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Back to the City of Sails -Day 18

Up at a reasonable time to say goodbye to Blair and Charlie and then packed and showered while Rachel watched Charlie’s school sports day. When she got back we headed off to Hamilton Gardens a beautiful botanical gardens one the banks of the Waikato River. Adrian hired an electric scooter and we walked around all the enclosed themed gardens. We slowly mooched so didn’t have time to venture further afield before meeting Corina for lunch at the Cafe in the Gardens. 

We had a huge lunch - which we had to stuff down pretty quickly when we realised we only had 40 mins before we had to pick Charlie up from school. 


We said a quick goodbye to Corina and Adrian almost ended up upside down in his seat in Rachel’s haste to get in the car!! Righted in his seat and with everyone in their right places we managed to get to Charlie’s school just as he was leaving the sports pitch. He was pretty happy after some good results in his races but missed out on a place at the inter schools races. We said goodbye to Rachel and again to Charlie and hopped in the car for the drive to Auckland.  As we left Hamilton the heavens opened and between multiple roadworks and torrential rain the 75mile journey was a slow one! The sun shone gloriously as we made the approach into Auckland to do battle with the famous rush hour traffic. We were at least rewarded with the best view of the city as we headed over the bridge towards the north shore. Finally arriving at the hotel with a beautiful view of the bridge and the tip of the Sky Tower. 


After dumping our bags, I headed on a quick tiki tour down towards Bayswater Marina, with beautiful view towards The CBD. I managed to find the ferry over to the city also which hopefully changes our transportation options for tomorrow. Came back to the hotel, relaxed in front of the TV - Australian Ninja Warrior no less - before dinner at the hotel with glorious views to a beautiful nighttime city scape.






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