Wednesday 15 February 2017

The 400 dollar apple


The first two weeks in NZ have been great. The marathon flight was OK, Charlie spent most of the 28 hour's travel time watching the same episode of 'Gojetters' on constant rotation. When we stopped in Dubai to refuel and take on more passengers, an Australian woman got on the plane and observed Charlie eating crudités and hummus that Ed had diligently prepared for the journey. She commented "how healthy, that puts the rest of us to shame, that's mother of the year award stuff, that is!" to which Ed interjected "I think you'll find it's father of the year!"

However our smug middle class parenting came back to bite us on the arse when we arrived in Auckland to be fined $400 for inadvertently trying to smuggle a rogue apple into the country. Katie's sister sagely admonished us that had we been regular watchers of '24 hours in immigration' (or some such programme) we would not have been so lackadaisical about NZ's famously stringent bio security rules. This was the least auspicious start to our visit and certainly put a downer on our arrival. We panicked that our taxi wouldn't wait for us as we had been detained so long at immigration so we rushed out into the arrival hall without checking that the department for homeland security apple division had returned Katie's passport (which they had not). This was our next mistake. It's safe to say that our brains were pretty scrambled through lack of sleep. We headed to Kirsten's in Auckland and after a quick power nap felt much better and set off to explore our surroundings. We discovered a lovely beach at St Heliers where we investigated rock pools, sushi and coffee.

The next day we rode the local train to downtown Auckland and spent a delightful day hanging round the harbor area, we watched seaplanes and all manor of boats, got our faces painted in Maori warrior style 
Charlie is getting used to pulling faces to ruin/enhance our photos

(resisting the urge to have the full facial tattoos) and Charlie played for hours in a vast shallow paddling pool with three girls he befriended. Then we managed to drag him away with the lure of a tram ride, and sashimi straight from the fish market 

what the hell is this?
The next day we had to go back to the airport to retrieve Katie's passport and pick up our trusty hire car. From there we hightailed it to the Northlands and our next stop Whangarei. We were staying in an awesome house belonging to our very kind hosts Bill and Mina high up on a hillside overlooking some stunning mountains and lush vegetation, but the best thing about it was the outside dining terrace where you could sit and drink wine late into the evening taking in the view.

Whangarei had two immediately attractive selling points- the marina and the waterfalls which was where we headed for on the first day (after scoffing down another helping of sushi- it's the cheapest eating out option and the only thing that's less expensive here than the UK and we're obviously complete raw fish fiends so we're making the most of it). The falls were spectacular 


and despite warnings that the water was unsafe to swim in- not due to the 30 meter drop just downstream but because of all the animal hormones that run into it as a result of the massive increase in cattle farming in recent years- anyway this was not putting off the local kids who were throwing themselves in with abandon from the high branches of the surrounding tree canopy.


The next day we headed up to the Tutukaka Coast to the most beautiful sheltered almost deserted cove -
Matapouri Beach. We built sandcastles, climbed rocks, had a picnic and swam in the crystal clear water. Unfortunately this was our first full day’s exposure to the antipodean sun and despite slathering ourselves in factor 50 we were rather resembling lobsters by the time we returned home.

After that we ventured to Bream Bay where luckily there was more cloud cover. We saw dolphins swimming just offshore, then Charlie resoundingly refused to try body boarding despite desperately wanting to have a go. From there we headed on to the Waipu caves which took us down a 12 mile gravel track - nervous times in a hire car - and sporting wildly inappropriate footwear we descended into pitch darkness. Once our eyes adjusted the cave ceiling began to light up like a panoply of stars on a clear night with all the glowworms. It was worth wading through chilly subterranean streams in old flip-flops to see. Waipu town was a quaint little place with a small museum commemorating the Scottish settlers who founded the region. It also stocked us up with some decent ice cream, ribeye steak and local (frickin’) merlot to be consumed the next day for Katie’s birthday.


Katie's birthday was spent with a grumpy Charlie eating ice cream, then he ventured out on a jungle trek with our small seven year old arachnid enthusiast guide, Ben. This guy was brilliant, as was his whole family (Dave, Melissa and daughter Mia) who were our neighbours while in Whangerai. Ben and Mia took Charlie under their wings and off into the bush to find all manor of creepy crawlies. Charlie was quite emboldened by the presence of older kids and had a wonderful time scrubbing round learning about the Northlands indigenous bugs. Charlie and Ed disappeared off with Ben and Melissa down a cave for an hour and came back wet up to the chest.


The next day we caught a boat out to Bay of Islands, which took us through a hole in the rock in pretty turbulent seas. 

happy face
The boat then dropped us at a desert island - Otehei Bay, where we picnicked and snorkeled and Ed was befriended by a group of rowdy sun-burnt and inebriated kiwis. We ate fush 'n' chups on the seafront using Charlie as seagull repellent before heading home. (Charlie is most useful in this respect and shoos them away with a random, but effective war cry of GADGET!!). Bay of Islands was great but we heard what we should have done was a ruinously expensive boat trip to Poor Knights Island according to professional diver and underwater (ca)mer(a)man Dave. Maybe next time...



The other big excursion in the deep north was to Cape Reinga the New Zealand equivalent of Jon O’Groats but more so. We traveled via 90 Mile Beach, (pedantically closer to 90 Kilometer beach) where Ed and Charlie surfed down the 60 foot dunes and Katie watched nervously from the bottom. We ate BBQ on the beach at Tapotupotu bay before climbing down to the lighthouse 
perspective
to point Charlie in the direction of his beloved London a mere 18,029 km over the ocean thataway. 
distances
Closer at hand, however, was the meeting point of the Tasman Sea with the Pacific Ocean where you could see the waves colliding one body of water noticeably different in colour to the other.

caught between two seas
On another one of our day trips to Whangerai Heads we were alarmed to hear a siren which is either to call the firemen or a tsunami warning. Your clue is whether there’s just been a massive earthquake, and judging by how laid back the other residents were we decided we probably didn't need to worry too much...this time.



Our last day in Whangerai was spent on the Mimiwhangata Scenic Reserve – a sort of paradise 8km down a dirt track. Insanely beautiful and almost entirely deserted, we took a wrong turn for the beach and set off on a five mile walk around the entire peninsula. We scrambled up and down hills, over fences and visited a couple of completely deserted beaches. One of them was sufficiently remote for an American couple, their yacht anchored in the bay, to drive their outboard over to the beach and check we were OK!  It transpired they had sailed from Boston. Ed did some snorkeling and swam right over a Sting Ray, and with the tragic death of Steve Irwin in the back of his mind, made a hasty retreat to the beach.



Sadly that was our last day in wonderful Whangerai and we have to say a huge thank you to Bill and Mina who have been wonderfully kind lending us their house. If they ever sell their the Whangerai place, we’re buying it!



Then it was back to Auckland to stay with Lois, Dom and their son Jack. Lois, the sister of a former colleague of Katie's moved with Dom to New Zealand 9 years ago and they have built the most incredible house on a hillside outside Auckland. They cooked us a beautiful meal, including some enormous New Zealand mussels, which Katie loved and vowed to cook herself at some point soon. We also managed to nip down to the local vineyard https://www.turangacreek.co.nz/index.cfm for a quick wine tasting and the procurement of a bottle for dinner. They did a lovely Pinot Gris and a great dessert wine.

The next day we set off on a 10 day tour of the North Island south of Auckland. First stop was the Coromandel Peninsula, where we stayed in a ‘bach’ (that’s what people call a holiday home here) belonging to a friend of Kirsten’s. According to the family photos proudly displayed on the wall, the owners – originally from Ireland - had six strapping ginger boys. It’s a shame they didn’t have another one and then they could have been like that lovely 1950s film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers  (a childhood favourite of Katie’s) based on the ancient Roman legend the Rape of Sabine Women. The bit of the Coromandel Peninsula we saw was quite different to Northland – even hillier with lots of forest and dramatic beaches. Our favourites were Cathedral Cove – an impressive natural arch linking two beautiful white sand beaches
church on a beach
and Hot Water Beach, which, as its name suggests, has running hot water thanks to thermals running underneath the sands that are exposed two hours either side of low tide. We also did a spot of body boarding on this beach which was very fun indeed, observed by Charlie who was relaxing in a hot pool like a lord.



From Coromandel we passed the interestingly named ‘Bugger Café’ and crossed some fairly dull farmland to Raglan, surfer’s paradise, although thankfully somewhat quieter than its UK equivalent Newquay. Raglan’s Manu beach apparently has the longest left hand break in the world (thanks to Kent for this insight). We spent a long time watching expert surfers ride the waves for in excess of 30 seconds. It was very impressive, the sort of thing that makes you want to ditch big city life and dedicate your life to learning to surf. Nearby Ngarunui beach is supposed to be for learners, but still features some pretty violent waves that can (and in Charlie’s case did) knock you clean off your feet. This black sand beach is huge at low tide and good for a barefoot run, especially if you’re trying to justify some great fush ‘n’ chups for dinner.



We've just driven south to Ohakune and into volcano country (Mount Ruapehu is near the house and alarmingly last erupted in 2007). We intend to fill our days by bike riding along an old train track including 45m high viaduct, taking the chair lifts onto the ski fields and visiting a train museum. Then we're off to Rotorua and all its sulphurous delights and back to Auckland for a night before flying to the South Island for ten days  and then on to Australia (see itinerary below).


Here’s our vague itinerary below – if anyone has any tips, accommodation ideas, fun stuff to see etc. please get in touch! We are particularly looking for a house sit/ pet sit or plant watering responsibilities in Melbourne in April and if you have any bright ideas about that please let us know!



22nd Feb – Queentown. Followed by Milford Sound and probably the West Coast Glaciers, up to Greymouth and then across to Christchurch. Alternative route would be via the Mount Cook national park, which some people say is more stunning…

1st – 3rd March – Christchurch

3rd – 6th March – Wellington

6th – 18th March – Sydney and Blue Mountains

18th – 20th March – drive up to Brisbane

20th – 26th March – Brisbane

26th – 6th April – messing around on the Gold Coast and Great Barrier Reef / Whitsundays.

6th April – 26th April – Melbourne and around.

2 comments:

  1. Ed,you wuss, your mother-in-law,Sue,swam with and held stingrays in the Cayman Islands! Glad you are enjoying NZ,it is such a beautiful country,we have lovely memories of it, Sue and Ed (mum and dad)

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  2. It's been a while! Good to hear an update (and that waterfall photo was fantastically smug Ed...) It would be great if you could praise Charlie on his amazingly consistent 'left hand on the hip' pose please. The boy is gonna be a star!

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