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We had the best flight to NZ - for some reason we got upgraded and sat upstairs in the premium section, with free champagne! We were all like little kids and only wished it could have been longer than 3 hours! It was lovely to be met by Jackie & Phil at Auckland airport though and have a short evening walk along the beach at Kohimarama.
The next day we were excited because my Mum and Dad were arriving. It took them a while to get through as their bags were lost, and we then had to wait for our rental van to arrive (from strange guy who blamed me personally for the hole in NZ's ozone layer!) Eventually we were on our way north, through the city and up towards the Bay of Islands. It was great to have 4 hours to catch up and the house I had found in Keri Keri was lovely (Joe and I generously allowed my M&D to stay in the large suite).
After a lazy morning the next day, we visited the Stone Store, one of the oldest buildings in NZ, built in 1835. We also had a bbq in our lovely
garden, complete with its own waterfall. Friday was Bella's birthday and a surprising number of cards and presents had winged their way across the world. After Charlie had helped her open them we went to Paihia, where we caught a boat to Russell and the driver even let the kids have a go! After a wander around the town and some lunch, we climbed the rather steep hill to the beach on the other side where the kids splashed around and hunted for shells.
On Saturday we took a boat out into the Bay of Islands, including the awesome (very popular word in NZ!) Hole in the Rock. We saw dolphins and stopped at Urupukapuka Island for a while. Sunday was my turn for cards and presents, after which we went to church and then to Waitangi where the Treaty between the Europeans (also called pakeha) and the Maori was signed in 1840.
The next day we drove to Ahipara at the bottom of 90 Mile Beach, which is the beach heading up to the very north of the North Island. Being in a rental car we couldn't drive any further but explored on foot, jumping the waves
and hunting in the rock pools. Next stop was Maitai Bay (through Whatuwhiwhi and Waipapa - Maori names are great!) yet another beautiful beach (there are quite a few in NZ). Fish and chips at Whangaroa Harbour, before taking the scenic loop back, another stunning drive although it got quite dark...
On Tuesday we headed back south, stopping in Kawakawa at the famous Hundertwasser Toilets which were really cool - curves, bottle walls etc (see the photos...) before continuing the journey back to Auckland. The next day we headed out to yet another piece of amazing coastline - Murawai - one of the few mainland gannet colonies in the world. There were hundreds, soaring and feeding their young. Apparently the juveniles head off to Australia once they can fly and spend a couple of years there before returning to their own breeding ground to have their babies.
Thursday we drove down to Hamilton, visting a pioneer house - Woodlands - on the way, which we later found out was where our good friends Nicole and Lee got married! One of the first managers of Woodlands was the founder of Anchor Butter, named after a tattoo on one of
his employee's arms. We stayed for the next few days with Nicole's sister Anita and her husband Andrew (who is also the brother of Helen who we stayed with in Melbourne - Christadelphia is a small world!)
Whilst at Hamilton, we drove across to Rotorua, not to see the smelly thermal geysers just yet, but to do the luge which was really good fun and which Bella classes as yet another of her "favourite holiday days". We also went to Raglan - a black sand beach with a pedestrian bridge which Andrew challenged Joe to jump off, so they did - twice! Caught up with lots of other people in Hamilton, and went to the Hamilton Gardens with its international section - English, Indian, Italian and Chinese gardens. Eventually M&D left to catch a plane to the South Island for a few days, and we headed back to Auckland to await the call from Customs to say we could collect our pick-up, which we did 2 days later after it had received some extra "cleaning" (just another way of charging us more for doing very little really).
Once we finally repacked it with all our belongings which had
been dumped on the warehouse floor, we drove up to the Coromandel Peninsula. On our first day there we took a trip on the Driving Creek Railway, which is a great mini-guage railway built in the 1960s by the owner of the land - a potter - to get the clay down from his mountain. Eventually the bank manager told him he needed to take paying passengers, so he expanded the track to include a double viaduct and zig-zag switch-backs, taking you up to a tower with amazing 360 degree views of the islands and the gulf. He also uses the opportunity to showcase some of his pottery, as well as old tyre and old bottle walls, and other interesting touches.
On Saturday, we drove over to Hot Water Beach in time for low tide, joining the crowds heading towards the hot springs. Basically you dig a hole in the sand and the hot water seeps up from all the geo-thermal activity going on beneath you. There was a complicated system of holes and walls keeping out the incoming cold waves, with just enough gaps to allow enough in to cool you down. The hole we "borrowed" was only
rather warm so I wandered over to the next one where I had seen some steam coming off and burnt my feet - ouch! Can't understand how some people could bear to actually sit in it. From there we went to Cathedral Cove - a beautiful place with white sand, clear water and yet more amazing views.
The next day we stayed local, collecting shells on the nearby beach. As Monday was overcast, we decided to go to a place called Waterworks where highlights included a bike to pedal to squirt water, a water powered clock, gas-can skittles etc. In one of those "Small World Co-incidences" we bumped into someone I used to work with at Disney 7 years ago. Later we drove on to the nearby Kauri Grove with its huge trees.
We went back to Auckland to see M&D again before they flew back. Our hosts, Jason & Beryl, took us to Mount Eden, an extinct volcano with great views of the CBD. We had lunch at the pretty esplanade in Devonport and then finished up at North Head Historic Reserves where there are a number of military tunnels built in 1885 for fear of a
Russian invasion. The kids had fun running around with torches. Finally though it was time to say goodbye to my parents which was sad as we had had a really nice time.
We spent the next day sorting through all our stuff (again!) and deciding what to leave behind during our tour of NZ. Needless to say we decided autumn would be too cold for camping so our tent was discarded. On Good Friday we drove south towards Lake Taupo (along with most of the rest of Auckland so it seemed - made us feel at home being stuck in Bank Holiday traffic!) We also got stopped by a nice policeman who was obviously slightly confused by our UK numberplate. Eventually we arrived at our destination - an Easter family camp at Mangakino, where we spent a lovely weekend making more new friends, playing team games, discussing practical issues, walking along the river, kayaking and generally having fun. On Monday we left with some of our new friends to stay at their house in Napier on our way down to catch the ferry to the South Island, as we had decided that it would be better to go then
before it got too cold. Tuesday was Joe's birthday, we had a brief look at some of the Art Deco buildings and then continued south, stopping one night at Palmerston North, before catching the boat from Wellington (after a mad panic when I realised I'd booked the wrong day and we had to re-book - oops!) More on the South Island later... (you'll need a break after reading this huge entry!)
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