NZ #3: start of the road trip

i called up several car rentals in auckland a day before the road trip & settled for a family sedan. this one offered free pick-up & drop-off as part of their service. when i went to collect the car, it was a 7-yr-old nissan sunny, which looked more like a sentra. after driving for 7 days & 2000km in it, it turned out to be a well-maintained set of wheels. without fail, whether cold or not, the engine roared to life with just one turn of the ignition. everytime.

we drove north towards whangarei. we had to pass thru a tunnel on the only tolled road in the north island. they don't have barriers or toll booths like in m'sia. we pass thru like everyone else & we can choose to pay at a machine by a rest area or even pay online. the vehicles are caught on camera & we have 5 days to pay the toll. how convenient is that??

besides bungy jump, you know you are in NZ when you see this...

together with sheep, they are estimated to number 30m, compared to 4m people.

along the way, we dropped by a honey factory. the boy was fascinated by the live bees behind a glass screen....

we thought the manuka honey was reasonably priced. NZD12.95 for a 500g bottle.

in fact, we stopped by this same shop on the return trip to get more honey & have something we didn't try the 1st time....

macadamia honey ice-cream.