Sometimes you have the most fun when things don't go as planned.

Sitting next to my sister in our fancy new rental car trying to help her navigate the dark, seemingly endless roads of the New Zealand country side, using nothing more than a map containing no more detail than a 2 years old finger painting and the odd sign was not how I had expected the first day of our long awaited adventure to end, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
We had arrived a little over 12 hours earlier high on adrenaline and that feeling of relief you get when you first step off a plane. Pumped to get our trip started we set off to quickly grabbed our rental car and make our way to Auckland, we had plans to go check in and drop our bags at our hostel maybe grab a quick nap before heading off on a 2 hour drive through the lovely country side to Matamata for our booked Hobbiton tour, although I’m sure if you ask someone who has travelled before they will tell you that even the most organized of trips can go awry.
Upon arriving at Avis car rentals we found out that the GPS we had booked with the car was no longer available to us, slightly anxious about traversing a foreign country with only the previously stated map and the helpful words of a fellow car hirer who told us we didn’t want to go over Auckland Harbour Bridge (we somehow did anyway) we set off.
The map lost its usefulness the second we left the freeway and from there we roamed the streets, exploring much of Auckland’s outer suburbs while trying to spot the city in the distance.
-Auckland is truly lovely, the streets are wide and clean, the people friendly. One thing that struck us as odd though was the lack of birds; I was excited the first time I saw a pigeon-
Unable to check into our hostel so early we packed our bags up and set off once again for our 2 hour drive to Matamata that turned into a 5 hours when we took a wrong turn. I have to say the New Zealand country side is nothing like Australian country, I didn’t even know there were so many shades of green! The stunning view from hill tops more than makes up for getting lost.
Despite being late for our reservation we still managed to visit Hobbiton, a place so lovely and serene that even those not a fan of the franchise should visit! Being late we said goodbye to Matamata and set off into a nearing storm, sadly we did not learn our lesson the first time and once again got lost this time without the bonus of stunning views. Five or so hours later we finally made it back to Auckland to check in and get some much needed rest!