Forbes Family Blog: New Zealand Part 1

Letter No. 231

Dear all,

On 23 December we went for our traditional pre-Christmas trip to the Dog beach at Currumbin to give Molly a little holiday before we departed on ours. She really loves going to the beach although she still doesn’t like getting out of her depth in the water. We had Christmas Drinks at our friends the Grahams on Christmas Eve followed by our traditional roast turkey family dinner at home with all the proper trimmings. We ended up staying at the drinks much longer than intended so had a much later than intended dinner, but it was nice all the same.

We spent Christmas Day at Lisa & Andrew’s and as usual it was a busy day with all of Andrew’s extended family. We opened our presents to each other at home over breakfast then went to Lisa and Andrew’s house for morning tea to open presents with them and my parents and then over to Andrew’s parent’s house for a long leisurely Christmas lunch with 14 adults and 16 children! On Boxing Day we hit the sales for a while before going to drinks with our dear friends the Brodies. We also packed up ready for our trip to New Zealand the next day.

NEW ZEALAND’S NORTH ISLAND – Waiheke Island, Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula and Hamilton

On Sunday 27 Dec we woke up at 3am to get to the airport by 4am. Our flight to Auckland was at 6:10am. The trip was to explore New Zealand’s North Island over a couple of weeks, starting at Auckland and departing from Wellington, with seven different stops in between. We arrived about midday New Zealand time and headed straight to Auckland harbour for a ferry to Waiheke Island. It was a 40-minute fast catamaran trip to the island and we were at our hotel by 2.30pm. We loved Waiheke; it was a very relaxing and lovely holiday island with lots of wineries and art. We stayed at the beautiful and newly renovated Kiwi House hotel only a few minutes’ walk from the beach. The little town is Oneroa, which has the best beach on Waiheke Island (nice but not a patch on Straddie) and also a great ice cream shop and lots of shoppe shops. After sampling the beach and the ice creams we strolled on to the Cable Bay winery which Katie described as one of the most beautiful wineries she had ever been to. It was both modern and traditional at the same time. We tried some wines and shared a bottle of rosé along with an enormous sharing platter of cheeses, salads and gourmet nibbles for dinner. Afterwards we went outside to sit on the grass and watch the sun slowly set over the spectacular views of Auckland in the distance.

The next day I went for a nice run along they headland overlooking the beach first thing, then we caught the bus over to Onetangi beach which is the longest beach on Waiheke Island. We went for a walk along the beach, had a swim (although the water was far too cold for Jessie and Katie) and had a quick coffee at Charlie Farley’s beach café. We caught the bus back via a brewery where we sampled cider, lager, bitter, stout and ginger ale and then a couple of wineries. It is the first wine tasting I have been on when I was not driving or had only a limited time so it was a very relaxing day. Top Knot winery had games for the kids to play while we sampled the wine and we all played Bowls there and then had lunch. Stoneyridge winery up the hill was another favourite with a great deck overlooking the olive grove and vineyards on a perfect and sunny afternoon. All very pleasant. We caught the bus back to our apartment for a little rest and then had dinner in Oneroa Bay again.

On Tuesday 29Dec we all got up early and went for a run before breakfast. We ran over to the other side of Waiheke Island and along the bay on the other side. At the point where we are staying the island is only about 500m wide and from the balcony you can see the sea in both directions. We ran around the headland and along the next bay before turning back. On the way back we found a track that went over the top of the headland so we went that way for the view and eventually found our way back. Katie hasn't run for some time as she had sprained her knee about six weeks ago but held up fairly well. We packed up after breakfast and a shower and headed back down to the ferry terminal, a bit sad to leave after two perfect days on Waiheke.

There were splendid views of the City of Sails as we sailed into the harbour; a great way to arrive. We had a great two-bedroom apartment for our three days in Auckland. We went to the Auckland Skytower first. It is 328m tall and is the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere, according to Matt. The uppermost viewing deck is at 220m on level 60. The views are spectacular. We spent more than an hour up there and had afternoon tea in the café, watching people do the Skyjump, which looked extremely scary. There were sections of the floor on level 52 which were made of glass and were very intimidating to walk over. We walked back to our apartment by about 5:00pm, grabbed some groceries and had a night in our apartment watching a movie.

On Wednesday I went for an early morning run before the others were out of bed and did a recce to see how far it was to the Auckland Museum. It was a nice walking distance so we set off after breakfast. On the way we stopped at the Auckland Wintergarden. The Museum and Wintergarden are in an area called the Auckland Domain which is a large park very close to the city centre. The Wintergarden had two large glasshouses with many exotic flowers and plants. It was built and extended between 1905 and 1928. We went on to the museum which is housed in a beautiful old building on top of the hill overlooking the Domain. The museum has an excellent display of Pacific Island and Maori culture on the ground floor including a 25m long war canoe carved from a single tree which was very impressive. The first floor is devoted to the natural world and the top floor focuses on New Zealand at war. I was surprised to learn that in WWI, one in every five adult New Zealand males was in the armed forces, the highest ratio across the Commonwealth. In the UK it was only one in seven.

Our favourite bit of the museum was the section on volcanoes. Auckland is built on top of a volcano that last erupted 600 years ago. There was a very realistic interactive exhibit where you sat in an armchair as if you were in a house overlooking the bay and watching the TV in your own lounge room. You watch a fake news broadcast showing scenes of Auckland being evacuated due to earthquake tremors and fear of an eruption. The room moves and floor shakes occasionally. The view over the balcony ominously changes as steam appears in the harbour and announcer solemnly tells viewers that the volcano is definitely erupting. Suddenly the TV goes blank, the power fails and the room shakes terribly. Everything goes dark, a plume of ash clouds and lava appears in the middle of the harbour and the ash cloud approaches your apartment at great speed. It was very realistic. We stayed at the museum much longer than we meant to and then had lunch in the park.

That evening we wandered around the Wynyard Quarter which is full of funky bars and restaurants. We had a jug of sangria whilst watching the boats in the harbour before dinner and then a Mexican meal. We decided to book another restaurant for New Year’s Eve the following night, with views of both the Auckland SkyTower and Auckland Harbour Bridge. We were amazed to still get a table!

Thursday was New Year’s Eve. I went for a run in a different direction and ended up in a lovely park nearby. Auckland is quite hilly and the park very steep so I got a good workout going up and down the hills. We decided to have a more relaxing day today and split up and do a bit of shopping in the Christmas sales. I found a massive record store which had an enormous amount of vinyl records and even tapes for sale and had a wander around for ages. It had lots of interesting and quirky things. We were meeting again at the park near the Auckland Art Gallery for lunch. I had a quick look around the gallery but much of the modern “art” seemed to have been painted by autistic two-year-olds. Luckily the best four art pieces were in the reception so I pointed them out to the others when they arrived and told them not to bother with the rest.

We caught a bus to the other side of town to pick up our hire car. We were quite surprised to discover it was across the road from the AECOM office which I had been to a few years ago. We drove around to Devonport for the afternoon. It is an attractive suburb on the north shore of the Auckland peninsula. It was one of the earliest areas of European settlement and has a bit of a 19^th-century atmosphere with its well preserved Victorian and Edwardian buildings, afternoon tea at grand hotels and a nice pier and promenade. There were more spectacular views of Auckland CBD across the water but Katie and the kids were more interested in the little shoppe shops and then we had High Tea and cakes at the beautiful pub on the waterfront before driving back to our apartment.

We went down to the harbour front for our New Year’s Eve dinner. It was an Italian restaurant and had a very nice set menu. We stretched dinner out until 11:30pm between rounds of cards before going out onto the wharf with all the other restaurant guests. The restaurant next door had a groovy band so danced on the wharf and we had a great view of the Auckland Skytower which had fireworks at midnight. The band at the adjacent restaurant also had its own fireworks. Towards the end of the official display one firework from the band went astray and there were lots of screams and smoke and a firework exploded on the ground in the crowd. Jessica and Katie were quite close but not hurt but two girls were slightly burned and we saw them later with ice packs on their legs. After midnight it was chaos in the city and the traffic was gridlocked so we walked back to our apartment up the steep hill and didn’t get back until 1am.

We had to check out of our apartment on Friday morning by 10am. We had planned to go to Mt Eden lookout but unfortunately it had started to rain and we couldn't see the end of the car bonnet through the windscreen so we didn't bother. We drove 236km to our third destination, Hahei Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. We had been planning to go for a hike to Cathedral Cove that afternoon but it was still very rainy so we decided not to. We spent the afternoon doing a jigsaw puzzle of the world that Matt found in the lounge room of our new accommodation. We had a meal in that night which was a pleasant change after several nights out.

Saturday 2 January was very wet. We had planned on doing some walks but instead we went to Whitianga, which is the city (more of a town actually) of the Coromandel Peninsula. It was only a short drive and then a ferry ride over a little river to the town. We wandered around looking at the harbour, beach and shops. It was constantly raining and only Katie and I had proper waterproof jackets. We had managed to get the kids emergency ponchos but they were not very good. We bought a good waterproof jacket for Jess but didn’t find a good one for Matthew for another few days so he had to make do with the plastic poncho. We had lunch at a nice sushi restaurant before heading back to Hahei. We decided to do a walk to Cathedral Cove despite the continuing bursts of heavy rain. It was a lovely half hour hike through the forest down to the beach. There is a gigantic arched cavern which separates two adjacent beaches that you can walk through at low tide, hence the name Cathedral Cove. It was very spectacular. Matthew and I decided to go for a swim as there were quite a few people in the water and it wasn’t too cold. The surf was very rough and made us a bit nervous so we didn't stay in long though. Afterwards we showered off in a natural waterfall which cascaded down the limestone cliffs at the other end of the beach. The rain and wind really set in for the walk back and we discovered that all our coats, while water resistant, were not actually fully waterproof. The person who was driest was Matthew in his $3 poncho! Katie had a major sense of humour failure when we got back to the car but the kids and I thought it was fun.

After a stop back at the apartment to dry off, the kids and I went on to Hot Water Beach. Katie's humour had still not returned so she didn’t join us. Thermal waters brew just below the sand at low tide. The idea is that you find a hot spot and dig a hole which fills with hot water for your own little natural spa. We arrived just before low tide about 7:30pm. There were lots of people already there and some had made really large and shallow holes that could fit 30 people. People were constantly coming and going so we just jumped in one of these when someone left. We stayed for nearly an hour. You needed to constantly reinforce your hole against the incoming tide. When you lay down there were spots where almost boiling water was coming out and you burnt your bottom, but other spots were lukewarm. The trick was to find a happy medium. It was difficult to get totally covered and, as it was still raining heavily, you had to try and keep your top side warm as well. It was really fun.

On Sunday 3 January we had to leave the rainy beaches and head off to rainy Hamilton. It was about an hour and a half drive. We went straight to our apartment and had lunch before going out again. We went to the Hamilton Botanic Gardens. We had to view them between brief bursts of rain but the weather was definitely starting to improve. Hamilton Gardens were voted the best international gardens in 2014. They had an area with lots of different styles of garden, all individually styled and with unique features, and the path took you through one after another. There was a fabulous Italian renaissance garden, an Indian garden complete with Taj Mahal-style temple, an English country garden, a Japanese relaxation garden, a Chinese garden with bamboo walk and red painted bridges, a fantasy garden with checkerboard planting and statues from Alice in Wonderland and so on. We had afternoon tea in the café, then to the local shopping mall to see the latest Star Wars movie. Jessie was a bit reluctant but we all enjoyed it. Afterwards we went to a weird fusion Middle Eastern restaurant which had the best Indian/Turkish/Greek food I have eaten in a restaurant in a long time. Happy tummies all round.

The next morning we drove to Waitomo to visit the famous caves. The whole region is riddled with limestone caves and we were visiting two of them. The first was the Glow Worm Cave. It has been known to the Maoris for a long time and there have been tours for tourists operating through the caves since 1889. It is a big cave with the usual assortment of stalactites and stalagmites which takes about 30 minutes to walk through before you come to a large underground river. You then get into rafts and drift down the river in complete darkness until you come to a huge dome area lit entirely with millions of little blue glow worms all over the roof of the cave. It was astoundingly beautiful. After about 15 minutes in the boat, you exit the cliff and hike back up to the start. We had a quick hike up to a lookout point before a short drive on to the Aranui Cave. There is no river in this cave and hence no glow worms, but there are thousands of tiny straw stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Photography was permitted in this cave as there were no glow worms so we got lots of good photos.

On our way back to Hamilton we stopped at the Otorohanga Kiwi House. The kiwi is New Zealand’s iconic national bird and this is the largest kiwi conservation house in New Zealand but we thought it was looking a little tired. We wandered around and looked at all the birds and went into the nocturnal exhibit to try to see a kiwi bird but they were all sleeping in their burrows. It was all a bit disappointing until we went back to the nocturnal house at feeding time 30 minutes later. There was a very cute Greater Spotted Kiwi out looking for insects in the leaf mulch. The enclosure had very low light as the birds are nocturnal but we could see “Atu” really clearly. She obviously had a really strong bond with her keeper Louise. When Louise came into the enclosure Atu was actually jumping up and down with excitement and then kept coming over to her and holding onto her trousers and sitting on Louise’s lap so that she had to stay in there longer and stroke her. It was so adorable. Apparently Atu doesn’t like all of the keepers though and will deliver strong Ninja kicks to any of the keepers she doesn’t like. We were lucky to see a Kiwi bird at all as the others are much shyer and usually wait until the crowd had gone down before coming out to feed so we didn’t see the Brown kiwi or the Lesser Spotted variety. We bought a soft toy kiwi to take home for Molly to play with.

Cheers, Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica and Molly.