This past March/ April we had the opportunity to visit New Zealand, where my parents were living at the time during part of my dad's sabbatical. Wow, what an amazing country. We felt we could vacation there for months and still not have enough time. During our 16 days we just scratched the surface...
After a 13 hour, direct flight from SFO, we arrived in Auckland at 5:10 am on Easter Sunday. We got busted by a sniffing beagle for having fresh fruit in our carry-on, Jeremy's hiking boots got quarantined from the red caked mud a la Na'Pali Coast hike (the kiwis really don't want our US bugs) but we finally made it out to the curb where my parents were excitedly waiting (did i mention it was 5am?)
We drove into town and to my parent's apartment overlooking Auckland Harbor and they whipped up some porridge--mmm, comfort food from my childhood. Our first little excursion was 45 minutes from Auckland, where we enjoyed some beaches in the beautiful morning light.
Muriwai Beach, gannet colony--these birds migrate between here and Tasmania. They mate with one partner for life (aww...)
Muriwai waves
Black sand beach:
After we left this beach we stopped by Piha beach, and then headed back to the city. We got ready and went to church, then came home for a little nap before having a delicious lamb dinner. We went on a nice walk down around the harbor after dinner. The weather was so warm!
Monday we left early and hit this marine reserve for some snorkling. The fish were huge. Jeremy and my parents saw an enormous ray as well.
Goat Island
We stopped at a few beaches as we drove along the coast (at times getting lost on the convoluted side roads). This one was just north of where we snorkled.
Pakiri Beach
Mangawhei Heads
This bathroom in Kawakawa was designed and built by a famous architect--it was one of his post-retirement projects. Perfect place for an artistic pit stop.
We spent the evening in the Paihia/ Russell area before driving up to where we were staying. We also stopped for an awesome fish n chips dinner (our first of many on this trip).
Ferry to Russell, bay of islands area
Our final destination for the night was a farm, just north of Whangaroa. The farm where we stayed was gorgeous. It was full of antique furniture, and the beds were comfy.
In the morning we went on a little walk to take in our surroundings.
So green, even in NZ autumn!
Later we had a huge platter of berry pancakes for breakfast. The plan for this day was to take a sailboat out to the Cavalli Islands. Our skipper had warned us the night before that it would be stormy. He was right. It rained a little, but that wasn't bad. It was the size of the swell that posed the problem. Later that day we learned a sailboat like ours had sunk! As soon as we emerged from the protected bay, the swell picked up and our boat started diving up and down. My dad went to the bow for a crazy ride, and almost got thrown off a few times.
It wasn't too long until I started realizing that my dramamine was not going to work. The skipper said he had never had a passenger look so literally green. Let's just say the berry pancakes are not a good memory for me. I was miserable. We didn't make it the whole way to the Cavalli islands, and instead went to some closer ones. Jeremy had a great time. He went snorkling with my dad. After anchoring the boat in a calm area I felt a bit better. Our skipper soon sighted some dolphins and we slowly motored closer to where they were. We would see their fins pop up in different places every now and again. We were pleasantly surprised when we soon saw them swimming right by the side of the boat, and they popped their heads up to get a better look at us. It was awesome. I was so excited. So that made me feel better, and then getting some food back in my stomach made me feel better too. I think I ate a whole loaf of bread.
Sailboat to Cavalli Islands
Bottlenose Dolphins
After lunch we decided to get in the little row boat and row to the shore of the island. We found some beautiful sea urchin spines, and Jeremy and my dad snorkled. A french lady who was on the boat with us was obsessed with eating sea urchins. So she had my dad and Jeremy hunting for urchins--they pried them off the rocks etc by the handful, to the delight of this girl. After we got back to the boat she cracked some open for us to try. Disgusting. Just not at all tasty--like eating sea water mixed with dirt. True to form, my dad liked it. After we got back to shore we had a long drive back to Auckland, where we stayed at the apartment again for the night.
The next day we left early for the town of Raglan, home of some world famous surfing spots. My dad stayed in Auckland to work. As we neared Raglan it got more and more like Southern California. Hot and dry. As we were driving along the coast we turned a corner and I was lucky enough to see Jeremy's face when the vegetation opened up and he caught his first glimpse of the Manu Bay break. His eyes got wide and I think I saw his heart thump out of this chest. We drove straight to that spot, and were amazed there were only 3 people in the water. It was too good to be true though...a contest was going on so he couldn't get in the water (that's why it wasn't crowded). We moved on to the next break, Whale Bay. It was huge swell, and fast. We quickly drove back to town and found a surfboard to rent. Jeremy's board for the day cost 3x as much as our daily car rental rate. It was worth it though. We dropped Jeremy off at Whale Bay and then went to secure our lodgings for the night. We stayed at this place that had little cabins converted from railway cars. Quite unique! I felt like part of a boxcar children story. After putting in our deposit we went back down to Whale Bay where we watched Jeremy. Unfortunately I don't have still photos of that session--it was quite impressive. This break has a crazy bit close to some hidden rocks--if not careful people surf right into them. We watched a Venezuelan do just that. He had blood streaming down his leg. I was glad Jeremy was a smart, safe surfer and took off beyond that spot.
View of Raglan from where we stayed
View of Manu Bay (taken in evening) and cororuoy waves going on forever...
After Jeremy was finished at Whale Bay we went back to Manu Bay. The waves weren't as great, and it was SO crowded. Jeremy hopped in for a while and we watched. I was amazed at how aggressive people were at this spot. They were dropping in on each other, boards were crashing together. I would've loved to surf this spot if not for the people! Jeremy didn't stay long so we headed down to another beach where my mom and I rented body boards, and Jeremy body surfed. We had a blast. The girl who rented us our boards was obviously an American trying to have a New Zealand accent, and she was consciously throwing in as many Kiwi slang words she could think of. Strange.
The beach at Raglan where we body boarded.
After body boarding we cleaned up and headed into town for some dinner. We had snacked throughout the day, but never had a full lunch. We were STARVING!
View of Manu Bay--Jeremy took every opportunity to stop and look at this view.
We picked a restaurant right by the estuary and had fish n' chips again. It was a different kind of fish than before, and this one did come with about 3 leaves of greens for a salad! Health food, really. At the end of the meal when the server asked if we'd like dessert I replied, "no, thanks, I'm stuffed!" The words slipped out right before I remembered that this phrase has a completely different meaning in Britain and commonwealth countries. The server tried not to laugh but I heard her laughing and telling her co-workers...
After our lovely meal we walked around a bit before retiring in our caboose.
Estuary at dusk
The next day brought with it more surfing and body boarding. Jeremy surfed whale bay again and "Indicators." Indicators is this break that you can see from Whale Bay--it goes on forever. I filmed the same wave breaking for >1 1/2 minutes. After Jeremy had his fill we went back to town to return the board. We also grabbed a bite at a deli. I had my first sausage roll of the trip (when i was little living in Britain, my mom used to call me "silly sausage roll," I loved them so much. This sausage roll was disapointing. They put onion in it. A sausage roll can have absolutely no ingredients that can be interpreted as good for you, or it ruins it. After lunch, we headed back to the beach to body board.
The waves for body boarding were significantly bigger. My mom was eating it up! It was hilarious to watch her just go for it, and laugh her head off. I found that my swimsuit was a little big on me for this size wave and I battled with it to protect my privacy for most of the session. I had so much fun, though.
Jeremy surfing whale bay
After bodyboarding we took off back to Auckland. We wanted to try to meet my dad at a 10K race he was doing, and hopefully run it with him. I rinsed off and changed into my running clothes at the beach. Jeremy did a skillful change in the backseat as we approached Auckland.
As we were driving towards the park once downtown, we saw my dad walking to the race. Jeremy and I jumped out of the car and ran to meet him. I think he was surprised, and pleased to see us. The 10K was fun--great way to see the park and some nice views of Auckland. I don't think Jeremy felt the same way--he had surfed and body surfed all day and hadn't eaten for several hours. He was plum worn out. The awesome thing about this race was that it was $4, and included a post-race "sausage sizzle." That's right, we all ate sausages afterwards. There was also a raffle, in which Jeremy won a duffle bag. Perfect to take home our favorite NZ treats.
By this time we had identified several that we needed to bring home: crumpets, Oaty slices, and Malt crackers. Later on in the trip we added Tim Tam crunch to that list. Other items I had already resolved to bring home--hard to find or ridiculously expensive brit products I love.
That night we went back to the apartment and packed up our things to fly to the South Island early the next morning!
1 comment:
I am so happy to see you blogging about this trip - I have been wondering about it. It looks like it was AMAZING!
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