February 8, 2019, Friday.

Hello everyone, well I’ve made it to Invercargill today, from where I hope to start my trek. I arrived in Auckland on Wednesday morning, which is Tuesday back home. Our friends Brian and Shirley Thomas picked me up and graciously hosted me for two days until I got my cell service set up and helped me make arraignments for my transportation to Invercargill. Unfortunately there is a big motor cross rally in Invercargill and all the hotels, and even the campgrounds, were fully booked. We luckily found only one motel with a room and I booked it.

The last few days I had a guided tour of Auckland and the surrounding area and I was surprised how much it’s grow since I was last here twenty-nine years ago. New Zealand still only has about 4,900,000 people, which is quit small but nearly twice as much as the last time I was here. With this growth, almost double in size in that short time, it appears that many older people with real estate, like in the States, have seen a great increase in their wealth due to the increase in property values.

Though Auckland is a beautiful city it now has some of the same ills most large cities have, which include urbane sprawl, and bad traffic. For me it was good to see because I had planned to trek back through the Auckland to reach the last part of my trek. Though I wanted to walk the whole distance without any motorized aid, I will now consider bypassing Auckland.

We left at 5:30 am this morning and traffic to the airport was already very heavy. Any later and it would have been bumper to bumper stopped traffic.

I boarded a short jet flight out of Auckland to Christchurch and then a prop plane to Invercargill. I was fortunate to sit next to Jacklyn, very nice lady and her one year old son on the plane to Invercargill. However, I had know this but it again confirmed my feelings that meeting nice people in New Zealand is not unusual but rather common as Kiwis are known to be friendly people. Think about how many people back home would hand their one year old baby to a stranger outside an air terminal and go back inside to get their luggage?

Jaclyn offered to drive me to the sporting good store so I could buy some butane canisters for my stove. She also drove me to the hotel, and fortunately all were within a few miles of the airport.

I am spending the first night at a hotel and spent most of the day assembling and packing the Wheelie. I also ended up walking through town much of the afternoon trying to find a cord for my solar charger and a small multi tool knife. Unfortunately, I forgot to check my Swiss Army knife and was stopped with it in my fanny pack at security. It’s one piece of equipment I can’t be without. Fortunately security allowed me to go back out and I found Brian as he will now mail it to me.

I may start tomorrow, but I am considering staying one more day to organize and figure my exact route, and most of all get a good rest.

Best wishes to all, Ted

My plane to Invercargill