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Greetings from New Zealand! Firstly sorry to be so tardy writing this, we haven't had as much internet access in New Zealand as we did in the states, anyway...this is what we have been up to down under, so far...
New Zealand Part One - The North Island
14 hours and one whole day lost later, we arrived in Auckland, two days after we left LA. Westarted off by picking up our banger of a hire car (14 years old, 180000 miles on the clock!) before heading to Devonport, a beautiful peninsula off the north shore of Auckland for fish and chips and an afternoon nap to hold off jetlag. The nap was our first mistake, it was sunny but pretty cold where we were in the park and despite only being asleep for 25 minutes, poor John ended up badly sunburnt, attractively just down one side! Apparently we were unaware of the hole in the ozone layer above New Zealand which makes the sun particularly viscious.
We stayed in Auckland on the North Shore with John's old house mate and good friend Kirsty, her husband Mark and their gorgeous sons Rhys, 10 and baby Cade, just 3 weeks! They all looked after us fabulously and it was so nice to be in a real home after5 weeks of grotty motel rooms. Our time in Auckland was mainly spent enjoying their company (we had to force ourselves to leave, I very nearly moved in it was so lovely) but we did managed go up the sky tour which despite being a tad touristy offered stunning 360 views across Auckland's both harbours, and of the crazy people that bungy-jumped off the 40 floor just below the observatory where we were viewing.Finally we tore ourselves away from Kirsty, Mark and their boys and began our tour of the North Island - complete with a picnic that lasted us about 3 days from Kirsty!
First stop on our own again was the Coromandel, a large peninsula east of Auckland.It has hundreds of miles of coves and beaches, all fairly remote and separated east to west by a giant mountainous national forest running down the middle. We only had time to scratch the surface but started with a place called Hot Water Beach where two hours before and after low tide you can dig yourself your own little hot pool in the sand and enjoy a free bath whilst you admire the scenery. All this is possible due to geothemal energy from below (that's about as far as my knowledge goes on that) but is certainly great fun. The water is VERY hot and we both ended up with burnt feet as your feet sink into the sand. The other highlight of the Coromandel was a walk to Catherdral Cove, a secluded beach within a marine sanctury which was our first taste of how stunningly beautiful NZ is.
The slight downside of going to Cathedral Cove was that we left it a bit late to find accomodation, not helped by Air New Zealand having a massive conference in the tiny beach town where we had ended up. Long story short, we ended up sleeping in someone's garage, living off Kirsty's picnic for dinner!
From the remoteness of the Coromandel we went to the complete contrast and hit Rotorua - possibly one of the most touristy places in New Zealand and also home to lots more geothemic hot pools, geothemeric mud pools and geysers, and consequently a strong sulphric smell! Despite the smell, and hearing some negative comments about Rotorua, we had a ball. The first night we headed to Mitai Maori village to have a hangi, a traditionally cooked maori meal. The food was amazing - cooked in the smoke and steam from a geothermal pool - and was served after a very entertaining 'concert' performance of Maroi culture. See photos on flickr, it was ace! The next day we went to a second living village - Whakearearewa (or similarly spelt) where it is a little less about the performance and more about the history as Maori families still live and work there. The village is dotted in between 500 thermal pools and geysers. One of the two geysers was shooting water up 30 feet+ and we saw pools where you could barely see the water through the steam and were reliably told it was nearly 180 degrees hot. The highlight of this village though was John being talked in to performing a Haka - again, see flickr, very very amusing!
From Rotorua we drove via Lake Taupo (one massive huge volcano filled with water) to Napier in Hawkes Bay to stay with Ryan, Simone and their baby son Joseph. We didn't realise, till we got there, that Ryan and Simone were living in the most idylic location in a beach house literally feet from the sea. The view was stunning, I could have looked at it forever and it inspired John to have his first swim in the sea, egged on by Ryan and Ryan's swimsuit.
Napier itself was a lovely town, it suffered a huge earthquake in the 1930s and was rebuilt in the style of the time, Art Deco, so as well as the beautiful coastline there was some stunning architecture. Arguably the most beautiful thing about Napier though is the wine. Hawkes Bay is one of NZ's largest wine producing areas so we took full advantage and went on another wine tour, this time with Ryan and Simone too and with the added complication of being on bikes! When we did the wine tour in Napa in a limo, I couldn't think of a better way of drinking wine but it's turns out the On Yer Bike wine tour is just that because as well as sampling some amazing wine (Trinity Hill, Te Awa, Red Triangle) you also get to cycle through vineyards and olive groves with the sun beating down on your back, no one else in sight and knowing that just past the next field there is another cold glass of vino awaiting you. Perfect.
Once again we struggled to pull ourselves away from Napier but eventually we headed to our final north island destination, Wellington. I think my only regret of the trip so far is that we didn't spend longer in Wellington. It is a beautiful city and sadly we only had time to scratch the surface for half a day before we got the ferry to Picton on the south island... we did have a great tour guide though! We met Mark at Te Papa (premier NZ museum) for a whistle stop tour of the best bits, we were there 2-3 hours trying to take it all in but could have spent several days, before Mark drove us around the city's coast; Wellington sits at the southern most tip of the south island and so is surrounded by water. Sadly this was our first day of rain, pretty good for a country that can have 'four seasons in one day' but it meant we saw even less of Wellington than we'd hoped, even with such little time, but made up for instead by catching up with Mark. Finally, we departed Wellington and the north island on the 3 hour ferry to Picton and the south.
Writing this makes me realise how many highlights we had on the north island, lots of people before we came and lots of people now we are here have said how much better the south island is than the north but I can honestly say I disagree - the south island has been amazing, but the north was pretty impressive too. We'll just have to come back!!!
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