New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland after a very long flight - we left on a Monday at noon and arrived on a Wednesday at noon (including the time change of somewhere between 12 and 17 hours - I can't figure it out). We actually, surprisingly, found adapting to the new time zone to be fairly easy. We were so tired after a fairly crappy flight (we had it all - crying babies, head rest grabbers, tray table bangers, shoulder bumpers, etc.) that we had an amazing sleep that night. We also took some melatonin which seemed to help with the adjustment.

Auckland

Bleary-eyed, we picked up the rental car at the airport and made our way to the hotel. Miraculously we arrived without any driving infractions (there are lots of signs reminding drivers to keep left which is helpful). Our aptly named hotel was located across the street from a beautiful rose garden and park. We ambled around and checked out some pretty cool scenery - some really crazy looking trees, city views, beaches, and a really old cemetery.

The next day we checked out the aquarium which featured history and wildlife from Antarctic. I found this particularly interesting since they had some exhibits on the Scott expedition. It is amazing to see some of the artifacts that were used back in the day to explore some of the harshest climates on earth.

The next day we checked out Mission Bay - a cool suburb of Auckland with a really nice beach and some nice restaurants and shops. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly, so no swimming for us! In the afternoon we drove up to check out the famous One Tree Hill. To be honest - I knew nothing of the history of this place except that it was also the name of a U2 song. Check out the link above - actually quite interesting, and it explains why we didn't actually see the "one tree". It turns out that there were several important single trees that were cut down either for firewood or for protest in the past. Anyways - it is a great place to visit nonetheless! We also check out Cornwall Park which adjoins One Tree Hill - beautiful park with a variety of different trees and long stone walls.

Notes: Top photo is one single tree in the park across from the hotel. Last photo was a photo I took of the TV when we got to Auckland - snow in Christchurch - this was not part of our "endless summer" plan!!

Coromandel

We left Auckland for Coromandel with our first stop at Hot Water Beach. We rented a shovel and made our way down the beach. There is a small section of beach where you can dig out a hole in the sand that fills up with hot thermal water. The water is extremely hot - it can get up to 65 C in some spots. Our little hole was likely in the 40C to 50C range, which was about the max that we could comfortably hang out in. We spent a couple of hours between the hot water and the cool ocean water. I think we were there at the perfect time since we were at low tide after which point the beach gets washed out.

Our next stop was Cathedral Cove. This was a lovely one hour round trip walk along the coast to an absolutely surreal landscape. This was the setting for the Chronicles of Narnia. We didn't bring our bathing suits, but Mackenzie and I stripped down to our boxers and swam out into a cave along the coast and then rinsed off under a freshwater waterfall - pretty sweet!

We continued our drive to our hotel room at Angler's Lodge. The drive there was, well, nuts. Hairpin turns, 20%+ gradients, two-lane highway the width of a single lane, no barriers, etc. I thought BC was crazy, this is next level. Oh, and remember to stick to the left! We really enjoyed our stay at the lodge and would highly recommend it to anyone. It came with a central barbequing area, hot tub, and really nice sunset views of the ocean. There were also eels in a little river beside the lodge which kept the kids entertained.

The next day we checked out The WaterWorks. This is a wacky little theme park that reutilizes all sorts of things (toilets, piping, buckets, hardhats, etc.) to make quirky interactive displays. We spent about 3 hours here, but you could easily spend the whole day.

Rotorua

On our way to Rotorua we of course had to stop at Hobbiton - this is the movie set that was used for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. This location was used in both of the trilogies with filming in 1999 and again in 2009. The second time they had to rebuild the set which took over two years. The filming took place over 12 days - that is 2 months of construction per day of filming! We got some insight into how the filming took place which requires lots of trick camera shots to make Gandolf look big compared to the hobbits.

On our way into Rotorua we were hit by the smell of rotten eggs - this is the sulphur from the nearby geothermal springs. We stayed in a very mediocre AirBnB that was conveniently located near the Redwood Forest. We did the Treewalk (basically treetop trekking). This was very cool and we were able to do the walk both during the day and at nighttime.

In the centre of town there is Kuirau Park where we could see the geothermal and mud pools. It is crazy to think that this is located right in the middle of the city. The pools had boiling water which threw off huge amounts of steam. It was very cool to walk through the park and at times it felt a bit eerie with all the steam blowing everywhere. We finished the day off at the Polynesian Spa where we were able to enjoy a small private pool for 30 minutes.

On our way out of Rotorua we made one more stop at Waitotapu Mud Pools. This was a large mud pool that bubbled and gurgled with occasional mini-eruptions that kept us all very entertained.

Napier

Napier isn't typically on the list of places to see in NZ, however it was somewhat on our drive down towards Wellington and looked like a cool coastal place to stay. We only stayed one night, but got to do a quick tour of the town and checked out a cool bluff with some impressive views. Our AirBnB came equipped with a bocce court and there was a sheep (Daisy) which the boys loved playing with.

At this point in the trip, I had done very little real cardio so I decided to go for a run in the morning. I found a nice route that wound through some farmland along a canal. I was hoping that the route would loop back, but unfortunately some of the roads that were shown in google were private roads with fences. I kept running along the track in hopes of finding an exit point to shorten the return, but no luck. At this point I had covered 6-7 km, so I didn't want to double back, but had no choice. On the route back I came across a private road that connected to where I needed to go and would be a significant short cut. I hopped the fence (ignoring the no trespassing sign) and made my way down the road when I spotted a set of headlights pointed right at me. I did a 180 and turned back towards the original path and continued on my way. I peeked back and saw that the truck was chasing me across the field. I took out my headphones and got an earful from the farmer that I had set off the motion sensor. He was not too pleased to say the least. Anyways - lesson learned: Do not get between a Kiwi farmer and his sheep!

Wellington

We made a very brief stop in Wellington to catch the ferry. We dropped the car off at the rental place (they don't let you move rental cars between the North and South island) and boarded a 3 hour ferry to Picton. When we got to Picton we went to the Hertz kiosk beside the ferry to pick up our car. There was no one there. A lady stuck her head out of her car window and said "are you Ian?". She was just about to leave. Luckily we caught her in time otherwise we would have been stuck at the ferry terminal without a car (our accommodation was still a 1.5 hour drive away).

Marlborough

We arrived late at night at our AirBnB in Glenduan (near Nelson, just beside Marlborough region). We had an incredible view from the hot tub looking out into the ocean. We spent the next day touring around Nelson and surrounding area and visited a couple of wineries. We found out the next day that the New Zealand All Blacks had been in town and signing autographs - damn! Just missed them!

Christchurch

We spent our last night in NZ in Christchurch. We had a quick tour of downtown and walked the botanical gardens. A really nice historical city that has gone through some tough times.

We stayed at a hotel at the airport since we had a 6:00 am flight to catch the next day to Sydney. Even being so close, we still had to do a painful 3:45 am wake-up!

Overall our time in New Zealand was incredible and we would come back in a heartbeat. Our only regret is that we didn't have enough time. For a relatively small island, it is chock full of varying landscapes. We are now on to our next adventure in Australia!