John and Clare's New Zealand Adventure

24 degrees, cloudy

We had lunch booked in the Sky City Tower for 1 pm today which rather tied up the whole day, but as we were feeling a bit despondent and weren’t in the mood for too much excitement we decided to do some laundry so that we are ready for a fresh start in the South Island.   Our first experience of a public laundry which turned out to be fine – no arguments about using the machines or washing trolleys!

At 12 o’clock we went to the Sky City Tower up to floor 51 for the lookout platform and went up a floor to the 360 degree Orbit restaurant for lunch which was an excellent meal.  During the meal bodies kept flying past outside as we passed the area where the fools who had paid $250 to jump off the tower in a harness leapt.  Rather them than us.

John perusing the menu

After lunch we went a bought ourselves a larger suitcase; we’re fed up with cramming stuff into our current suitcases as we seem to have accumulated some extra bits and pieces and can’t take too many bags with us on our flight to Christchurch.  Now we have the problem of what to do with the smaller suitcase we bought with us (might send John out to find a needy street person tomorrow!)

At about 10.15 pm we went up to the Club Lounge for a great view of the Sky City Tower fireworks at midnight.  All very civilised with food and wine on tap.  The fireworks weren’t the most spectacular (Chatelus do a better showing!) but Auckland is the first major city in the world to celebrate the New Year so it was quite special.  Unfortunately we did not manage to get any decent photos of the display.

Sent Happy New Year wishes to everyone and went to bed at 1 pm.

 

25 degrees, Sunny

Called home after breakfast to be given the very sad news that our lovely Doogie died on the 28th (UK time).  Can’t say how upsetting this is for everyone.  He appeared to be in good health when we left after a nasty scare in late November, so we were hopeful that he would still be around on our return.  Unfortunately he took a turn for the worse and we had to let him go.  Devastated that we couldn’t be there with him but thankfully Peter and Dad were.  This is how we’ll remember him, mucky and pleased with himself and very chilled

So feeling very low we took the ferry over to Devonport on the other side of the bay to our hotel.  Again a very pleasant town with lovely housing and public places but a bit short on things to see!  Climbed the North Head lookout point and saw the Disappearing Gun and tunnels (a cannon that recoiled into the ground – never fired in anger though). Not much else to see other than the site where a family were murdered in the late 19th Century and where their murderer was hung – that’s scraping the barrel a bit for a tourist sight.

View of Auckland from Devonport

Spent the rest of the day quietly in our room.

24 degrees, partly cloudy

Left Paihia in the morning heading towards Auckland, stopping at Whangerei  for coffee on the way.  Another nice town with pleasant harbour area.  Arrived in Auckland at about 3 pm and found our hotel fairly easily.  We’re in the Grand Millennium in the central business district.  Whilst we haven’t exactly been slumming it in our hotels this far, this particular hotel is particularly nice.  Somehow, no idea how, we are in a Club Room which gives us entry to the club lounge with free drinks and food between 5 & 7pm each night – essentially an evening meal for free which is brilliant for our budget!

We dropped the car off at about 4 pm having covered 4000 kilometres in the last 20 days.  Another piece of good fortune as the hire company volunteered to waive the $80 fee for returning the car a couple of hours late – never thought Avis had it in them – so two great results today.

After dinner we went for a walk around Auckland to the harbour front  and it appears to be a typically tidy, clean New Zealand city.

26 degrees, sunny

Took a drive up to the Northland Peninsular today to see 90 mile beach (really only about 90km, but that’s still pretty long).  The journey to the tip of New Zealand at Cape Reinga would have taken about 3 hours so we decided just to go a quarter of the way up the road and get onto the beach just to get an idea of it’s size.  On the way Mrs Crow was navigating so we took a right turn too early (only by about 24km!) and ended driving up the KariKari Peninsular but didn’t realise we were driving the wrong peninsular until we run out of road!

Eventually reached the correct road and drove to the beach which was very impressive,  90 kilometres of hard packed sand and dunes.

After a picnic in the dunes we drove over to the other side of the peninsular where the scenery was completely different with protected inlets with stunning blues and greens in the water

Getting a bit low on fuel on the way home, but didn’t pass a single fuel station until we reached the station next door to our apartment block with 11km left in the tank according to the gauge!

 

 

27 degrees, sunny

Up at 6.30 am to catch our 8.00 am Dolphin cruise.  Lovely sunny morning but a cool stiff breeze on the ocean.  We had paid extra to swim with the Dolphins if the conditions were right, but Clare was a little unsure and not just because the water temperature at that time of the morning was only 19 degrees.

After a fruitless 2 hours tearing about the Bay of Islands there was no sign of dolphins but the coastal scenery was lovely with many islands and sheltered beaches.  The Captain eventually said that a pod of Orcas had been spotted in the bay which explains why the dolphins had made themselves scarce.  Right, we said, thinking this was his standard cock & bull story when dolphins can’t be found.  But about 1/2 later we found the pod of Orcas – only 4 of them though (bit of a pattern developing here?) – hunting sting ray in the shallows.  We spent about 40 minutes following them back and forth but didn’t really get particularly close up view of them.  So the decision regarding whether to swim or not was not required – very disappointed not to see Dolphins,  Again, Clare was expecting dozens of them cavorting in the bow wave and flipper waving for the cameras.

Back on land at 12.30 so after lunch spent a couple of hours on the beach and a swim – water temperature marginally higher by now.

26 degrees, sunny

We have left a trail of personal items across New Zealand during our travels.  When leaving Napier the housekeeper came running after us with our iPad which has a white case and had been left on the white duvet.  Whilst unpacking yesterday Clare discovered that her white jacket was not in the suitcase – again left it on the white duvet on the bed in Hamilton and then we discovered that John’s sunglasses had been left in the old hire car, that’s on top of the usual toiletries left in bathrooms.  We contacted the Novotel in Hamilton who said that a ‘child’s jacket’ had been found in the room – result in more ways than one!  it’s being sent on to our hotel in Auckland, but the sunglasses will have to be replaced.

As it was a lovely sunny but breezy day we took the ferry across the bay to Russell which is one of the original settlements in this area with the oldest church in New Zealand, but not much else.

After finding a new pair of sunglasses for John, we wandered over to the other side of the headland to Long Beach which was a lovely stretch of sand sheltered from the wind.  We walked the length of it but hadn’t bought our swimwear so, frustratingly as it was lovely, couldn’t go for a swim.

Spent the afternoon on the beach outside our apartment, a quick swim in the quite cold sea and another walk after dinner – another 8 mile day.

22 degrees, am sunny (bit of a surprise). pm rain and wind

Christmas day started bright and calm which was a pleasant surprise as the forecast had said rain all day.  We exchanged presents over Bucks Fizz breakfast of yoghurt and fruit for Clare and piece of toast for John!  Clare was lucky enough to be given a new Fitbit watch, (how did he know!?) and John got a CD and we both had a lovely 2019 calendar of himself from Dylan.

Went for walk in the sunshine along the coast, now we can actually see the sea without the drenching rain.  Quite pretty but on the whole we prefer Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsular.  Booked a swim with the Dolphins cruise for Thursday and then strolled further along the coast and then rain suddenly came from nowhere and that was it for the day.

Had Steak and Jacket potatoes for Christmas dinner, lot less hassle than the full roast!

19 degrees, rain, rain and more rain

Packed up and left the Novotel by 10.30 heading towards Paihia on the Bay of Islands for 4 days for Christmas.  Rain was lashing down.

At 10.40 John noticed a ‘check engine’ light on the dashboard which was a bit worrying as were were off on a 5 hour journey.  So we found the Avis rentacar office in Hamilton and limped there, fortunately just 2 minutes away.  They swapped the car quite readily and we now have a Toyota Corolla instead of our very dirty Holden Cruz which was very much in need of a clean, so every cloud . . . !  Unfortunately the new car doesn’t have satnav and we miss our quirky satnav voice in a kiwi accent mispronouncing street names and telling us to ‘drive on TOSH 1’ instead of ‘drive on to SH (state highway) 1’!  Kept us amused for hours.

The long drive up to Paihia took just over 7 hours in the end, what with the car delay and the driving rain so got to Sea Spray apartments by 6 pm.  Thankfully the supermarket was open till 9 so managed to get our last minute fresh food for Christmas dinner before a light meal and bed.

It was still raining!

24 degrees, overcast

We left Taupo reluctantly – really nice place and we could have spent at week or so there. We reached Hamilton by about 11.30 which was too early for our hotel room to be ready so we stopped at Hamilton Gardens.  A Kiwi lady we met at Tongariro recommended these, and what a find.

There was no charge to park or entry fee into these beautiful formal gardens which outstrip anything we’ve seen in the UK.  There were 16 or so gardens laid out in different styles ranging from English Flower Garden to Japanese, Tropical,  Tudor and Conceptual.  They were all stunning but the best one was the Mansfield Garden based on a scene from a novel by Katherine Mansfield – set in an English country house garden.  The planting was stunning and the attention to detail for the scene setting was perfect.

In the Chinese garden we passed through the Arbour of Lingering Fragrance, which was an awful lot nicer than the Bog of Eternal Stench we passed through yesterday.

We spent a good couple of hours here along with some strange oriental people!  One couple were taking photos of the woman in various poses in each garden almost as though she was a model and another young lady, wandering around with her partner, had a white painted face like a Geisha, complete with a pointy straw hat to keep the sun off.

Popped round to a supermarket to get our Christmas day supplies.  The supermarket was surprisingly empty!   Did some laundry at the hotel laundry so now all set for a relaxing Christmas Day and Boxing Day, just got to travel another 4 hours up to Paihia tomorrow.

24 degrees, sunny

Got up early (for us!) to head up to Wai-o-Tapu geothermal park to catch the 10.15 eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser.  Arrived after about 3/4 drive and took a seat in the amphitheatre set up around the geyser, pronounced Guyser apparently.

To get it to erupt at the same time every day they pour soap down its funnel and within a few minutes the water comes spurting out, up to 20 metres high.  It didn’t fail this time.

After that we walked around the Wai-o-Tapu geothermal park which was quite a bit bigger than the Hells Gate one in Rotorua.  The thermal pools were very colourful due to various elements in the soil/water.

Needless to say there was a very strong smell of sulphur at times.

Evening meal in hotel restaurant again and watched the summer solstice sunset over the lake