It’s hard to believe that we have only been here for 3 weeks, but the day has finally come for us to depart this lovely country and head to Australia. From surfing in the Tasman sea to paragliding over Queenstown, we’ve had quite the adventure in this corner of the world.

On Saturday, we officially returned our rental van (we may have actually both been choked up about it). It was hard to say bye to the old gal but we are forever grateful to her for carrying us over 2,500 miles! Huge shout out to Tristan for driving ALL of those miles and honorable mention to Taylor for being co-pilot (which is a very crucial job when the driver almost always ignores speed limits and speed bumps)

Our last two evenings were spent in Auckland and it was great to finally stay in one place for a bit… and by that I mean we still spent 4-5 walking around the city each day. It was nice to be in the energy of a city (and also have some awesome food!).

We went to The Butchers Son, an amazing vegan restaurant in the Ponsonby neighborhood of Auckland. The food was incredible and very reasonably priced. The next day, we started off with some açaí bowls at a super cute little indoor market.

Acai goodness:

The açaí bowl spot, cute as can be:

We then walked an hour to a Mexican restaurant for the fantastic chicken quesadilla that you see below, which was accompanied by FIVE different kinds of hot sauces. Some of our absolute favorite things in life are walking, food, and sauces… so the day was off to a superb start.

We continued around the city and ended up along a large board walk/marina that had tons of restaurants and bars. Naturally, we stopped for a drink (you know, to support the local economy).

Yes, he’s still doing the peace sign:

View of Auckland from the walking path:

A casual pop-up library in a shipping container:

We concluded the day with some kebab/falafel (which exceeded expectations) before we started the trek back to our hostel. It was the perfect way to conclude our time in New Zealand.

That being said, we would also like to share a list of things we learned about New Zealand over the last 3 weeks:

-Roadkill is hard to identify

-Sandflies are the devil

-Tim tams are the greatest treat

-Crispy bacon doesn’t exist

-Neither does seltzer water

-But there are 20+ different flavors of canned tuna

-They apparently only listen to American classics from 1960-1980… that’s it. (think Sweet Home Alabama, Free Fallin, Come On Eileen, Brown Eyed Girl, Tiny Dancer… with a delightful and much appreciated sprinkling of ABBA)

-Cross walks don’t exist

-Anything can be put in a pie… and we mean anything (we saw one filled with spaghetti and another one topped with slices of beets)

-Coffee is never served with cream/milk, only sugar

-Taylor doesn’t enjoy Tristan mimicking the local accent

-“Good on you!” means someone is excited/happy for you

All in all, the trips been good on us. See you next time New Zealand!

-T&T