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Published: January 17th 2020
Tutukaka, Bay of Islands/Rotorua and Wellington all in one week – what a mouthful. After 2 weeks in the Bay of islands we needed to move. But agreed, it was maybe also a bit too busy. But wouldn’t have missed a single bit!
Tutukaka is the gateway to New Zealand most famous dive area, the Poor Knights Islands. As you must be at least 10 years old before you can become a certified diver, and also significantly older than 5 and 8 to hang out by themselves all day on a foreign country, Nick and dive on different days, so one of us can stay with Ollie and Alba. I had a great day out. We were 6 divers on the boat. The guide and another of the divers (who was also an instructor) had both done their instructor course with Utila Dive Centre, just like both Nick and I did. It’s fun how small the diving world is. Everyone knows the same people, have dived the same dive sites and drunk post dive beer in the beach bars. So we had a good catch up on Utila life on our way to the dive site. The diving
was good, especially the first dive which one in the world’s largest sea cave. Poor Knights Islands are remote from the mainland, and only researchers are allowed on the islands. Big tankers are not allowed to pass between the mainland and the islands, they have to go around the outside, so risk of oil spills decrease. So the government is doing what they can to protect this place, and there are species here, that you can’t find on the mainland (or anywhere else in the world. We got to see some big schools of fish, and an amazing underwater landsscape, as the islands are the eroded remnants of an old volcano. It’s some of the coldest waters I’ve dived in, and I have huge respect for the people who always do this every day. I have to admit I prefer the 27-28 degrees in tropical waters.
Next stop was Bay of Plenty and Rotorua area. We climbed Mt. Maunganui, and looked over the “Best beach in New Zealand”. It’s awesome to travel without pushchairs and baby carriers, and just have two girls racing each other to the top. Or at times getting dragged to the top by their parents
bribing them with chocolate or candy every so often :-)
We visited hot springs in Rotorua. We walked in Redwood Forest. We really wanted to go mountain biking as well. Especially because I’ve been writing with Anne-Mette (who I know through triathlon, and who is really awesome at Mountain Biking) and she recommended some good people in Rotorua. She had been posting pictures of her own trip through New Zealand, with lots of good mountain biking, running and nature experience, at exactly the same time as we were there. They were just a week ahead of us. But you can’t do everything, and on this trip, it’s about seeing new things, but mainly about doing it as a family. We could have taken Ollie and Alba mountain biking, but it would be more for us than for them. So we’re being a bit selective and searching for the experiences that we all can do and enjoy. Maybe if we go back another time, it will be a completely different trip. And it’s definitely a place I would want to go back to, so no complaints from here.
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