Kia ora

We arrived in NA (Aotearoa - land of the long white cloud) last night at 11.20 p.m. after a 9 hour flight from Singapore. I thought I would feel quite emotional about landing in NZ but I realised that it was just another big city. I would have felt quite differently if it was Christchurh, as the South Island means a lot mlore to me.
Although the people were very friendly at the airport, the place lacked the superb organisation of Singapore. It was not well signposted and we found it difficult to locate hotels and transport. The lady from the hotel was a lady of few words - she snapped out 'go to 4' over the telephone, when she should have said go to door 4. There were many of us who were spread around the front of the airport because we did not understand her instructions. The motel was sparse compared to previous accomodation but the bed was comfortable, lovely hot shower and big white towels helped considerably. Not much was said in the morning between the man serving breakfast and everyone else but we got through. The lady (I think was an Islander) who took us to Britz was very chatty and jolly.
We collected the camper van, amongst all the other tourists who were also trying to collect their vans (German, Japense, Australians). There were many warnings about driving on the correct side of the road and not cutting corners etc. Again the service was friendly but not very efficient and we are very suspicious about how well the vans were serviced between each hirer. I thought ours smelled suspiciously of urine but I wanted to get going, especially as Walter had already returned to the Britz outlet to get another key for the toilet hatch. We had also complained about the sliding door that would not shut properly, and the switch for the lighting that was turned off, with no instructions about how to turn it back on.
When we arrived at the camping ground the smell of urine had worsened (it now smelled worse than the infant boys' urinal at school and the old toilets at the top of the Tiger Balm gardens!). A bit of a 'nose' around and I came to the conclusion that the previous occupants had used the plastic toilet cubicle as an urinal - there is a large drain under the toilet which does not have a plus in it. The urine must have come back into the toilet as we drove. Lovely! I cleaned it up as best I could until we could really sluice it out the next day. I can tell you we are not impressed with Britz.
However it is a lovely camper van and luckily we know lots abut motor homes so can sort out much on our own.
We drove through the side of Auckland on Highway 16. I thought we were lost because it was only a suburban street but then I realised that this is what they call a highway here. We are currently in a small township called Parakai which has thermal pools, which would have been lovely to use but we needed to get the camper van in order. We are now about to organise our bed for the night. The motor has single glazed windows instead of double glazed so hope we will be warm enough.