New Zealand - Nelson

Unfortunately the weather seemed to follow us all the way to Nelson on our afternoon bus, with one slight alteration- it got a LOT colder. First stop in Nelson to get myself a hat; it really was that cold.

After that essential action we sorted out our next day trip to Abel Tamsen National Park, named after the Dutch explorer of similar name. We did however end up feeling slightly deflated, as we realised we weren’t going to have any chance to venture around Nelson and see what it’s like- another downfall to planning everything in advance.

Anyway from this point on you will be glad to know I have a guest writer for this entry- Jenny.

The day of our walk at the Abel Tamsen dawned misty but dry. Thankfully it wasn’t too cold; after an unsuccessful frantic search for a cheap fleece the afternoon before, I had nothing warm but my 6 layers + waterproof. We had a very informative 1 - 2 hour long bus journey to Kaiteriteri, during which I tried desperately to stay awake to listen to the driver- a very interesting, knowledgeable and passionate Kiwi. On arrival at Kaiteriteri the boat took us to Anchorage Bay. A little stomach lurching for us both but there was a cute dog to distract us. By this point it was raining, and it was with some trepidation that I stepped onto the yellow sand. The walk took us through the bush and up to the hills, this being the hardest section of the path, though giving great views of the surrounding area. A little breathless after trying to keep up with Richard (as usual) we hit level ground and the path continued this way for the remainder of the walk.



The time passed quickly with the stimulating conversation I kept up with Rich. Joke. Communication was difficult with him half a mile in front of me, and with our matching waterproof hoods up. The only challenging parts were when we left the main path to Marahua for a couple of the bays that line the track, the kind which on a beautiful summer day you could easily lose hours on. In the drizzle, we lost probably only about 10 minutes on each. Having only seen a few other walkers, the beaches felt very remote and very wild, and very beautiful. We sat on the rocks on one to eat our hummus and lettuce sandwiches (again), whilst being watched by a very big seagull.



Near the end of the walk we bumped into a bunny. The cute, cuddy kind. It was happily munching on grass on a path, and had no problem with our presence, even when we stood right next to it. It didn’t seem to be blind or deaf, it was fully grown, plump, with glossy black fur and I’m sure I could have picked it up. So. Either NZ has very tame, fluffy wild black rabbits, or we walked away from someone’s long lost pet.



Four and a half hours and approximately 13km later we were still feeling good, if a little wet and cold. Being such an easy walk the time passed very quick. We had passed through thick, lush bush and over beautiful waterfalls. The only sounds were the sea, the rain dripping through the leaves and the very occasional bird. The end of the walk brought us out into the open and over a couple of long wooden bridges over shallow water. We had about an hour or so to kill before the bus picked us up. A quick walk through an interesting sculpture and carving garden, opposite which was a warm looking café for a much needed hot chocolate..

Back to the cosy hostel for yet more (but free) hot chocolate and cake for our last night in Nelson. Shame about not being able to spend more time here, but up early tomorrow for the long, long journey to Franz Josef.

New Zealand - Picton

A short and thankfully calm trip over by ferry from Wellington landed us at our base for the next two nights- Picton. A town that markets itself or is referred to as ‘The Gateway To The South Island’ and Picton is exactly that, a small town that is mostly used as a port and that’s about it. The town itself is a quaint little harbour town that is definitely in our opinion worth a stopover, if only a short one.

We arrived with plenty of the day to spare and our plan was to rent a car for the next day, so we could explore Picton, Blenheim and the surrounding areas. Being only a day the prices ranged from $80 to $120 (£36 to £54) prices that we decided to not go with. We didn’t have much of our day left as we had spent a large proportion of our time contemplating what to do over a drink at the Waterfront Café; which does the best Strawberry smoothie I have ever had, though Jen informs me that in contrast they also do the worst coffee she’s ever had, clearly they just like me more than her.

What we time we did have left we spent discovering the pleasures of having a swimming pool at our hostel, that’s right a pool at a hostel- has to be a first, and for our evening meal we went to Oxley’s on London Quay, coincidentally once again my dinner was better than Jen’s- something tells me she’s just getting picky in her old age, though I did agree her pizza was pretty poor.

Our second day in Picton was a beautiful day though we were sort of lost as to what to do, having originally planned our day around the car. We did decide to walk the Snout bay via Queen Charlotte’s View track, which took us about four and a half hours including many photo opportunities and lunch at the end of the Snout Track, watching the world go by. The walk is very scenic, though quite challenging in parts.






Our final day in Picton and oh how the weather changes quickly in New Zealand, overnight we were witness to our first storm- though it wasn’t a massive storm by any means and we woke to heavy downfall. Having to carry our backpacks around with us, we decided against doing anything strenuous in the awful weather. Instead, we stopped by Gusto’s for a Hot Chocolate… such a hard life.

Onto Nelson next.

New Zealand - Wellington

We probably chose the busiest time to arrive in a city ever. Saturday Evening at 19:00 and incidentally the same day the All Blacks play the Wallabies- Wow was it busy.

On arrival we decided to take the chance, being in a big city, to splash out on a nice meal for the first time. So we strolled back and forth down Courtenay place to the point our feet were about to fall off- though we did work up an appetite. We finally decided upon a Japanese restaurant which I believe was called Arashi Japanese Restaurant, though don’t quote me on that, it wasn’t too far from the Courtenay Place/Cambridge Terrace intersection. Anyway it was our first experience with a Japanese restaurant and all I can say was it was brilliant, the presentation and taste of the food was amazing- in hindsight we really should have taken a picture. Jen even managed to eat her whole meal with chopsticks and didn’t need to ask for a knife and fork- granted not using anything more graceful than a shovelling action. We also had our first great bottle of NZ wine, a Saints Gisborne Gewürztraminer. Anyway a bottle of wine and quite a few shots of Sake later we were merrily done for the evening.

To start breakfast at Plums on Cuba Street- the Mini Vege Plumster isn’t joking about being mini.
Our first full day involved a visit to the obligatory cable car, via everywhere else in Wellington; Jen’s map reading got us very lost…she says it was me but I blame her. Anyway thankfully we made it there the same day and it was turning out to be such a beautiful day- not a cloud in the sky. The cable car takes a matter of minutes and offers great views of the city from the top.




From the top we noted how small Wellington looks for a capital city. While there we decided to go into true holiday mode and spend some time soaking up some of the sun and work on our tans- or lack of.
After our lazy early afternoon we spent the rest of the time walking around the botanical gardens. Clearly the rest of Wellington had the same idea, not that I really blame them.




Our second full day in Wellington was much cooler than the previous day, which seems to be a pattern in NZ- one warm day is always seemingly followed by a colder or much cooler day. Two words could explain our second full day; Free and Museum. Our first free museum for the day was the Weta Caves museum, officially the smallest museum in the history of museums.



The Weta Caves are responsible for much of the figurines, armour, weapons, clothing and miniatures for many Hollywood blockbusters including Hellboy, Chronicles Of Narnia, Braindead, King Kong and most notably the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. The museum itself is more a shop with mini museum attached, the mini museum is probably smaller than the majority of peoples sitting rooms. There is also a 15-20 minute really interesting video that gives you a little behind the scenes information on the artists behind the work you see on the big screen.




Next on the list the Te Papa museum of New Zealand. The museum is great, especially if you have younger ones or a Richard. The museum includes a lot of interactive artefacts and covers a wide variety of subjects not too dissimilar to the Auckland Museum. The museums main attraction is the female colossal squid on display (obviously not living), which is the only Colossal squid on display in any museum in the world. Excluding the squid there is much more to keep you entertained, maybe too much for one day. The museum spans six floors including some outside exhibits and is definitely worth a visit, especially considering it’s free.

Our morning ferry crossing to the South Island and destination for the next couple of days; Picton.

New Zealand - Napier

Before I crack on with the Napier trip report, the journey between Taupo and Napier started with my first mistake of the trip, I booked the right bus, right day but wrong month…… woops. However it did put forth some cracking scenery and this will probably be the only time you will ever hear me say this; the rain added to the great mysticism of the whole journey. The scenery also looked very much like that from middle earth (Lord Of The Rings reference for those of you who don‘t know).



Arriving early evening in Napier, we only really had the chance to stroll around and give into our current obsession- the cinema, we yet again went to see a film.

Next day we were greeted by the wonderful sunshine, so our first port of call was breakfast; using the philosophy of eat wherever the locals eat, we choose café Ujazi. Which was absolutely amazing, a cooked breakfast on traditional Maori bread (not too dissimilar to soda bread). From the café a visit to the Art Deco shop- which offers a free short film into the history of the art deco style and how it was implemented into Napier’s streets. Then taking what we received from the video we headed for the streets and gardens of Napier and I can tell you Jen really was in her element, photographs galore.







Along the seafront Marine Parade is the National Aquarium of New Zealand, at $16 (approx £6
.80) it may seem like quite a reasonable price- however both myself and Jen really did not deem it worthwhile, when compared to other aquariums we have been to. Plus myself and Jen are not fans of animals confined to small environments and when it came to the crocodile and giant turtle- the areas they were confined to were way too small. Our evening was spent with a couple of beers in yet another Irish bar- the New Zealanders really like their Irish bars.

Our leaving day in Napier didn’t greet us with quite such a positive start in terms of weather. However it still left Jen feeling like she could have quite easily spent a few more days in Napier if not longer; the disadvantage of not having a car and working to a set plan. What short amount of time we had left we decided to first of all explore Bluff Hill- which is approximately a 30 minute walk from Napier’s CBD and past the historic prison.. Once up the hill, you get good views of the surrounding area- definitely better on a clear summers day. Back in town and we went for a quick latte and chai latte (plus cakes) at café Ujazi- it’s really that good. Anyway we had to move on and our final North Island stop and capital of New Zealand awaits- Wellington.

New Zealand - Taupo

A short and somewhat uninteresting 1 hour drive from Rotorua brought us to Taupo our destination for the next couple of nights. Our first opinion of Taupo was very positive and it gave us a chance to get our first glimpse of snow on the mountains- granted they weren’t exactly close but hey we still saw them. If you have a good eye there is a small possibility you may be able to see it yourself, we did get a better unclouded view ourselves but for some unknown reason didn’t take a picture.



Instead of sampling all of the fine NZ dishes on our first evening in Taupo, we chose to eat at the cheap alternative of Pizza Hut- how exciting of us! Though this neatly leads me into a question that has been playing on my mind; why is it that a lot of restaurants across the country seem to be closed on a Tuesday? Anyway, continuing our very non New Zealand themed day we headed to the Irish bar, Mulligan’s. However this did lead to me having my first pint of Tui, which was incidentally my first NZ beer- though no worries Jen carried on the non NZ theme with a couple of Amaretto and cokes.

Day two in Taupo was a day we had both been equally as excited about for some time, the day we went out on the Huka Falls Jet. For those of you who don’t know what that is, I’ll try and give a quick explanation; the Huka Falls Jet tears around the Huka Falls at about 50+ mph, the engine is run by the intake of water which is ejected out of the back, it swings past a variety of objects coming within a matter of inches (not exaggerating) and every so often doing 360 degree turns- resulting in getting a little wet, though in Jen’s case this was less a little and more a substantial amount, in my case however; very little. Unfortunately neither of us could take any pictures, as you can imagine it probably wouldn’t have been the most sensible thing to have a camera with you. However despair not, friends and family will see some proof on our return.

After our very exciting beginning to the day, the pace slowed down. From the Jet we headed to the Huka Falls track taking about ¾ of an hour - 1 hour. At the end of track you are greeted by the falls- granted we had just seen them via the boat but it was nice to be able to take some photographs and chill out.




From here we took the 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minute trek back to Taupo, this did include some time taking photographs and watching people bungy jump. Jen was completely against the idea, I was however considering it- by considering of course I mean a brief thought went through my mind… I mean come on;



Screw loose comes to mind! Anyway I digressed from the walk. The walk itself is an amazing path along the Waikato river. Which is definitely the clearest and cleanest river we have ever seen, Jen was completely in awe of it- taking into consideration she absolutely hates water, I think she was contemplating swimming in it.



I don’t think a picture can ever really do justice to the river, unfortunately we didn’t have any swimming gear and it was way too cold to go skinny dipping.

Our final day in Taupo was a very chilled out event and gave us a chance to soak up Taupo’s atmosphere and to reflect on a place I personally very much enjoyed, though Jen has Coromandel firmly in top place at the moment. This also gave me the chance to prove my male superiority at a game of mini golf. I did thankfully manage to prove this, though it was a close affair and I didn’t gloat at all…well maybe a little bit. In reflection Taupo is a place I definately rate quite highly and an area that I would love to visit again.

Next up and an area that I foresee rating very high in Jen’s books; Napier.

New Zealand - Rotorua

On arrival in Rotorua, we were greeted by the sulphur rich air- you have to love the smell of rotten egg. This is due to the fact that Rotorua has the highest geo thermal activity in the whole of NZ, thus bringing millions of excited tourists every year, two of which being myself and Jen.

We arrived quite late in the evening, so as with most first days our evening was spent wondering around getting used to the area, Rotorua is a city that is similar size to that of our own hometown and yet it’s expansive amounts of shops and restaurants completely puts our hometown to shame. The city or township as they are generally referred to in NZ is set out much in the same way as towns in the states. For our evening meal we were highly adventurous and chose Nando’s - it’s cheap, which also gave us the chance to watch the All Blacks play for the first time. I must admit when it comes to Rugby I’m pretty clueless (more of a football/soccer man) and Jen had no idea what was going on AT ALL.

On our first full day we realised how much there is to do in Rotorua and also the fact that we were inevitably going to spend a lot of money- oh well we’re on holiday. So our day started with a sightseeing tour of the area and the three lakes; Lake Rotorua and the originally named Green and Blue lakes. It was however a tour with a difference, on a 60 year old American amphibious truck aptly named the Duck.




The tour was unique, interesting and ridiculously funny. After our tour we jumped on one of the city buses and headed out to Skyline sky adventures, where due to some mechanical issues we couldn’t go up the gondola (cable car) though this worked to our advantage as it saved us a significant amount of money and we were offered the alternative free bus journey up the hill- bargain. When at the top we hopped on the luge, for those of you unfamiliar with the luge, basically you sit in a sledge with wheels with a bar in front of you that you push forward to go and back to brake, you then hurtle down a mile and a half downhill track round sharp bends that in this case sit on the edge of quite dramatic drops at whatever speed you choose; which in my case was very fast and a lot slower in Jen’s. After the thrill you head back up in a ski lift to the top to do it again, the ski lift was worst part of the whole thing- I dislike heights especially when you’re sitting in a small metal seat dangling over open air.



Jen decided from here the best bet would be to walk back to Kuirau Park, which is a volcanic park you can wonder around completely free of charge. Anyway Jen’s short walk turned out to be about 40 minutes away, I knew I shouldn’t have believed her. The park itself is complete with a crater like lake, sulphur pools, boiling mud with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Celsius and a lot of very unpleasant smells, however it’s definitely worth a visit.




After our (not so) hard day we decided to get a bottle of wine and we finally found a wine that we liked while in New Zealand- our sweet tooth isn’t catered for much by the looks of it, unfortunately the wine was from Australia… sacrilege.


Our second day was based around the main thing we wanted to while in Rotorua, which was Wai-O-Tapu and the Lady Knox Geyser. The Lady Knox Geyser erupts everyday around 10:15am with the help of a little bit of soap to induce the explosion.



From the geyser we headed out to the main park, unfortunately our allotted tour time wasn’t as much as we would have wanted, though we did manage to do the entire walk (75 minutes return) and time to photograph- though we were both in agreement we could have spent a lot more time strolling around. Having said that we were glad to be smelling reasonably normal air after an hour and a half. The area is great for photograph opportunities, and the effects of the chemical deposits give off some amazingly surreal colours. The park also comes complete with many craters, a waterfall and a massive champagne pool (named so because of the bubbling effect).






As the weather was so nice we decided to spend our afternoon chilling at Lake Rotorua, this soon changed as I decided to become the captain of my own ship… a scary thought for those of you who know me. We rented a Pontoon boat for the afternoon and went tearing around the lake- well, maybe more like a leisurely stroll but it did seem pretty quick. Jen had no trust in my driving skills and I think she was glad to see the sight of land on return, though she did get some pictures of our nautical adventure.



From here we were in desperate need of an ice cream due to the great weather, we found a little place called Lady Jane’s ice cream parlour and the ice cream was AMAZING, so many flavours- Jen was in heaven and it was pretty good value.

Our final day before departed to Lake Taupo was a short one so we spent the day walking around the government gardens and walking around the Rotoura museum of art and history. The museum is quite small and unfortunately there was a lot of construction walk going on, however the exhibitions were informative and interesting- especially the history of the bath houses.

New Zealand - Tauranga

On arrival in Tauranga, we were met by a bout of poor weather. Unfortunately this wasn’t the only negative thing about our time in Tauranga. When arriving in every new place it has taken some time for us to adapt to the difference- settling in an area we enjoy and then moving on leaves us judging the new town/city on the strengths of the last area but given a short amount of time we begin to accept the new area for whatever it is and what it has to offer. However we never received a positive vibe from Tauranga, the city itself (no offence to the inhabitants of Tauranga) was very bland and I kept striking similarities with Gloucester in the UK, which is incidentally one of the areas of my home country I really do not like. We also found the city to be the most unclean area we had found along our travels in NZ to date.

Anyhow I don’t want to sound like we are complaining too much, so I shall move onto the actual trip report.

We arrived mid afternoon from Coromandel town, we spent the majority of the afternoon getting our bearings and sipping coffee in a café along the strand; a long strip in Tauranga packed with cafés, restaurants and bars. Our evening went by pretty fast and feeling completely unmotivated to cook anything we decided to take the chance to pop out for a meal, we headed down to Zeytin- a modern Turkish restaurant who use original clay ovens to cook the food… unfortunately and here come’s another complaint, our food sounded much better on the menu than it actually was.

Our second day and only full day in Tauranga started in a much similar way to that of the first- very dreary weather. Our first port of call was Mt Managuanui, the walk up the mountain takes approximately an hour return but then we did take the difficult track, I believe the intermediate track adds another 20 minutes or so to the walk and I would presume it’s a lot easier. The walk was quite hard, obviously all uphill and a lot of steps. Once at the top you are rewarded with panoramas of the surrounding areas; cue pictures (shame it wasn’t a clear day)!




After our trek we decided to head down to the hot salt water pools at the bottom; this is a great thing to do after the walk. The pools are outdoors and temperatures range from 37 to 40 degrees Celsius, which bestows a very strange feeling in you, especially when it’s drizzling and the prevailing winds are quite cold and yet your amazingly warm. Our evening was spent with a visit to a cinema that I cannot remember the name of; though it officially had the most comfortable seats I have ever sat on. Oh, an we watched Up! Which to anyone is interested is without a doubt the best Pixar film to date.

Hoping the weather will get better, our next destination involves heading south to Rotorua.

New Zealand - Coromandel

Once again we depart Auckland, though this time our destination was different and this would be the last time we would see Auckland for a month and half. However we had a quick chance to pop into Santos for a breakfast, again confirming that this is probably the best breakfast we have ever ate- at that point Jen interrupted me to state there is no probably about it and I have to admit she’s probably right.



Our destination this time; Coromandel town. The drive between Auckland and Thames wasn’t at all interesting to be honest, mostly factories, warehouses and motorway as scenery. However, as soon as we left Thames towards Coromandel town we were witness to one, if not the, best drives I have ever been on. The coastal road was equally jaw dropping as it was frighteningly scary, some of the corners were ridiculous and Jen was quite happy she wasn‘t driving.

On arrival in Coromandel Town we were shocked at just how quiet it was, but then what do you expect from a town with a population of under 2,000?! Anyhow the whole place has such a relaxed feel to it and yet again some amazing backdrops. Our once again late arrival just gave us chance to get our bearings and check out what we were going to do, though we had already decided that we could use our time in Coromandel to do a bit of walking.

The next day and our first full day we rose nice and early and decided to ride the 4km track from our hostel to the Driving Creek Railway. If you’re in Coromandel for a day or more I highly suggest checking this out, it costs $20 (£8.75) each and all money gets put back into the conservation of the site, which is now a heritage site. To describe everything would take me too long, but I will say it really shows what one man (with help) can achieve. Also the railway takes you to the aptly name Eyefull tower, which has great panoramas of the Coromandel peninsular.



Just down the road is a small café, called the Driving Creek Café. It’s a little organic vegetarian/vegan place and they do some phenomenal cakes, oh and the mint hot chocolate is worth your hard earned cash.


Our afternoon was spent doing some of the local walks, first of all we headed to the Kauri Block Pa Track, (anyone heading to NZ can get a local walk map from the I - Site for $1) this track was about a 30-40 minute walk from our hostel.



Once there the walk itself takes approximately 40 minutes and takes you through some of the new Kauri plantations and up to the Pa point, which again offers some great panoramas of the surrounding areas. Would you believe it, once we reached the top the camera battery ran out… great timing. I did however manage to get a picture halfway up, unfortunately it wasn’t the greatest. The walk itself was reasonably easy, though definitely easier from the Harbour View road side. Next up and I apologise for boring whoever is reading, was the Taumatawahine Reserve walk, try saying that after a few beers, scrap that try saying that before a few beers. It took about another 30 minutes to get to from the Kauri Block track, though the walk itself only took 15 minutes and doesn’t really have anything of great interest to offer; well nothing that can’t be found on any other bush walk.

Just to undo all the good we had done, we decided to have a bottle of wine and our first New Zealand fish and chips experience. I had Tarakihi, which was the first time I had ever heard of the fish let alone ate it, though my dictionary helpfully tells me it’s an edible fish- that’s always nice to know. It kind of reminded me of Tuna, though this could be me and my ignorance when it comes to fish. Both myself and Jen, even though we had enjoyed our meal, slightly missed the greasy mush we have for fish and chips back at home- god knows why!


Our last day on the Coromandel started in a very lazy way. The complete silence of the area, excluding the sounds of the Tui (a native bird that has a very unique song), made us not want to rise from our comfortable abode. When we did finally rise, we were bit bemused as to what we could do; not having a car really limits the possibilities as to what you can do on the peninsular. Thankfully, our hosts Rae and Tuck came to our rescue in the form of a lift up to the Kauri Grove walk, which only takes about 15 - 20 minutes but factoring in some good photographing time is essential - needless to say this is what we did.



These were the oldest Kauri trees we had seen to date and clocked in at the young age of 600 years just a baby in comparison to the oldest, which lasted an impressive 4000 years old. From there we headed along the 309 Road (they call it a road, however to us Brits it was just a gravel track) to the Waiau Falls.



Our next stop was a rather unique day out- the Waiau Waterworks, a sort of gardens with many water powered contraptions and attractions. Odd to describe and even odder to experience, though I again would highly recommend it; a regression to our younger years for both of us. We didn’t capture many images as we were trying to keep the camera dry.



Next destination; Tauranga.

New Zealand - Paihia

Leaving Auckland on a very sunny morning our destination was Paihia. The bus journey to Paihia was our first introduction into New Zealand’s scenery and the northlands scenery definitely met our expectations; it was unsurprising not that indifferent to that of our own, though on a much more dramatic scale, maybe sharing more in common with that of the Scottish highlands. Also you can tell the Romans never conquered NZ as it doesn’t seem to know what a straight road is!

On arrival in Paihia we were greeted with the worst weather we had seen in NZ to date, it was so cold and the skies looked unpromising- slight dent in a happy outlook. We did however have to chance to take in the seemingly reoccurring theme of amazing views.



Due to our late(ish) arrival we took what we had left of the evening and decided to go out for a meal. We ate at Al Fresco’s restaurant- to be honest all I can really say about the place was it was alright, nothing really to write home about. Also it was freezing in that restaurant, question to the New Zealanders who may be reading this, are you immune to the cold?

Moving on to our first and last full day in Paihia and we woke to a beautiful day, the sun was shining and we were raring to go. Our first port of call (no pun intended) was Paihia’s harbour for our Explore NZ ‘Hole in the Rock’ and dolphin cruise. First of all there is a couple of operators who run this service but from personal experience both myself and Jen highly recommend Explore NZ. With that said on to our cruise; the first part took us around some of the 140+ islands that make up the Bay of Plenty and giving us some history into said islands, also leading to some phenomenal views (I’m starting to wonder how many times we’re going to talk about these views).



Then we moved onto the dolphin seeking section. Now at the beginning I have to admit as much as we were quite looking forward to seeing dolphins, I think a part of both of us didn’t really understand the mass hysteria about seeing them. How we were wrong. It seems as soon as we saw them we were like two excited kids at Christmas; dolphins seem to have this affect on both people young and old that really can’t be explained, but I can say it’s definitely worth doing at least once in your life.



We then went onto the ‘Hole In The Rock’ which is the largest passing under any island… I believe. Anyway the seas were rough at this point and as you do I was out on the bow enjoying the trip, I should have probably heeded the captain’s warning, though of course me being me and male I didn’t, we clearly know better, and I got soaked and as a result very cold. Jen was also looking very pale due to the rough seas. Unfortunately we couldn’t pass through the rock but we did however get some photo opportunities.



Back on land, we decided to head up to the Opatu forest. The walk is approximately an hour return, not taking into account time spent at the top. The walk is moderately easy, though it is all uphill and offers some striking vistas at the top.

What was technically our third day in Paihia, though it was to be a short day due to our journey back to Auckland, was greeted by, in contrast to the first day, probably the best weather we had seen in NZ. However, due to poor organisation on our behalf we missed out on what we had originally planned to do. So instead we went for a long walk along the beach, I chilled and Jen went into photographer mode; unfortunately I became her target for the day- this is one of the more pleasent pictures of me.



Our evening in Auckland was spent eating at the food court directly under Sky City cinemas on Queen Street- very average food but cheap prices. After the not so great dinner we headed upstairs and watched District 9.

New Zealand - Auckland

So at last we can finally write about something of interest (well interest to us anyway).

Our first day in Auckland came on the back of 30 hours plus in transit with next to no sleep, so as you can imagine we really were not feeling in top condition. On arrival at our hostel our first stop was the shower and how we had missed it. Anyhow what we had left on our first day was spent getting our bearings, or in our case losing our bearings and discovering together we make awful map readers, fortunately the Sky tower was at hand, giving as our first invaluable Auckland lesson 'If your lost follow the Sky Tower', which can pretty much be seen from any point.



This was the summary of our first day however in our tired states we did begin to make some observations about Auckland and New Zealand. The first thing we noticed is that there are many similarities to America, in small things like the roads and the traffic lights, through to the lorries/juggernauts and houses to which Jen kept making comparisons to Hocus Pocus. The second thing is Aucklanders really like to keep fit, down every street was someone jogging, which is in impressive in it’s own right because I am pretty certain there is not one flat road in Auckland and every gym we went past was packed. The third observation being this is a city that has really taken steps to embody the ‘go green for a better future’ policy, with simple things like hybrid taxis, carbon neutral couriers. Finally and I promise to stop boring you with pointless facts, but this one of things that impressed myself (next to the friendliness of the Kiwi’s) and Jen most about Auckland, this being the public services on offer, simple things like; Drinking Fountains dotted around many areas of the city, plenty of public toilets, free city bus (not that we used it) and free dog litter bags that us poor Brits have to pay for.

Moving on, finally, to day two and unfortunately our day was mired by the fact that I was suffering from jet lag. Anyway determined to better the situation, we set off and our first port of call was breakfast, we headed down Ponsonby road which rapidly became one of our favourite areas in Auckland, full of boutique shops, small cafes, stylish restaurants and chic bars. We chose to eat at Santos cafe, which I cannot praise enough. The cappuchino and latte that me and Jen had were definitely amongst the best I have ever had, I had a simple poached eggs on toast, which considering it's just eggs on toast was so tasty and Jen had vege eggs bennedict, which as she said was probably the best breakfast she's ever eaten. From Ponsonby we walked to Mount Eden and started our ascent of Auckland's biggest volcanic cone, unfortunately as we reached the top it started to rain though we still had the chance to take in some of the wonderful views and the massive crater.



We were also giving a friendly reminder of just how far we were away from home.


The descent down from Mt Eden gave me the chance to rest and Jen to get artsy with the camera and surroundings.




We spent some time walking in the gardens at the bottom of Eden before walking back to Ponsonby, on our way back we stumbled across Western Park, which gave us the time to get familiar with some of New Zealand's famed Flora and Fauna.



From Western Park we decided to finally get our first New Zealand grocery shop done. We headed down to the New World supermarket on Franklin road. Our first experience with NZ supermarkets was, well oddly pleasurable. The selection of fruit and veg was amazing and Jen was in awe of the dried fruit pic and mix- we live entertaining lives you see. We also found the staff to be ridiculously friendly and helpful; a sharp contrast to some of our supermarkets at home. Also the cadburys chocolate selection was ridiculous; Tirimasu, black forest and chocolate fudge brownie.... amazing and also cookies and cream kitkat chunkie, truly a gift from above :-) The only two faults I found was 1) Why are cherry tomatoes so expensive? and 2) Where are the vegetarian/magherita pizza's hiding?!

Our evening was spent strolling down the CBD, thinking to ourselves how dead it was in contrast to London for example, we found a Belgian bar and sat down to a couple of beers, though in Jen's case a hot chocolate as they had no Kwak, shame on you Belgian cafe.


Day 3 in Auckland was our most active day, in fact I’m pretty sure we did more walking in this single day than we do in a week in the UK. We set off bright and early towards the Viaduct Harbour where we spent a short amount of time strolling around, watching the world go by. I pounced on the situation and decided to challenge Jen’s photography prowess with one of my own shots, a proud moment for me (though I have to admit my shot wasn’t exactly straight!).



From the Viaduct Harbour we set off for Parnell, which is another district not that dissimilar to Ponsonby. Streets lined with Boutique shops and cafes. After strolling through the streets we decided to walk right around Parnell road and head towards the Auckland Museum, which is an impressive building.




The Auckland museum is impressively laid out, interesting and somewhere where you could easily lose track of time, something we did. Our first stop at the museum was the Maori cultural show, which lasts 30 minutes and gives you a brief look into some Maori pastimes, dances (including the world renowned Haka) and some other brief facts. The show was interesting, however we did feel it would be good if they went a bit further into Maori history, especially for the $20 fee per person (roughly £8). On the other hand the Museum, which has an entrance fee of $5 (£2.10), and this is only a suggested donation, is well worth every penny. The museum is broken down into three floors covering topics ranging from the prehistoric period right through to New Zealand’s history of war including the Boer War and the two World Wars. Though the highlight for me and Jen was the Maori artefacts collection, in particular the carved Maori meeting house.




From the museum we walked back to Parnell where we decided to have dinner at a little pizza place called La Porchetta, here we had a large vegetarian pizza between the two of us for the costly sum of $12 (£5), you would struggle to get a large pizza in the UK for £10 ($23.50). Our evening was then just a simple affair of strolling down Queens Street in the centre of Auckland and window shopping.


Day 4 and our last day in Auckland for now was believe it or not the first day we would use public transport in Auckland, odd for a city that seems to have such good transport links. Anyhow, Devonport was our destination for today. A short 5 - 10 minute ride from Auckland’s ferry port. Devonport is a quaint little town, with not a great deal to do but stop at a café, which of course we did, check some of the heritage sights out or walk down the beach and even though the sun was out it was unbelievably windy, so our beach walking was restricted to just a few minutes.



Onto Mount Victoria, an old navy embankment, once we reached the top, which is only a very short walk, we witnessed some of the best views we had seen in Auckland, especially of Rangitoto island.




Oh, and we found this guy sitting around looking sad, no idea why he’s looking sad, must be the wind.



After our visit to Devonport we wondered around the city and headed up to Albert Park, this gave Jen more chance to wonder around being trigger happy with her camera and myself a chance to soak up the scenery.




Our evening was spent knocking back a few Mojito’s at Whiskey just along Ponsonby road, a nice suave bar with a classic rock soundtrack, you can’t go wrong with a Mojito and Guns N’ Roses. On to Paihia.