Wandering Free.com

Travel NZ – North Island Auckland:

See the sights from the Sky tower:

Auckland City – Other wise known as the “The City of Sales”  Visable from any where in the Auckland region you will find the The Skycity Tower standing in all it`s glory climbing 328 meters above the street level, A true icon of the city. Why not come and have a lunch or dinner in the revolving resturant, and enjoy the 360 degree views and when you have finished your meal you can venture towards the glass floor observation area looking out over Quay st and Princess wharf.

You may also like to travel down to the quay and take in the sights of the Auckland harbour or the Marine and Americas cup winning boat on display down there (Black Magic).

Or if you are into the fine arts and wish to find out about the local heritage and the countries endevours, take a short trip across town to the Auckland museum just minutes from the CBD, once there take in the sights from the well presented grounds. Bus trips are available from the downtown terminals or book at Ticketek.

My experiances when I left Auckland:

The day had come, this was it I was leaving Auckland, this time I knew I would not be coming back home. The skyline was packed and as I drove out of the driveway for the last time, I turned and said “Goodbye old friend”. I was sad in a way after all this was the town I had spent most of my life in, to date. But that was not going to stop me. The day, unfortunately was miserable, set in a dark wet backdrop was Auckland city as I made my way down the north western motorway. It was like the planet was sad also, I know that sounds weird, but it always seems to be raining when I am in a some what disheartened mood.

I decided to stop on the side of the motorway and take a shot of the skyline in the background. Here is a picture of the day that I left with my newly purchased Samsung camera.

I took the above shot through the window of the car as it was raining cats and dogs, so sorry about the poor quality. I got underway again, sat back relaxed and listened to the rain hit the roof of the car as I shot along the highway heading for Paeroa, first stop on the trip. We had always stopped here when I was a kid to get an ice cream at the famous L&P (Lemon and Paeroa) food bar.

I was on the road for about an hour the rain was still coming down and I was heading towards the Bombay’s, this was the fork in the road as I could have headed east, west or south from here. But I wanted to get to Paeroa before the shops shut, so south it was.

The roads through to Paeroa are excellent driving roads, nice sweeping corners and no one to be seen for k`s, a real drivers dream.

House was Sold, Freedom at last:

A couple of weeks down the road and we had the buyer at the right price for the house and I had my freedom at last, and it was time to hand in my notice at North Western Toyota. Four weeks, that was all I had left to do at North Western Toyota and I was very happy. It wasn’t that I did not like the working there or the people I was working with, it had just got too much living my life for someone else, making someone else rich. So thankfully the four weeks went quite fast. I had a fair bit to organize, what with moving of my furniture and getting containers sorted for the trans Tasman journey. I was heading over to Burleigh, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, as my parents had been living there now for about 11 years or so.

I had visited them in there home many times before I decided to pack up and move over, and loved the area and the lifestyle. Although I had a to see my own country before I left for another, so I was heading for the south island of new Zealand first stop Picton, straight off the ferry.
 
I remember as if it were yesterday, I was nearing the end of my last day at Toyota. I was the spare parts person come customer service person, come builder (When they knew my background was building). Quite hard to build in dress pants, shirt and tie. But that’s what they demanded of us back then. Five o’clock came and I loosened the tie and headed to the workshop to have a goodbye beer with the boys.

After the beers I headed over to the skyline got in and turned on the radio and shouted out, Im free!.

And so the journey begins

To be continued

Selling the house in Auckland to pay for my freedom:

I had just parted from a relationship of 6 years so there was no reason to hang around any further.It was time to sell the house in Auckland my home town for many years. I know that sounds weird for someone to say, but it really was the time to see some new scenery and smell some fresh air. I had grown tired of this land and wanted to broaden my horizons. I had the perfect vehicle for my purpose, as I had decided to spend most of my time in a tent i.e. roughing it, It suited me just fine. There were plenty of places to stop in for the night where I was heading, so no need to sleep in the car this time round. In fact I was stepping up in the world from “sleep in car guy” to “Sleep in tent guy”

Here is a shot of the car that took me on my journey.

So one day after seven and a half years of having the house I decided to sell. It was the perfect time to do so as there were more buyers about than houses, so the prices were high. Just to give you an indication I paid $140 thousand and I sold for $186 thousand, not a bad investment for seven years I thought. I wanted to be free, spend my time where I wanted to, not where some boss wanted me to be. So I put the house on the market it took a couple of weeks to find the right agent for the job. Unfortunately I went through a couple of the major agents before I found the right one. But when this Scottish guy turned up in the driveway, and I greeted him with “Do you fancy a bourbon” and he replied “Yes, thanks mate”, I new this was the right guy for the job.