I knew before I got here that I would be driving on the “wrong side” of the road in my rental vehicle. But I didn’t expect the sheer panic as I slid into the “passenger seat” and grabbed onto the steering wheel. Then it was a total terror as I pulled out into traffic.
Tongariro National Park was a six-hour drive. Getting out of Auckland was my first challenge. Then getting used to everything being flipped was unnerving at best. I managed to leave Auckland behind with only running over a curb with my left rear wheel and nearly taking out a pole with my left front fender. I am still not used to having an entire half of a car on my left side. It doesn’t compute. After that I did better, only pulling on to the wrong side of the street once.
It was great to get out of Auckland and drive on country roads. The scenery reminded me a lot of what we have in northern California – rolling hills and lots of cows. I didn’t take any pictures of cows because I know you’ve all seen plenty.
I passed through a lot of quaint little towns with names I can’t pronounce. Each town had plenty of restaurants that I would have liked to try. They all appeared to be fun places to live.
About 4:00 P.M. I finally arrived at the Chateau Tongariro, my home for the night. And it wasn’t long before it was dark. I will have to explore the park tomorrow.