We are finding it difficult to negotiate the road system here; there seem to be very few directional signs and exits from motorways aren’t numbered, instead signs carry the road names that slip roads lead onto. So it’s essential to have a highly detailed maps with all the street names marked – which we haven’t got. We got completely lost yesterday getting from the car rental office to the caravan park and today we struggle to find our way into Auckland city centre and get hopelessly disorientated trying to find our way out again. Tomorrow we will be investing in a proper map rather than relying on any of the many freebies we seem to have acquired either from the car hire office or the caravan park.
Auckland city centre has the feel of a small town and is very hilly – a bit like San Franscisco but on a much smaller scale. The city is remarkably empty for a Saturday and the car park is almost deserted. We assume that most peope must be away for the holiday weekend. Even the Queen Street, which is the main shopping street running south to north towards the quays is hardly heaving with Saturday shoppers. We have a picnic lunch in Albert Park which is just to the east of Queens Street which runs from south to north through the centre. Its a pretty park with a statue of Queen Victoria and the remnants of the Chinese New Year decorations: red laterns, a dragon in the fountain that sort of thing.
After trying to shop unsuccessfully for some camping equipment to supplement the tent and chairs provided free of charge by the car rental company – we figure that having the option to camp will give us greater flexibility and keep our costs down. – we attempt to find our way back to Manukau and the holiday park. We eventually manage to find the Great South Road which takes us straight to the park, but not without first going north and west out of the centre of the city. We blame it all on the poor quality maps!