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We checked out of the hotel at 8:30, and walked down Shortland St (Brett couldn't find a hospital there despite looking very hard) to Queen St, where an Airport Bus was waiting. We jumped on and started the rather tedious drive in the pouring rain to the airport. Once we got to the airport, we walked over to the complimentary bus to the motorhome depot, only to find it had thrown a belt and was not going anywhere. After a short wait, a mechanic turned up with a new belt. Once it was fitted, we were on our way to the depot. We arrived about 10 minutes early.
The meet and greet guy was run off his feet, with two other groups to get into their vans besides us. After some preliminaries, he pointed us in the direction of our home for the next 18 days, an ex-Maui Mercedes Sprinter (automatic) van.
We unpacked and stowed our crockery, cutlery and cooking equipment. Brett went over the van to check that everything worked. One of the windows didn't open. This fitout only has 2 opening windows in the back the van, and to be down to one could be an issue for us. We requested that it be repaired as well as the gas door latch which had an issue. The van also wouldn't start as it had a flat battery.
This caused a bit of delay, we went into the main customer area and had a cup of vile coffee from a machine. When the van was brought back around, we were presented with a bottle of wine as an apology for the delay, then we were on our way.
I had taken snapshots on my iPad of the route to our first stop. This made it much easier to navigate while we had no internet connection. It was no fun, starting our trip in this bad weather.
Our first stop was a supermarket on the route. First we unpacked and stowed all our belongings. We then went into the shop and stocked up on the things we thought we would need. It was about 2pm by now, so we bought some lunch from a nearby Bakery Cafe (a NZ self serve style bakery which also provides snacks and sandwiches).
When we arrived at Miranda Holiday Camp the weather was still miserable. We went for a walk in the rain but then returned to the van for a meal and bed. My birdwatching plans came to nought today, hopefully there will be another chance later on the journey.
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