Waitakere and navigational problems

Did I rave enough about the Waitakere Ranges and the black sand beaches on Auckland's doorstep? Probably not. Man, it's just a 20 minutes drive from the airport. And so beautiful. you can molest that sheep without anyone knowing. I give it a Hitler Rating of 10. And towels, yeah, there were towels.

We flew from AKL to ZQN on a Saturday, unfortunately my navigational system had a slight glitch and we missed the flight by 2 minutes. Damn. Luckily, AirNZ has standby fares and we managed to get on the next flight for relatively little money. Would never work in Germany, you are notified 15 minutes before take-off that you've got a seat (or not) ... but the great thing about NZ is that they have not (yet?) given in to the whole "security" bullshit propaganda. Love.

Btw, on the way from Whangarei to Waitakere we detoured through Matakana and I can tell you, it's worth it! Food. Food. And great food. Everywhere. Absolutely worth the few extra k. Speaking of food, I have now finally found the best scones and the best veggie burger in the world, the galaxy, the universe. But I won't tell you today, so stay tuned. And I think I spent most of my money on roadside fruit stands and real fruit ice cream. Great to be on holiday when all the yummy stuff is just coming off the fields. The best real fruit ice cream of the world is to be had a few k north of Kerikeri, off SH1 at Blue River Orchard.

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