Saturday April 24th, 2010
Day 13
Last Day on the Road and the start of Quality Time with Family
Not much to write about on this last day. We had to return the car before our flight in the afternoon so we spent all morning driving. It was a rainy day.
When we got into Christchurch, we got some Mackers for the road (Mackers = McDonalds in Australia, not sure about NZ). There must be an addictive additive in the Big Mac. After cooking my own meals for a while, I get this craving for a Big Mac (it was the first thing I got when I got off the mango farm).
When we dropped off the car we had to say goodbye to the 30 dollar comforter we bought and used as our bed for the past week, the rental guy said they’d take care of it (probably just throw it away, so sad).
The rental car company (Nationwide) had a free shuttle from their office to the airport so we took that and caught our flight on time back to Auckland.
So…how much did this road trip cost me?
Total for today: 166 NZD (includes Jetstar plane ticket from Christchurch back to Auckland: 113 NZD)
Total for trip overall: 1312.8 NZD
Daily Average of Costs: 100.98 NZD
Now if we also include my round trip Emirates plane ticket from Melbourne to Auckland (which was 519.48 NZD), my total cost for the trip is 1832.28 NZD (Daily Average of 130.88 NZD).
1832.28 NZD = 1476.31 AUD = 1330.60 USD
The breakdown of this total from the greatest to least cost is as follows (Note DA = Daily Average, all prices in NZD):
International Airfare (Melbourne<->Auckland): 519.48
Domestic Transport: 351.8
Accommodation: 260 (DA: 20)
Gas: 251.2 (DA: 19.32)
Food & Drink: 249.8 (DA: 19.22)
Communications (Internet, Phone, Mail): 77 (DA: 5.92)
Tours: 45
Clothes and Amenities: 71 (DA: 5.46)
Laundry: 7
Airfare and transportation costs are the biggest money bleeders. These are my own personal share of the costs so the total cost of this trip for the two of us is roughly: 3664.56 NZD = 2952.63 AUD = 2661.20 USD
Epilogue:
My last four days in New Zealand were spent with family. My mom, who hasn’t seen her brother in a long time, came to visit. It’s already been half a year since I left home, so it was really nice to see her. I stayed with my uncle’s family and they were the perfect hosts, showing us around all the spots in Auckland and giving Apo and I food! = )
My Uncle played tour guide and was very knowledgeable about the city and the surrounding areas. Auckland has a lot to offer and I’m glad that we took four days to check it out instead of the one day-one town road trip phase. Much appreciation to my Uncle for showing us around.
I’ve collected Auckland’s greatest hits in this photo album.
This is the end of my New Zealand Blog. Hopefully it was helpful and entertaining.
So what happened after New Zealand? Well, that will be covered in my next post…Up Till Now.
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