NZ: Pokeno to Tauranga; family time

Having picked up our campervan from McRent in Pokeno, south of Auckland, we followed Neville and Karan for a couple of hours, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) to Mum and Brian’s house — my mother and her husband — in Tauranga, where we would spend two nights.

As usual, Jenn drove; I was authorized to drive the van, but didn’t, as Jenn prefers to drive and I prefer to navigate and take photos. We work well together.

New Zealand drives on the left side of the road, which is the opposite of the US, but Jenn had seven years of previous experience, albeit about 25 years ago, so wasn’t a total newbie at it. She did great.

Here’s an interactive map of our route (with the destination vague, for privacy):

Exit towards Tauranga:

Route 2 is the second-biggest highway in the North Island, but is just a one-lane-in-each-direction road through farmland, as is common throughout the country. So encountering farm equipment wasn’t unexpected:

In the small town of Paeroa, there is a large L&P bottle, that I remember visiting as a kid; L&P stands for Lemon & Paeroa, and is my all-time favorite soda beverage:

Another (newer) large L&P bottle on the way out of town:

A bridge in Karangahake Gorge:

The small town of Waihi:

“We Love Avos”:

Roadworks:

“Welcome to Tauranga”:

Downhill towards the harbor:

That night, Nev, Gav, and I went to get some takeaways/takeout from Cafe Istanbul for dinner:

Weird, but tasty:

The next day, we went shopping for basic food and housewares for the van, and stopped in Jesters pies for meat pies and flat white coffees:

Not a lot of pics of our couple of days at Mum & Brian’s place; we were concentrating on spending time with the fam.