Farewell Auckland... Hello Van Life!!

We are gearing up and preparing to depart Auckland and officially start our new adventures with Waka (our camper-van). We look forward to leaving the city life to truly start our journey around New Zealand. Auckland has a lot of beautiful places and we did our best to hit as many as we could without breaking our budget. We primarily stuck to local parks and free experiences.

We explored Eden Mountain which is a very unique and gorgeous dormant volcano. We walked around the entire mountain taking in a new view of the city with nearly every step.

I found myself reflecting on the diversity that Auckland offers. Not only is it diverse with a multitude of different people and cultures but also in landscapes. Very often we have gone from skyscrapers to lush green landscape in minutes!

This diversity only intensified when we found ourselves in Cornwall park the next day. This park is located a bit south of Auckland central but is stunning in size and beauty. This park has a fully functioning farm and the trails take you right through the pasture with sheep and cattle. Dad, I had to take a picture of the cattle just for you :)

The animals just ignore you and continue on with their grazing. I was once again completely struck by the contrast before my eyes. The concrete jungle and grassland jungle can and does exist together, in New Zealand at least.

My favorite site we have visited here is called "One Tree Hill." It is another dormant volcano overlooking the city. The green pasture we walked by as we traveled up the mountain was absolutely breathtaking. No filters in this picture!

I was completely blown away by the vibrant greens of this land. It really brings the diversity of the city full circle when observing it from the top of a volcano! Lets just say our legs are a bit weary from these volcano climbs in addition to our 1.5 km hill climb everyday from our AirBnb. We are building important muscles though for our future hikes up the mountains!

Auckland was a perfect place to start this adventure and allowed us to gear up with the essentials and settle into this beautiful country.

This beautiful sunset we caught the other night over our bay allowed us both to reflect on our time here in Auckland and our future here in New Zealand. We just hope the rest of our travels can match the beauty we saw in this sunset! Next time I check in we will be in total camper mode and headed towards the South Island! e noho ra!