Saturday, May 07, 2016

Our New Zealand Road Trip Begins

A few weeks ago my wife and I along with our friends, Jean-Claude and Brownie, landed in Auckland about to embark on an 18 day road trip of New Zealand.  The trip was a surprise present for Jean-Claude's 30th birthday.

We only spent one night in Auckland so I didn't get a chance to visit any second-hand book stores there.

I had my fingers crossed there would be some books in the Bay Of Islands which was our next destination.  Located near the top of the North Island of New Zealand the bay contains 144 small islands and the first European to visit it was Captain James Cook.  

My homework told me there were three book stores in the town but being a Sunday the first store I located, a book exchange, was closed.  I did manage to grab this photo through the store window though.
 
The next second-hand book store, located in a garage near the library, only opens every second Saturday or when the cruise ships arrive.  There were no cruise ships in the bay this Sunday so closed it was.

Fortunately the third store, Paihia Bookshop was open.  Selling both new and second-hand books this store has a wide variety of books.
 

Unfortunately the lady behind the counter told me there were no Bond novels on their shelves at the moment.  C'est la vie.  There were still plenty more towns and cities to visit on our journey around New Zealand.

Finally, here's some holiday snaps of the Bay Of Islands.  On the first day we arrived there it was a bit grey, however the weather was beautiful the next day.
 

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