Auckland and Goodbye to New Zealand

Auckland is New Zealand's biggest city, so we were expecting a lot. When we looked at things to do "in" Auckland, it seemed that most suggestions were for things that were technically outside of Auckland. We quickly learned that this was good advice -- central Auckland is just not that exciting. We suspect that has a lot to do with the impact of Covid and a whole bunch of construction, which makes it seem like a bit of a ghost town right now, with many empty storefronts, especially when you get away from the waterfront.

On our first day in Auckland, and our last day with a car until we get to California in February (to my great delight), we drove north and stopped for a walk on a beautiful beach called (of all things) Omaha Beach.

We then visited a place called Sculptureum, which houses the private collection of a New Zealand art collector and his wife. It turned out to be a really nice stop in part because the collectors have a very broad definition of what qualifies as art, and it was fun to see some really famous artists alongside things that can be bought in any glass-blowing studio (for example). The outdoor sculpture gardens were particularly enjoyable.

After the Sculptureum, we grabbed some lunch before heading back to Auckland. While at lunch we witnessed a truly epic rainstorm, which seemed to come a bit out of nowhere. Apparently, such changes in weather are not that uncommon. I was just glad I did not have to drive in it.

Of course, we had to see the couple of museums worth seeing in Auckland. The Art Gallery was fine, but nothing really stood out as spectacular. But, the Auckland War Memorial Museum was impressive. First, the museum sits in the middle of a giant park slightly outside the center of the city. On the walk up to the site, we saw these incredible old trees:

The museum is housed in a very cool building (sorry no photo), but the best part was the collection. Unfortunately, the museum is so huge and has so many sections, that it is really impossible to see everything in a day. We spent a lot of our time in the section on Maori history, which included traditional Maori meeting houses with amazing carvings:

We also were able to fill in a lot of the blanks about the history of New Zealand after the signing of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which is considered the country's founding document. Amazingly, we learned that in the 1850's a British judge declared the treaty "a nullity", but the country has, through a long process, come around to an interpretation of the treaty, which has allowed it to have a better relationship between its indiginous and white settler citizens than most countries colonized by Europeans. We really found this history very interesting.

There is also a large war memorial/museum within the museum. New Zealand was disproportionately involved (based on population) in the British Empire's many wars. Even its Maori population served significantly in the wars of the 20th century.

On our final day in New Zealand, we once again got out of the city by taking a ferry to Waiheke Island, which is only 40 minutes from Auckland, but felt to us like a mini Hawaii. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Auckland looked beautiful from the ferry as we left.

Once on the island, we rented e-bikes, which we had never used before, but which were perfect for getting around the hilly island. We saw many beautiful beaches, stopped for brunch in a little cafe and later made it around to a couple of wineries for tastings. 

The wine was really good so it was helpful that we knew we couldn't buy any right before our departure from New Zealand. We ended the day with some gelato, and returned the bikes while barely breaking a sweat (literally). I am definitely an e-bike convert, especially when the terrain requires that little boost of power.

That wraps up our 26 days in New Zealand. We loved it! If you visit New Zealand, we recommend focusing on its natural beauty and things to do in nature, as the cities definitely deserve less of your time. Also, we have to say that we found the Kiwis to be genuinely friendly and helpful, and they definitely add to the many reasons to visit. We hope we will be returning very soon.

Now, on to Vietnam.

This will be our last post of 2022. We have been very fortunate in our travels this year and are looking forward to exploring new places in 2023. We wish you all good health, joy and adventure in the new year.

Ciao,

Jeff and Shana

North Island Highlights: Wellington, Rotorua, and Taraunga

After more than 2 weeks exploring the South Island, we took a ferry from Picton to Wellington. It was a rainy and foggy day so there wasn’t much to see along the way, which was disappointing because we knew that on a clear day the scenery would be amazing. Instead of sitting outside, we found a quiet inside corner and caught up on some reading. The view leaving Picton was lovely and here’s a photo of another ferry with lots of camper vans packed on to the deck. (People love traveling around NZ in camper vans, which seems cost-efficient but is definitely not our style.)

We had mostly gloomy weather in Wellington, so we don’t have many photos to share from our less than 48 hours there. Our activities included walking along the waterfront and visiting Te Papa Tongarewa / Museum of New Zealand. There is a terrific art collection, including many Māori artists, along with various cultural displays about Māori customs. During our time in NZ we enjoyed learning about Māori history and the evolution of the relationship between the Māori tribes and the government. NZ has done better than most countries with its indigenous population, but the historic mistreatment is still abhorrent.

From Wellington we flew to Rotorua. For Hobbit/Lord of the Rings fans, the airport terminal in Wellington has two giant eagles, one being ridden by Gandalf, made by Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop. Pretty cool.

Rotorua, on the central eastern coast of the North Island, is well known as a geothermal region filled with geysers and hot pools. Our visit to Te Puia included a tour of the Māori Arts and Craft Institute, where we saw woodworkers in action, and a visit to the Kiwi Conservation Center, the only place we saw Kiwi birds -- the symbol of New Zealand. They are shy and nocturnal flightless birds that are difficult to encounter in the wild. The steaming geyser, which is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere was impressive even if we did not see it  erupt.

We had one really packed day that started with a soak in the hot pools at the Polynesian Spa. We continued to Waimangu Volcano Valley to walk through the otherworldly landscape created by a massive 1886 volcanic eruption (the volcano, now not active, is in the bottom right photo below), and see the ongoing volcanic activity in the area (yes, the water in the second photo is practically boiling -- really cool). We finished the day on stand-up paddle boards exploring caves with glowworms within. It was a super interesting and fun-filled day. And, since the clouds cleared during our tour, we got our first really good look at a clear New Zealand night, and the amazing stars of the Southern Hemisphere.

On our way to Auckland, we stopped in Taraunga, a small coastal city where we hiked up Mount Maunganui. The very steep climb up was worth it for the views.

As you can see, NZ’s scenery continues to amaze us. We’re almost done with our NZ sojourn, but are already plotting to return soon.

Happy trails,

Shana & Jeff

PS – while in Auckland we watched an amazing documentary on Netflix recommended by my sister about one of NZ’s volcanoes – Whakaari / White Island, which erupted in 2019 and is in the Bay of Plenty, not that far from Taraunga. It was fascinating. 

Around the South Island

Our final week on the South Island was a bit crazy. We drove a ton, took a cross-country train, and stayed in four different places. Nonetheless, we continued to enjoy the beauty of New Zealand.

Our week started with a drive from Queenstown to Dunedin (pronounced du-nee-din) on the east coast of the country. On the drive we stopped at the only official curing rink in the Southern Hemisphere; seriously, the week after we were there, the rink hosted a match of the Australian national team. We enjoyed learning about how to play curling, but with just the two of us, it was essentially a big game of shuffleboard. By the end, we were cold, but had gotten the hang of the game.

In Dunedin, we stayed at a farm, which had many animals including sheep and alpaca, but the cutest by far were the ducklings (there were 11!), who liked to converge together in a pile of cuteness.

Dunedin has some interesting architecture and many large murals on buildings but overall was not all that interesting, yet its location on the Otago peninsula in a deep inlet off the Pacific Ocean is spectacular.

We visited the Orokonui Ecosanctuary, which is a place that is trying to protect the native plants and wildlife of New Zealand. It turns out that most of what we are seeing as we travel around are invasive species of plants and animals brought by both European settlers and, to a lesser degree, the Maori people who arrived in the early 14th century. Some of the biggests pests are the rats, stoats and possums brought by Europeans, which have decimated many of the country's flightless birds. Orokonui is trying to bring back the native ecosystem, including the Takahe, which is basically a big, blue chicken.

We were fortunate to be there late in the day, with very few people around because the Takahe tend to be shy birds, but we were able to see all four of the ones in this part of the park, and observed them for several minutes.

We also saw several other native birds including the Bellbird (on the left below) and the Tui, the latter of which makes clicks and whistles that sound like R2-D2. It is very strange.

We took a walk through a forested area that contained only native species of plants, and is a good example of what New Zealand would have looked like 1000 years ago.

Continuing the theme of animals, which has really dominated our visit to Austalia and New Zealand, we took a tour to see the very rare (and very shy) yellow-eyed penguins. Unfortunately, we did not see these animals. But, the tour was not a total loss as we did see several Blue Penguins in their huts (you have to look carefully in the photo) and some playful fur seals.

In addition, the location of our tour was an absolutely gorgeous beach on the long penninsula that is the inlet where Dunedin is built.

On the same day we took our penguin tour, we went to see the beautiful, but hard to access Tunnel Beach. On the way is this fantastic rock formation.

The beach is small and peaceful, and there was a seal lazing on one of the rocks (black blob on the left in the picture below). Getting there and back was a bit harrowing as the tunnel to the beach is quite narrow and low.

After leaving Dunedin, we drove back to Queenstown and caught a flight to Christchurch. After an overnight there, we caught the Transalpine train, which crosses the southern Alps to the west coast city of Greymouth. Although the trip was really beautiful, we have to admit that it did not have quite the "wow" factor that we were expecting; maybe it is because the mountains are just not that high. Still it was a very pleasant journey.

Greymouth itself was not too interesting, but after a night there, we set off on a long drive to the northeast side of the island -- a town called Blenheim in the Marlborough wine region. Our first stop along the way was a really cool spot along the west coast called the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks (you can see why particularly in the bottom picture below).

Our second stop was at the longest swinging bring in New Zealand. Set over a beautiful river, the bridge seems sturdy, but it moves quite a bit, and you can see through it below your feet. I admit, it was a bit tough to cross, but we made it and enjoyed a nice nature walk on the other side before braving the bridge again.

When we arrived in Blenheim, we had just enough time to go to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Center, which contains many examples of planes from WWI and WWII (we only had time for the WWI section) -- both original and full-scale models. The Center is supported by Peter Jackson (director of the LOTR movies) whose special effects center has provided extremely life-like manequins for some of the scenes depicted there. For example, the final flight of The Red Baron:

In addition, the Center houses several planes and life-size models of planes from his personal collection. This plane looks more like a flying boat with its sail-like wings. It did not have a long career in the war, but looks very cool.

This small museum in the middle of New Zealand has ended up with a lot of memorabilia related to aviation in WWI thanks to Jackson, and it was really interesting seeing what they had, and reading some of the stories around this relatively small part of the war. One of the most interesting things to me was the number of different planes that flew in WWI. It was a time of a lot of experimentation with many people on both sides trying to come up with the best combat plane.

The Marlborough region is New Zealand's biggest wine region so, of course, we had to do a wine-tasting tour. We chose to do a bicycle tour that had us with a guide in the morning, and on our own in the afternoon. We had beautiful weather, and really enjoyed tasting and riding, although we definitely felt a bit limited in how many tastings we could do while still remaining upright on our bicycles. (Yes, that's a vintage scooter at one of the wineries, not the bikes we rode.)

Finally, we note that we have now reached the part of New Zealand that has a much larger Maori influence, especially the North Island. In our hotel in Blenheim, the owner had left a deck of cards with Maori vocabulary. The language, which is definitely related to Hawaiian, seems as difficult to learn as Euskera.

And that was our crazy last week on the South Island. On to Wellington.

Ka kite wawe koe (see you soon).

Jeff and Shana