Arriving in New Zealand

-


We arrived in New Zealand 3 months ago today, we didn't have much of a plan, we still don't really. 

 Upon arriving we were expecting interrogation-level questioning by New Zealand Immigration, other than having a quick look in our bags after we declared muddy shoes they sent us on our way with minimal fuss.

Our first outing took us to the Auckland Museum where we took in the eye-opening 'Are We There Yet?' exhibit, the wonderful Māori displays including Hotunui, a full size meeting house and a rushed look around the WW1 & WW2 galleries a bit too close to closing time!






  
We booked onto a walking tour of downtown Auckland where we met Liz, a knowledgeable and friendly local, who gave us a fantastic introduction to the city, its history and some of the hidden gems. The tour ended with a tip about the best fish and chips in Auckland which would have been rude to ignore!

 The day after our mini-tour of Auckland it was time to pick up our campervan, we headed to the Auckland depot to collect our home for the next 10 weeks. The paint job of this van was interesting...



Amy, happy to be back on the correct side of the road, drove us to lunch then headed out of Auckland towards the north and our first night in the company of the creepy baby paint job on the van. Our first night was much colder than we were expecting, luckily we had grabbed a few spare blankets at the depot so were snug as bugs in rugs inside the van. 

The cold weather had brought one crucial thing in particular to our attention, we didn't have a kettle! This was resolved almost immediately with a visit to a marine shop at the harbour where we had camped.

Whilst on Whangaparaoa peninsula we visited Shakespear Park, a pest-free wildlife and Kiwi refuge which was surrounded by a pest-proof fence, entering the park required driving through Jurassic Park style double gates. The park was also surrounded by coastline, down at Te Haruhi Bay we spotted some endangered Dotterels whilst walking along the beach.


 
Our second night in the van was when we realised, with an amount of panic, that campsites are priced per person rather than per pitch. After a cold, wet and surprisingly expensive night we tried to make the most of the site by taking one of the short hikes, we hadn't even made it halfway up the first hill before we had to abandon the plan due to USA summer footwear not being up the the task of swamp-trekking! The weather did not let up and so after a shopping trip for essentials (namely, gumboots aka wellies) we managed to find a free camping area in between a beach and a playground.



After another visit to a bird sanctuary (complete with surfers), another night camping by the sea and yet more muddy walks we made it to Waipu caves (pronounced why poo) which promised free camping and glow worms. Happily it delivered on both, in the evening we took a look around the entrance to the cave, only 10 meters in we looked up to find an amazing display of glowworms high on the roof of the cave. In the morning we ventured deeper into the cave following an underground stream until it disappeared into the abyss and found even more worms glowing brightly.



After our caving adventure we drove over to Whangarei and camped at Whangarei Falls, we expected a hike to see them but it turned out the falls are right next to the road! 


By this time we'd received a lot of messages from HelpX hosts asking for our help, we'd agreed to visit an English couple for dinner to discuss a possible stay as we still had the campervan. Little did we know that dropping by for dinner would turn into a month-long stay on their smallholding helping with gardening and care of various animals, we got lots of ideas for our return to Devon, mostly chickens! 

 Next post - NZ North Island

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rockies

-
Image
We've done so much since the last post, this will be a big one, you might want to make a brew! We arrived at our accommodation at 0130 and had been travelling in the dark (and through thick fog) for hours. When we woke in the morning the first thing we did was open the blinds to check the view, we were not disappointed! First up was a visit to the local grocery store to gather supplies, we found a sub that could have fed us for the week After shopping we headed over to Banff to explore the town a little, the weather really turned against us so we did some soggy sightseeing of Bow Falls and a wet walk around Fenlands during which we saw a beaver (and didn't get eaten by bears!) Bow Falls in the rain Bow Falls Fenlands in the rain The next day we had a lot planned, we started with a visit to Cave and Basin which was the starting point of National Parks Canada when a natural hot water spring was discovered and became a huge attraction, the gover
Read more

The Plan!

-
Image
Hello and welcome! This blog is to keep you all updated on where we are, and what we are doing - with some photographic evidence along the way. As many of you are aware we have been planning this for several years now and have been talking about it almost nonstop (sorry, not sorry)! We have discussed at length everything from which type of bag to use (old suitcases or new clever rucksacks - spoiler alert - we went shopping today) to how scared we should be of bears whilst pooping in the woods (very, apparently). After months of deliberation and changing our minds almost everyday we settled on the plan below. Stage 1 - Canada Fly to Toronto, 'av a gander at Niagara falls, catch a 3 day train to Jasper. Hire a car in Jasper, explore Banff National Park for a week or so, then hop back on the train for another couple of nights to get to Vancouver. From Vancouver we pick up our home for the next 2 1/2 months - courtesy of Escape Campervans. We will explore a little o
Read more

Fiji (Part 2)

-
Image
Our ride to Naqalia Lodge was a bumpy one, once we arrived we were given a wonderfully warm welcome by the family who run the resort. After introductions we were shown to our Bure which was only feet from the beautiful sandy beach and lapping waves, as good as the previous island was this felt like paradise!  After some lounging around in hammocks we ate lunch and then indulged our creative sides, Amy made a bracelet from shells and Mike wove a bookmark from palm leaves. Once our masterpieces were complete Mike took advantage of the free snorkeling trip to some nearby reefs whilst Amy returned to the hammock and her book. Later that evening after dinner we were invited to join some of the family for kava as they wished to formally welcome us to their home with a ceremony and songs, once the ceremony was over we relaxed, drank more kava and played some really fun games late into the night. In the morning we were excited, or nervous (depending
Read more