Time to go home...

In my rearview mirror I see the Auckland skyline as I leave the city along the scenic, pohutukawa-lined Tamaki Drive. As I follow the waterfront hugging stretch of tarmac, I struggle to understand what it is about Auckland that the rest of NZ seems to despise.

I head westwards winding through the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. I stretch my legs along the Kitekite Track and am rewarded with more beautiful waterfalls. I then head to the beautifully rugged Piha for a spot of lunch. The view of the coast as I drive down Piha Road is spectacular. Sitting proudly near the centre of the beach is Lion Rock. After my last supper, I retrace my route through the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park and head to the airport.

Like a boxer trying to make the fight weight, I have stripped everything down to the minimum, repacked again and again and gifted some things old to make way for the somethings new. Physically, I am finally ready to depart Auckland. Emotionally, I am not ready to leave this wonderful place yet.

After eighteen hours on a plane, I land in Dubai for a short pitstop. Airports are a weird limbo - you are neither in the place you have been, nor in the place you are going. I have been in dozens of nothing places like this. Spent probably days of my life wandering around their bland and manufactured worlds of the same shops, and the same bored people seeing the same boring things. All of this is in stark contrast to NZ.

I loved my time in New Zealand - the people were friendly and the country is beautiful. I have never heard anyone not love their time in this remote and geologically dynamic country bestowed with diverse, often unique landscapes and wildlife. It offered outdoor adventure, spliced with vibrant cultural and culinary experiences, enhanced by a welcoming attitude to visitors. This small country well deserves its reputation as one of the World’s most rewarding travel destinations. So it with sadness that I board my second plane leaving further behind Aotearoa - the 'Land of the Long White Cloud'.