Auckland from Devonport beach

That rain we expected the day before had been hammering the corrugated metal roof during the night and was still coming in bursts as we packed our stuff so it seems we had timed the day of travel right. After a quick lesser breakfast we got in the car and drove off towards Auckland to meet up with my parents again.

The rain kept coming in bursts and Mona even had to stop by the side of the road at one point since the visibility was too bad – but it started to clear up as we got closer to Auckland. We drove over the impressive bridge between Auckland and Devonport, the suburb which we had booked a place through AirBnB at and met parked on the street while meeting up parents. It had not been very easy to find the apartment, but since my parents arrived earlier that was settled and we could unpack everything in the very shabby chic apartment with a lovely garden.

Old tree near Devonport library

We took a stroll in the overcast Devonport after settling in and walked towards Devonport city-centre (which also is where ferries depart to Auckland every quarter or so). The houses were right up Mona’s alley, carpenter love and general coziness all around. We had a proper lunch at Corelli’s and mom and dad praised their pasta while I almost managed to finish a “summer abundance bowl” and had a mango lassie.

The economy recent years has really been harsh in Devonport.

As we were leaving we got a brief rain shower, so we gave up further excursions and instead walked back to our apartment. Well safe and sound we had a calm evening with cheese and crackers while solving a few of the world’s problem that hadn’t been solved previously.

Juni enjoyed the lagom sized Hairy Maclary

Today we were expecting heavy rain, but it never really showed up so we instead headed into Tauranga. After parking and walking the stroller along the centre we passed a Japanese restaurant called Takara just around lunch-time, I considered this an omen so we had lunch there. It was nice to get some japanese food and the staff was friendly and provided Juni with a plate of rice and sliced grapes.

Nomnomnom

Mental note – never have round pieces of food in vicinity of Juni, even though we diced the slices up in better sized pieces she managed with her long octopus arms snagg two slices and shove in her mouth. Breathing issues ensured and we had a quick exercise in Heimlich for babies and out came the slice after a good slap on the butt.

After that excitement we scouted along the waterfront and by chance run into Hairy Maclary and Friends – which are characters from children’s books by New Zealands version Astrid Lindgren (Lynley Dodd). So these were made into statues and we realized that Hairy Maclary was the scruffy-looking dog that had been on all Juni’s diapers since we got to New Zealand. We added the book to future shopping list.

All Hairy Maclary’s friends…

After that we drove back home we had a look at the Alpacas on the farmstead and concluded the day with a calm night and watched a few Netflix episodes of Frequency. Eventually we realized that this wasn’t a completed series or even season so the last two episodes where scheduled to be released later. The struggle is real.

Long-necked Rastafari sheeps are called Alpacas.

We started the day with a drive to Omokoroa beach for chai and coffee. It was rather overcast but we strolled around and played at their playground, Juni was really enjoying the seesaw there but for parents it wasn’t perhaps that exiting and not really that picturesque either so we drove to Mount Manganui (which is a town, which also have the mountain called Mount Manganui – obviously).

In the beginning of the trek we were all happy

And from the top the same islands look like this

After some confusion of where the path actually starts (near the beach) we walked up and took the intermediate route up. We got some great views, it seems to be a popular place with the locals and there was a mix from rock-climbers to families or youths with portable music. As we walked down we went with the more difficult one, turns out moderate is by far more scenic. We walked a bit along Manganui beach then switched to the stroller and scanned the local restaurants.

Nod bad, not bad at all.

Supermom goes all out

As we passed The Barrio Brothers it struck us that we hadn’t had mexican food in quite a while and were rather fed up with New Zealand pub food so we gave it a try. Possibly the best mexican food I’ve had and for sure the best meal in a long time with nice drinks as well. Mona fell in love with a sombrero and was yelling Arriba to Juni and the others guests delight – and she was still the designated driver.