Waiheki Island

Back to Auckland and then a ferry for our last few days in NZ on Waiheki Island, 40 minutes on a fast ferry from the city, previously a bohemian refuge now in danger of becoming a dormitory for the city.

We stayed in Little Oneroa in a very rustic Lodge (with the best ever homemade muffins for breakfast) just off the beach. Through sheer good luck we were there for the Onetangi Beach Races, a combination of horse, horse and cart, tractors and Sealegs (a kind of amphibious boat) races, all for charity and a great family vibe.

We finished off the day at the Stonyridge Winery, one of the first to make a big impact on the European market.

The big money that has flowed into the island has ensured, apart from the oh so tasteful seaside properties and manicured vineyards and olive groves that their the coastal paths are brilliant and we had a great up and down tramp in the sunshine from Oneora to Matiatia Bay.

Then, back on the ferry to Auckland and a soulless airport hotel for our very early flight to Sydney.

Russell

Our final drive further North to the Bay of Islands, a distinctly more Maori feel to the small towns en route to our bach (what the Kiwis call their rustic country cabins). We stayed a few miles outside of the lovely little seaside town of Russell, originally the first real European settlement in NZ.

Our bach had no wifi but did have a dinghy, some of the best stargazing of the whole trip and a great BBQ on the balcony overlooking the lapping waves below.

Our bach, strong contender for favourite accommodation of the trip

Russell was good for its history and character plus lazy seafood lunches overlooking the harbour but the highlight was our four hour fishing trip in the southern swell hunting snapper. Nic caught the largest fish (in fact his only fish) of the party, a 4kg snapper that was a battle to get land. A tiring day in the heavy swell and intense sun.

I confess I only reeled this in!

Pompallier, a former Catholic Mission in Russell made for an interesting visit, 40,000 volumes of teachings were printed here in the 1840s with a tannery introduced to make the leather covers. It was fascinating to realise how many common expressions originate from the printing process, minding your ps and qs, coining a phrase. Carolyn regretted volunteering to scrape the wool from the sheepskin using 'urea' during the explanation of the tanning process!

Auckland

We continued our drive north to Auckland, stopping off in Cambridge on the way for lunch with Jo's friend Leigh, a horse whisperer (an interesting lifestyle) and later the first traffic of note we have experienced in NZ, Aukland seems like a city growing too fast for its infrastructure.

We set off the next day for a mini "coast to coast“  walk, i.e. across Auckland but gave up with the heat and the plain fact that too much of the walk was through some dull suburbs.

Enjoyed the harbour and its views especially the amazing amount of life on the waterfront. Great fish meal in a swish restaurant overlooking the floating gin palaces.

One day was spent on a wine tour, mainly with the aim of visit the Kumeu River Winery where we lucked into meeting the ancient proprietress. Most of the wine industry locally has been built up by former Yugoslavs that emigrated there in the 60's and our wine guide had relatives in most of the vineyards we visited ( including his brother in law below) so we got to see a lot including their methode champenoise being disgorged by hand.

Hunting Lodge: delicious rose

Auckland has its own Fringe festival and we enjoyed the first night of it with a free concert by Hopetoun Brown  in a main square. Two actors were passing to perform a mime show in the picture below!

Rain rain go away! Taupo and Rotarua

Still further north to the small town of Taupo sitting next to the massive lake of that name but we didn't really get out on it or around it as the weather changed to solid, unremitting rain for the next three days. Carolyn swam in the rain (the lake being heated by geothermals) and found a yoga studio. At least there was decent wifi and no excuse not to start the blog!

After a stop to witness the very impressive (but difficult to photograph from land) Huka falls we continued our drive northward.

Rotarua is THE geothermal town in NZ and sulphurous odours and surreal gusts of steam abound. We visited Te Puia and combined views of Pohutu, the tallest geyser in the country at 15m and bubbling mud pools with a Maori show which was not too cheesey. And even  had a peek at a very camera-shy kiwi! 

Facial tattoos are in..

Audience participation in the Haka!

We were disappointed that the Rotorua Museum, site of the old bathhouse was closed due to earthquake damage but it was an impressive building from 1908 set in attractive gardens nonetheless.

Turangi and the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

We drove further north for a farewell meal with Robert and Liz before an early start for one of our hoped for trip highlights, the Tongairiro Alpine Crossing, a full day trek, supposed to be the best one day tramp in NZ. Its often closed because of it's exposed nature ( Robert and Liz, there for two days before us had missed out) but our luck was in with perfect conditions although this did mean that there were loads of other trampers out. We were told that 2600 was the daily record! 

Undaunted?!

Mount Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom

The backdrop to our 19.4 km walk was Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings plus ancient craters and still lively volcanic activity as well, with the aroma of rotten eggs and steam emerging from the rocks all around us. The first 7 kilometres were gently then more steadily uphill with the summit close to Red Crater. There was then a short steep scree slope descent to the Emerald Lakes and then a long winding descent that at times seemed interminable, eventually leading through an attractive forest. 

View from the ledge

Red Crater

Emerald Lakes

Snow dusted Mount Ruapehu in the background as we descended

The stunning colours and extraordinary scenery of the middle section made this one of our best walks ever.

To North Island

The 3.5 hour ferry crossing from Picton to Wellington through the Marlborough straits separating the islands has an evil reputation but we were lucky to have a calm and uneventful crossing.

It felt almost strange to be in a city of high rise buildings again. We did a walking tour around the Parliament buildings, old St Paul Cathedral, the High Court and Law College.

Blue sky morning in Wellington

Beehive and Parliament House

Kate Shepherd (woman's suffrage) themed pedestrian lights

Inside the timber Old St Paul's

and of course the Te Papa museum, which would really have merited more time than we had on our last day. For us perhaps most memorable was actually a tremendous exhibition about Gallipoli made even more poignant by some supersize but tremendously lifelike figures created by the Weta Workshop (Lord of the Rings) team. 

Our favourite relaxing activity was taking the cable car to Kelburn Hill overlooking the city and wandering back through the Botanical Gardens, with their colour, bird life and scented Rose Garden with a cafe in the middle.

We spent at least 10 minutes listening to and watching this tui!

Spot the lesser known Nic among the fabulous hydrangeas and azaleas

Wellington to Napier

Painless 5 hour bus journey northwest to the Art Deco coastal town of Napier, which was rebuilt in the style of the period following a massive earthquake in 1931. Here we met up with Robert and Liz again for more winery cycle tours in serious wine country. We visited Mission, the first winery in NZ and then enjoyed a great picnic on the lawns at Church Road in the sunshine with some live music. It was a long day in the saddle but great variety of terrain, from wetlands, to crashing surf, marinas and of course the vineyards.

We also walked all over Napier on the Art Deco walk with many of the premises happy to allow you in to look at the interiors as well.

On our last day their after picking up another hire car we had a really fun day visiting the Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colony which involves a bumpy ride out along the coast on some sea tractors to the largest colony in N Z. Mightily impressive sea birds but scary at just how vicious they could be with each other.

Guess whose tractor got stuck?