plans, so really we weren’t late for anything. We agreed on going to Mangawhai and making stops on the way when we saw something neat. After about an hour and a half of driving we came across a market in Matakana. We had some fun looking around and taking pictures.
After grabbing some coffee we trekked along and decided to stop at Omaha Beach. And boy am I glad we did! It was gorgeous! White sand, blue waters, sun shining. It is still spring here so the water is quite cold, so no swimming yet. We camped out on the sand and had some lunch, dipped our feet in the water and then of course took a ton of pictures!
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| Omaha Beach |
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| The water was freezing! |
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It was getting late and we wanted to make it to Mangawhai before the sun went down, so we hopped back in the van and were off. When we reached Mangawhai we stopped for some dinner at a cheap Fish and Chips takeaway shop. Takeaway is takeout. Then we left for the hostel so we could check in and then explore. Here’s the thing thought, we called the hostel 3 times on our way during the day and never got an answer. So we pressed our luck and went. But when we arrived no one was there. The rooms were unlocked and another man waiting said that you can stay the night and pay in the morning. But we were kind of unsure about this place so guess what we decided... To sleep 5 girls in 1 van... We were a little unsure about doing this at first because a lot of areas are no camping areas and we did not want to be woken up in the middle of the night and asked to move. We saw another van parked where we were with a mattress in the back. So we went and asked then if they were parking here for the night. And low and behold one of them was from Canada! She was happy to hear my accent because she has been living in New Zealand for 3 years now. They didn’t know if you could stay but were going to risk it and so we were going to also.
We were all still pretty excited from the day and just in general for making a spontaneous trip that we thought it would be great and a good story to tell. We were not so excited when night came and we froze and woke up sore and tired. But as I write this I am happy we did it. We learned to pack better next time or even plan a little more ahead to book a hostel! Before heading to bed we walked around the now deserted beach and then to the ‘main street’ (it was a tiny plaza with some shops and restaurants) to grab some warm drinks before sleeping. Now that the sun had set it was cold. Back at the van we got dressed in basically all the clothing we brought. Since we thought we would be staying at the hostel, we did not bring any pillows or sleeping bags! We worked out the sleeping arrangement which didn’t really leave anyone with a comfortable position. Trying to warm up, we played “Heads Up’. It is an app on my phone where one person holds the phone so they can’t see the word and the others need to explain it without saying the word and the person needs to guess the word. It turned out that it was a great game for the girls to practice their English. Nina and Sinah are German, Jenni is Finnish and Amanda is Swedish.
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| Our Hostel |
We all woke up pretty early, excited to stretch and warm up. Our only plan for the day was to beach hop and that’s exactly what we did. We went to 4 different beaches: Sandpits, Snells Beach, Martins Bay and Takapuna Beach. My favourite was Takapuna! By the time we reached Auckland we were all tired and a little sore but in high spirits from having a great weekend! So I do look forward to more travel weekends but I think I might do a little more advance planning :)
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| Country Roads |
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| Takapuna Beach |
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