Our Kiwi Adventure 2025 (week 1)
 |
John and I have been talking about going to New Zealand since we met. For our 10th wedding anniversary, we decided to go BIG, and go there for three weeks - I mean, when you fly halfway around the world, you need enough time to adjust so you can enjoy the trip, right?
We wanted a way to see lots of things in a short time (and not have to drive it all ourselves). John came across the Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer Rail & Coach tours. So that took care of the south island, but there's so much to see on the north island, including Hobbiton! For a small country, NZ sure has a lot of "highlights."
There's a link to my google photos at the end of each day, starting with Friday.
Week 1: North Island Adventure
We left Austin on March 2, and because we crossed the international date line, we missed March 3 entirely and arrived on Tuesday, March 4. :) I booked our Auckland hotel with points, thanks to a special deal from Chase in January that offered a 70% bonus when I transferred points over to IHG - woohoo! John found a car service to pick us up at the airport, and the hotel was nice enough to let us check in early. And for once we slept pretty well on the plane, so we weren't completely wiped out. We cleaned up and wandered off to find lunch. (Booking on points also got us a 20% discount in the hotel restaurant, and a room upgrade.)
It was a gray day, and we really didn't have any plans, but I saw an ad for the SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton Aquarium, which looked fun, so I bought tickets. We used the city buses to get there - really easy, you just tap your credit card to pay bus fare. They had penguins and sea turtles, a moving walkway under a big tank with sharks and rays, and model huts from Antarctic explorers... small but super fun. That used up most of our energy, so we went back to the hotel to rest. As is our tradition, our first dinner in a new place is burgers. We chose a local chain called "Burger Fuel."
Wednesday we went to the airport to pick up our rental car. The Hertz people thanked John for being smart enough not to pick up the car right when we landed, because it might be dangerous to try to drive on the other side of the road right after a 12-hour flight. (Who'd have thunk?) We drove north to Orewa and found a little Italian restaurant across from the beach called Faridas, and had a tasty "quattro stagioni" pizza for lunch. Then we took a walk along the beach path (trying not to bring back too much sand), and then got back on the road. We were already complaining that it was too beautiful there, the scenery was hurting our eyes.
We went down to the waterfront area to find dinner, but it was *so* touristy, and it was such a nice evening that every place was packed. We managed to get a table at a Mexican place (what the heck, right?) but the servers studiously ignored us, so we got up and left. We found a little hole in the wall Turkish Kebab place for takeaway. The husband and wife running it were so cute, and we were much happier giving our money to a small business. And the food was excellent!
Thursday morning we checked out of the hotel and went next door to get the car to meander south towards Rotorua. OOPS. Dead car battery. John called Hertz, and we waited for the service person to come. Getting impatient, John located a car parts store and walked over to see if he could get a portable jump-starter... just before the guy arrived (after 2 hours). We got the car started, but the tech told us that even though the car was relatively new, the battery was bad and we should go get a different car from Hertz. So, back to the airport we went. The first car they offered us wouldn't fit our luggage! Sigh. Another hour. Eventually, we were off to the south, and now we were getting seriously hangry. I found us a shopping center with lots of food options, and we chose Nando's. (Tried & true wins when you're starving at 2pm.)
From there we took the scenic road south and east, stopping in Paeroa, which is famous for a particular drink (Lemon and Paeroa) made from the local water, I think? Anyway, it gave us the opportunity to take a photo at the giant roadside bottle of L&P (see top ^^ photo). NZ has apparently made a habit of placing "giant" things in small towns for people to stop... This was the first of many. :)
We drove on through lots of small towns, including Katikati, which bills itself as the "Avocado capital of NZ". (I looked for a giant avocado for a photo op, but there wasn't one.) The hotel I booked in Rotorua was the Prince's Gate. It's a "boutique" hotel with old world charm, so I thought that would be nice for our anniversary, but that actually translated to 1970's decor in the rooms and antiques in the common areas - like Kinloch House (from our Scotland trip) but a lot less pretentious.
But here's the kicker: When we went to check in, we realized that we LEFT OUR PASSPORTS in the hotel room safe in Auckland. OY. We've never done that before - but then, we almost never put our passports in the safe, and in this case, the safe was in the top drawer of the bureau, instead of in the closet, so we didn't even see it on our last pass through the room. WHY did I decide we should put our passports in there? No clue. Fortunately, we were headed back to the same hotel on Sunday for one night, so when I called them and explained, they sent someone to the room and said they'd hold the passports for us until we came back. Phew. Crisis averted.
Rotorua is a pretty touristy town - it's the jumping-off point for a lot of the 'adventure' travel activities on the north island. But when we went out to walk around to find dinner, it was pretty quiet. We ate warm lamb salads (yummy) in an area called "Eat Streat" (no, that's not a typo) and went back to the hotel to sleep.
Friday was Hobbiton day! (But first, a quick trip to the pharmacy to find something to stop my eyes from itching - I'm clearly allergic to something on the north island.) We thought we'd left enough time to get to the Middle Earth meeting point/parking area, but there was a lot of road work on the way, so we cut it closer than expected.
The Hobbiton Tours are run like a well-oiled machine. There's a tour bus leaving every 30 minutes, with a video to watch on the bus and a location-sensitive app you can download to read more about each area as you go through the tour. (Note to self: if you forget to look at the app while you're touring the set, you can't look at it later, because of the location thing. Sigh.) The bus video explained that the sets had all been built and then demolished for the first LOTR movies, but when they came back to do the Hobbit films, the farmer who owned the land asked Peter Jackson if they could leave the set built and open it to LOTR fans (and share the proceeds, naturally). DUH, who's gonna say no to that? The NZ government liked the idea so much they sent the Army on an "exercise" to build the road that the buses now use to get to the set. I looked it up - LOTR brings *millions* of tourist dollars to the country. That tour alone gets easily ~500 people per day in peak season! Our tour guide was Australian (I swear most of the people we met in NZ were Aussies). She was a LOTR super-fan - she said that was part of the job interview. It's a 2-hour tour, seeing the set and all of the Hobbit doors. Weta (Peter Jackson's special FX company) also created two Hobbit homes just for the tour -- since everything else was exteriors-only -- so the tourists can go in and see how the hobbits live. :) The tour ends with a drink -- beer or ginger beer -- at the Green Dragon, and then you're on the bus back to the gift shop (natch) and the cafe. We got some ice cream, sat in the shade, and completely forgot to hit the gift shop before we left!
On the way back to Rotorua, we decided to go a different way to try to avoid some of the road work. Apple maps told John there was a road that went diagonally across the middle that would save us a lot of time. And the road was 'exciting' to drive - narrow and windy. Little did we know, the locals apparently got sick of people using that as a cut-through, so they put up a gate with a "no public entry" sign, about 3km into the 16km distance. ARGH. And of course we weren't the only ones trying to go through there - 3 or 4 cars got to the end right after we did (all using Apple maps, I'm sure), and we all used the turnaround next to the gate together.
We ended up going the REALLY long way around to the south, so it took more like 3 hours to get back. I picked a little restaurant called Number 8 Wire and we had a delicious dinner - beef stroganoff (John) lamb stew (me).
Kia Ora! Saturday was our day for Maori-related activities. Just on the edge of town is Te Puia, a park and cultural center which houses huge geysers, mud pools, a kiwi conservatory, and the Maori arts and crafts school. We had lunch at their restaurant, and then went on the guided tour to learn more about the Maori culture. Our guide was a descendant of Maori kings (or so he said) and explained all about his many tattoos. We were there at the right time to see the geysers erupting (see photo). Then we got to peek in on some kiwis in their conservatory! Kiwis are nocturnal birds, but the center has adjusted the animals' rhythms so they're awake when people are visiting, so they keep the enclosure super dark. We checked out the mud baths (no touching, just looking!) and the traditional crafts that the artists were working on. This time, we didn't forget the gift shop. John bought a sweater that was made of wool and possum fur! [NOT opossums, like we have in North America... they're different creatures. And they're invasive in NZ, so they have to cull them anyway.] The sweater would come in very handy later. And it made a nice birthday present to himself. :)
After a quick afternoon nap, we were off to our "Summer Harvest" Maori dinner. We rode a tour bus out into the woods, with our Maori guide teaching and explaining as we went. We had to choose a "chief" from among us (which had to be a man, by Maori tradition) to be greeted at the site when we arrived. There was a whole ceremony and we were told not to smile or laugh -- it was hard to do!
Then they took us to a small auditorium and did some more dances - both the men and the women who had been teaching around the camp participated. Then it was time for dinner! Definitely the most authentic meal we'd eaten so far - and SO much food! There was a singalong at the end - the tribal "uncle" and his nephews playing guitar, trying to come up with a song for every country or state that the visitors called out. [We got "All my Exes live in Texas"] It was close to 11pm when we got back - we were wiped!
Sunday morning we packed up and said goodbye to Rotorua, and headed off to Waitomo to see the glow worm caves. It was about a two hour drive, and we knew that there wouldn't be any roadwork on Sunday, so we weren't in a hurry. On our way there, we happened to drive by a giant Kiwi sculpture, so we had to go back for a photo op. :)
The Ruakuri cave has a long spiral ramp to walk down (and back up) that's actually suitable for all kinds of differently-able people -- wheelchairs, kids in strollers, etc. The cave itself is really old and is full of interesting formations, and of course, the 'glow worms' (which are actually fly larvae with bioluminescent butts). The tour guide was just learning so he had a more experienced leader along - and she was American. We had a great time. They also run "black water" rafting tours through the caves -- five hours in a wet suit and a helmet with headlamp, floating down a river... no thanks. We saw (and heard) one of the groups go through the cave beneath us. Coming back out of the cave into the sunlight was blinding!
Then we were on our way back to Auckland. We noticed all along the roads that they like to use huge skinny tall hedges around and between the farms here. These are not like the hedgerows in France - they grow 60 ft high but very narrow 'walls' to ... keep out the riffraff? Keep you from seeing the vineyards? Really strange.
We retrieved our passports at the hotel, did laundry, and packed up to leave for the second part of the adventure on Monday. We probably missed seeing some interesting things in Auckland, but I think we managed to squeeze in a lot on the north island.
On to WEEK 2, when we started the Sir Edmund Hillary Rail & Coach tour.
Comments