South to North Island - Wellington

Over the Easter weekend we travelled from the South Island to the North. Before arriving in Picton, we travelled on the scenic road from Havelock. Here we ran across a typical New Zealand slice of life in a place called The Grove. The Grove was a small village with a port for small fishing boats and what looked like weekend sailors. On the way out of town we stopped at The Grove Arm Jetty and this is the picture I took using the camera's panorama setting. Notice the two fisherman, who really did not seem to have any interest in actually fishing but did look like they had been meeting there for years. 

The ferry crossing could not have been better, blue skies and calm seas. I was assured by a local that this is rarely the case and I get rather seasick so we both felt lucky.  

After landing in Wellington, we went straight to the harbour and spent a fantastic afternoon, walking around, eating ice cream and getting a feel for the city. Rob and I were both impressed with the vitality and beauty of the public spaces. 

Auckland and Devonport

Arriving in Auckland Friday afternoon, we dropped off the caravan, then taxied downtown to the VR Hotel. This modern hotel is located on Queen St., one of the main arteries in the downtown area leading directly to the waterfront.  We took advantage of the warm fall temperatures and strolled the 20 minutes to the Viaduct Harbour.  A superb seafood dinner on the second floor balcony of century-old Ferry Building overlooking the active ferry terminal completed our evening. The picture shows the Ferry Building view from the water.

On Saturday morning heavy rain showers greeted us for only the second time in our travels. We took this opportunity to visit the Auckland War Memorial Museum.  This architecturally stunning building housed displays and artifacts on New Zealand history, natural history and war history.  The museum is so extensive that we only covered 2/3's of their exhibits in the four hours we were there.  

The full scale Maori (Mow-ree) meeting hall is being restored on site, including the removal of red paint from all of the side columns and ceiling ribs, as well as the re-caning of all the original and replica side wall panels - a three year process.

One of these faces does not belong in the meeting hall ... hmmm?  

Leaving the museum to clear blue skies and warm temperatures we strolled the Auckland Domain beside the museum. This parkland is Auckland's oldest, containing all of the explosion crater and most of the tuff ring of the extinct Pukekawa Volcano. Trails to half century old greenhouses, cricket/rugby fields, open green space, gardens, ponds ... were there for us to discover.

Sunday morning's blue skies and summer temperatures made it ideal to hop on the ferry to Devonport, a suburb of Auckland, located on the north shore across the bay. The 15 minute ferry ride is one of a multitude of water taxis connecting the city and the suburbs. Our walk in Devonport took us to the top of North Head, an extinct volcano, providing a wonderful scenic view of the Auckland waterfront. The North Head is the historical site of the 1914 military emplacements that New Zealand used throughout both WW I and II.  The original military armaments, bunkers and buildings provided a first-hand look at New Zealanders' role in both of the wars. A picnic lunch overlooking the leisure boat traffic in the bay made for the perfect afternoon. 

Beach directly below North Head - a very active kite surfing area.

The city skyline can be seen in the background behind the military base on North Head.

Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands is north of Auckland on the east side of New Zealand and we have just finished spending 3 wonderful days exploring and touring the area. First, we found a great place to stay, Beachside Holiday Park, outside of Paihia (Pie He a), nestled in a bay with a small private beach. The first day we walked part of the Paihia Coastal Track and explored the town.  

The following day we got an early start, being picked up at 7:00 AM by Fuller Great Sights Tour Company for our full day, and I mean full day, tour up to Cape Reinga.  Stops along the way included morning tea by the beach, a walk through an ancient Kauri Forest, driving at 100 km/hr up 90 mile beach, clam digging, driving up a river bed to the sand boarding dunes, arriving right up on the tip of the peninsula at Cape Reinga, lunch, afternoon tea and a visit to the Ancient Kauri artist centre.  

Digging for clams on 90 Mile Beach.

Ready to sand board at the top of the dune.

The view from Cape Reinga. The Tasman Sea meets the Pacific as can be seen on the right hand side of the photo.


Our final day started early again but this time to swim with dolphins. Our boat set off in search of the dolphin pods that are always around the Bay of Islands. Soon after leaving the harbour we spotted 4 dolphins, a mother, 3 day old baby, the midwife (auntie) and one other swimming protectively around the baby the whole time. When there is a baby or juvenile present you cannot swim with them, but it was an incredible sight to see as we followed this small group for 10 minutes. 

Look carefully for the baby dolphin's fin directly beside the mother on the right. 

The tour guide and captain thought it was better to move on and not stress the mother dolphin, so we headed out in search of another pod. We were lucky and found a pod of 12 to 15 dolphins willing to play with us. In we jumped; right away the dolphins were swimming under us, jumping in the air and the picture tells the rest of the story. What a great day!

All good things have to come to an end. We celebrated our last night in the caravan as we did every night with good food and wine!

Rotorua and The Coromandel Pennisula

After our amazing visit to Orakei Korako, we arrived in Rotorua or more correctly in Blue Lake just outside of Rotorua. Rotorua is a major geothermic centre and with that comes a very strong sulphur smell. We had been warned by locals and other travellers to stay outside the city and just go in to do what we wanted. 

Rotorua planted trees from around the world in 1901 to see which trees would grow best in NZ. What happened is that they grew a rather fantastic Redwood forest with great walking trails.

That evening we attended a Maori feast and learned about their culture. 

Today we spent on Whangapoua and New Chum Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. New Chum Beach has been voted one of the 20 most beautiful beaches in the world. We needed to wait for low tide on Whangapoua Beach and then hike around a point and over the saddle to reach New Chum. It was worth it. 

Taupo Area

After driving through the rolling farmland from Napier to Taupo we had a great hike to Huka Falls.  

However, the highlight of the last couple of days was the geothermic features. Craters of the Moon was our first introduction to geothermic activity in the Taupo area. It sits adjacent to the world's first Geothermic Power Station built in 1958. 

Rob and I are in the habit, when cooking in the communal kitchens, of asking fellow travellers and locals what sites are must sees. Rob met Karen from Wellington in Martinborough, who coincidentally is married to a University of Waterloo grad, and she said we must go to Orakei Korako. Orakei Korako is off the beaten track and not as popular as many other geothermal tourist attractions so we decided to go. In order to get close to the geysers and silica terraces we had to first take a short ferry ride over the lake. Once there we followed the boardwalk system and read the plaques explaining the history of each feature. We were amazed and captivated. It was spectacular and we spent most of the afternoon there.  We came away feeling very peaceful. 

In order to see the real impact of the photos, click to enlarge them. 

Napier - Art Deco Downtown

The 1931 earthquake, lasting an incredible 2 and 1/2 minutes, registering 7.8 on the Richter Scale, all but destroyed Napier.  The islanders joined together to rebuild their city over the next two years. The influence of art deco architectural design was evident throughout all the construction that took place. Our afternoon guided tour provided us with an enjoyable look at the history of the city and their continued emphasis to retain this architecture today.

The most beautiful hike we have ever done...so far

Today's post will be short and sweet because we are wonderfully tired and nothing sounds better than a glass of wine on the beach. We hiked 18 km in the Abel Tasman National Park from Wainui Bay to Separation Point. It was spectacular - lots of up and down, amazing view points, great forest and we saw absolutely no one until the late afternoon hikers were coming into the park to stay over night at the Whariwharangi Hut.

Happy Easter everyone!

Golden Bay - kayaking and tramping

We arrived in Pohara, Golden Bay on Sunday night and are staying for 4 days at our ocean side campsite. Monday, after yoga on the beach under the most beautiful sunny sky, we headed out to Tata Beach to kayak with Golden Bay Kayak.  Our trip took us to the edge of Abel Tasman National Park in Wainui Bay. We were just two of 4 people with our guide Paul. The tandem kayaks handled beautifully on the perfectly calm waters. Roblin (I ) was very thrilled by this!  

Hot chocolate on the beach with our guide Paul and Alex from Italy with his girlfriend, Isabelle from New Caledonia. 

Tuesday morning we woke up to another beautiful day and decided to go up to Farewell Spit at the most northern edge of the South Island. The Farewell Spit is a nature reserve with incredible sand dunes that divide the top edge of the island, with Golden Bay on one side and the Pacific on the other. We hiked up the Golden Bay side, cut across the spit to the Pacific side to be greeted by the most fabulous stretch of untouched beach that stretches for 35 kms. 

The route for the tramp back was over the dunes and through farmers' fields.

On our return down the coast we stopped at Estuary Arts where we spent time talking to the resident artists, Bruce Hamlin and his wife, Rosie Little. We purchased a piece of art of the Farewell Spit that will always remind us of our holiday. 

Our day ended with a trip to the Waikoropupu Springs - a sacred Maori site with the clearest water in the South Island. 

World of Wearable Art in Nelson

After spending the morning at the Nelson Farmers' Market we went to the World of Wearable Art Museum. This was the most enjoyable 2 hours at a Museum that we can remember. The exhibits of garments, created by international artists, to be worn in a Cirque du Soleil - like show were incredible. We loved it. If you get a chance Google the WOW Museum.

A dress made entirely of balloons.

This entry was in the Bizarre Bra category - made with spent bullet casings with one being the poppy. 

The Farmer's Daughter's Dress, complete with Wellys.

Westport and Charleston Adventures

We have had such a great time over the last few days. On Thursday we stayed in Westport, on the Northwest coast and spent the morning watching the seals at Cape Foulwind. The colony is out on a point and the viewing area is a lovely walkway that is perched above the seals. You can stand there all day and watch the seals in their natural environment. We were lucky enough to see a few mother seals nursing their babies.  Here is one of a seal looking like he is ready to perform for the circus.

The beach on the way down from Cape Foulwind was a school group playing the national game, Cricket. 

In the afternoon we went to join the Underworld Adventures Tours of the Charleston caves. The tour was 4 hours of exploration of the cave system discovered in 1960. We covered over 1.5 km underground, with the final .5 km floating on an inner tube marvelling at the glowworms' luminescence. It was magical! 

One of the features that we were able to see up close were the drapes - formed over years by the constant leeching of water through the limestone.