Back to Auckland
After our time in the Coromandel and some 5 months after we had left Auckland, we were back where our journey had begun! Not for long, however: this was just a brief stopover to catch our breath for a couple of days before heading out on our final adventure before Stefan had to start his job back in Denver. Our next post will talk all about that final trip, so this one will be a bit sparse: truth be told, it seems like we spent most of our time eating out, which doesn’t leave much to write about!
On the list of objectives was finding a place to get Dagmar settled for after Stefan left: just because he made the foolish decision to cut his trip of a lifetime short for a job didn’t mean she had to make the same mistake! With several months left on her visa and working remotely anyway, Dagmar elected to keep enjoying New Zealand as long as she could.
To do this, she needed a place to stay. The solution initially seemed obvious when she found a private room in a hostel for some ridiculously low price we’ve since forgotten. Unfortunately, though, after jumping on that deal and booking it, she was later contacted and told the price had been listed by mistake. So instead, she found a gorgeous-yet-still-affordable AirBnB in Titirangi, a southwestern suburb of the city. Kind of a neat feel to be in what for lack of a better descriptor we’ll call residential forests but a 20-30 minute drive from Auckland proper. It was also overlooking the bay, a sight which you could enjoy from their porch hot tub! Other fun perks were heated toilet seats and a bee hive with a tap you could get fresh honey from.
We booked our stopover in Auckland at that AirBnB to make sure Dagmar would feel comfortable staying there alone, and it was a great fit! The host was around our age and didn’t live there full time, but liked to become friends with long-term guests (who Dagmar ended up getting along great with–hopefully something you’ll read about in a future post!).
We used our time in the city to visit some of our favorite eating joints, including Lord of the Fries–essentially a vegan McDonalds–and Sumthin Dumplin, a delicious dumpling shop in Auckland’s CBD. We also enjoyed the wildlife around Cornwall Park, a trip to black sand Piha Beach, and even did some socializing: we met up with Dagmar’s cousin we had found back in January and did an escape room with one of Stefan’s former undergrad housemates, who had moved to New Zealand permanently herself with her English husband and who had kindly reached out when she found out we were in the country.
Only being in Auckland a handful of days, not a lot else happened! Our final adventure, though, to the Northland Peninsula was one of our favorite places, and we’ll hope to have a longer post about that by the beginning of August!