Last two weeks in New Zealand

We arrived back in Auckland a day before Ken and Francine were due to arrive, so that we could start planning for the two weeks ahead of our Bailey's Tour/ Gee trip.  As we were now fairly experienced with the I site centres in New Zealand.  We knew that we could provide a full selection of options and brochures of things to do and places to see.  We had already planned to spend some time in Auckland at the beginning and the end of the trip with a road trip in between  touring with a campervan. We can't beleive we haven't even taken a photograph of it 

On the first day we found the 'Cowboys' bar in the centre of Auckland similar to the one in Queenstown, we thought we would sample the beer again before taking Ken and Francine to their first New Zealand beer and wine tasting experience. It was such a nice sunny day we could not help but to  sit there until the sun went down. Any excuse!

The next day ,when Ken and Francine arrived, we did our meet and greet with  sparkiing wine and snacks, whilst presenting our tour packs; it was  a great start to our holiday.  We started the first night off in Cowboys beer tasting and finished off with Indian Cuisine.  As usual  we ordered enough food to feed another four people. Then the gin came out fom Ken's case; we will say no more !

The first day we visited the Sky tower, which was right next to the hotel which Ken had already organised.  The Chifley hotel.  A studio flat which certainely suited our needs and in the right location.  Walking sistance to everything.

The views were fantastic from the Sky tower, especially if opting for the sky dive.

Francine getting familar with Cowboys.

Sky Tower diving.  Viv Steve, Francine and Ken.

Above the photographs are from the Sky Tower- Auckland

It was good to see that New Zealand was getting ready for Christmas, but we think they are getting a bit carried away with the size of it, after all it will be matching their Santa Claus.

Rudolph getting delivered

The following day we experienced the Auckland Museam, which was well worth a visit, it gave you a good history of  New Zealand Mauri, wildlife, history of the war etc.  We then walked the coastal walk about 6km around Auckland harbour and ended up past Bastion Point in a lovely bay.  Found a pub for a drink or two and actually caught the bus back finally after about three drinks and three buses later. (Francine related this to a  Ross and Noel  experience, except they didn't catch the bus.)

After tthe first part of the Auckland experience we were ready for our road trip by campervan and headed off towards Rotarua.   What an experience Francine and I sat in the back and felt we were rattled around for three hours.  It was not really a good experience.   These coments were not because we were picking on Steve and Kens driving.  They did very well, it was  just an experience travelling in the back of campervan, that was noisy, full of rattles with uncomfortable seats coupled with high winds outside.

We knew that we were getting near to Rotarua, as we could smell the sulphur. It is famous for their thermal springs and  built over a geothermal hot spot! We spent two nights in Rotarua, one of the days we  did a great walk at Paukau and the other sampling the thermal springs.

Blue Lake Walk at Rotarua

The spring had more violent discharges of geothermal energy than the one at Tarangi. Quite an amazing experience and scary to see the natural water in the ground bubbling like that.  It is difficult to describe until you see it for yourself.

This hole was about 10 feet diamater

We decided to experience some more thermal springs at Waikite valley. This was perfect and really appreciated as it was quite cold and cloudy, bathing in 38 degrees seemed just right.

As we only had 7 days in the campervan we decided to head off  towards the Coromendel which was approximately  a 5 hours  drive so we decided we would do a few stop offs to break the journey up and not waste the day just travelling.

First we stopped Whangamata beach , which was  beautiful bay, nice sand and lots of different shells, We didn't stop long, as we still had a good journey a head of us.  The journey didnt seem so bad as we had two drivers.

Our next stop was a holiday park called 'Hot water beach' which was situated in a pretty area, the beach once again looked really quiet literally,  only us and  one man and his dog walking on it.  After some research by Steve we found out it was famous for hot water in certain parts of the beach, the camp site hired spades and said it was worth a visit when the tide was out.  The following day sure enough we got the spades and ready for our search for the hot water.  From seeing a secluded  beach the day before there was a massive crowd of people there with spades, all adults who had beat us to it. Not a child in site. We have never seen as many adults with spades on a beach.

 Even though it was very crowded nothing was  going to stop Steve and Ken, they were straight in with their spades.  The fight for the hot water was on, Mind out French and Germans here we come!

This was a great laugh once we got the hot water,which was amazingly hot, we could not get Ken out of the water, he was there to stay now that the great wall around the hole had been built and he had his territory.

We finally managed to get away  after many attemps.  It was difficult  getting the spade off him and getting  him cleaned up with a promise to go the pub.

On our travels again still to reach Coromandel town, we had a lovely stop off at Ha Hei Beach which was absolutley stunning, once again golden sands,  it wasn't far from the hotwater beach.

Ha Hei Beach-  the perfect place to picnic.

Travelling in campervans is good, but it is all  about trying to break up the jouney to make it more fun, we left the campervan at Ha Hei beach and did a fantastic walk to Cathedral Cove.  The views were absolutley stunning once again.  The walk was quite touristy, in fact it was the most people we have seen on a walk since we have been in New Zealand.

Photographs above- Views at Cathedral Cove

On the way back from the walk, Hoff from 'Baywatch' turned up with his very favourite shorts on and his life saving equipment, the shorts  have been money well spent from Jamie's stag do in August.

Hoff with his life saving equipment.

We managed to fit in another stop on our way to our next destination which was Kauri Grove,famous for their large trees. it was nice that our friends experienced the size of these trees as well, this was not the largest in NZ, but big enough at over 120 feet tall.

Kauri Tree

We finally reached our destination at Whagateau, we just happend to find a site next to a Rugby Club,  so we had to introduce ourselves. It would have been rude not too!  We had a great night, very friendly atmosphere and the members were really pleased we had called in -what a great  game ! 

Whagateau Rugby club

Our last destination was to re-visit the Bay of Islands, as this was one of the places Ken and Francine wanted to visit.  We  certainley did not mind going back as we had to be dragged away from there  in early October.  We knew they would enjoy it as much as we had already and there was plenty more to do there. For example hire a boat.

We decided to do a sailing trip instead of  hiring the boat ourselves.  We booked ourselves  on a 37 ft yacht  for 11 people, a fantastic way of seeing the  Bay of Islands at its best. 

This was ann  excellent experience which involved volunteers  helping  with some of the chores on board. It was quite tense and challenging  at times especailly when the yacht tipped on its side when coming about  and you had to duck under the  boom.   We didn't get any photographs of that part we concentrated of keeping out of the water and not getting knocked on the head.

Steve Ken and Francine holding on
 The photo was taken with one hand - very brave 

We stopped for lunch on Moturua Island, once again stunning views and beautiful secluded beaches.

 Photographs above are on Moturua Island

The trip back on the sailing boat was very special as we managed to see many dolphins playing by the boat .Unfortunatley our camera had a problem and we only managed to catch a few shots, that were not really clear

Our journey in the campervan  was now officially over , and now we needed to get back to Auckland, which was  a three hour journey. 

The fun time was to get into the centre of the city, drop off the bags  and take back the campervan  There just happened to be a parade in the middle of the city centre  which was a Christmas celebration. The resulti s that we had to do shuttles with our luggage to get through lot and lots of people . We managed to get all our gear through  to settle into our new, Best Western Studio flat  once again ,situated  in the centre of Auckland near the Sky Tower.(A good destination when staying in the centre of Auckland)

The first day back in Auckland we visited Waiteke Island,  which was half an hour by ferry from Auckland harbour, this island is well known for it wine tasting  and walks. Once you get on the island,we made a choice to do a  walk for three hours to get to the vineyards. An  interesting wine tasting session,we were ready for it.

Wine tasting

Our final day we visited the Maritime museum  in central Auckland We were lucky and were offered

a free guided tour from an Englishman too! He was very informative  but most of us didin't want to know about every type of sailing boat class  , south sea canoe, or in  fact  speed boat engine  So by the end of the three hour tour me more than  the other  was certainely Ship wrecked (Pardon the pun)

The only answer was to return to ' Cowboys'  for a drink where we started at the beginning of our journey  before we pack our bags ready for the our next journey.  This was a very busy evening as we had to celebrate Christmas and New Year with Ken and Francine, before our depature. A great finish to our holiday together!.

We had to drink out of a straw as we could not even pick up our glasses!

Christmas all dressed up!

Leaving our hotel in Auckland

The next part of our journey is to travel to Australia and  we are really looking forward to the next stage , even though we have thoroughly enjoyed New Zealand and feel sad to leave it  after two months.  We would recomend any one who loves walks,  scenery, the out doors to make the journey if they get the chance.