City Living

Taupo To Auckland 272 kms or 169 miles

Another good driving day.  The first part between Taupo and Tokoroa was very familiar because this was part of the area the forester worked in before we moved.  Next the farming area beside the Waikato River also reminded me how different the North Island landscape is to the South Island where we now live.  For the first time we travelled on the Waikato Expressway which has two lanes both ways and misses out Hamilton City and other towns.  Mrs. Google was  helpful at getting us to  the suburb the lovely daughter is going to live in.  It has some very narrow streets but the driver (not me) was good at playing dodgem cars with on coming cars and parked cars.  We unloaded the contents of the car into her apartment.  It is one bedroom so smaller than she had in Christchurch and we have already devised solutions for storage.
Her suburb is Ponsonby and is inner-city 2kms west of Auckland CBD.  She can walk to work or bus when it rains.  There are a lot of wooden villas and it is a photographers dream.  It has undergone extensive gentrification over the last two decades.  The main blip is looking towards the city and our guest house is on the right.  There is a church on the left being restored.  The extra is the former Ponsonby Post Office which is now a boutique hotel.  The worldly possessions arrive tomorrow morning which will be exciting.