New Zealand…our trip in a nutshell

I think Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya says it best:

"Let me 'splain. 
[pause]  

No, there is too much. Let me sum up…."

I think it might take me the rest of the year to finish writing posts about our fabulous trip to New Zealand.   So, today I'm going to attempt (HA!) to sum up our trip. Why is it so difficult for me to pick out just a few photos???? Which is why all the posts end up being a mile long!  I'm going to challenge myself and pick out the 20 best photos from the ENTIRE TRIP.  Maybe you'll get a feel for how much we zig-zagged across the North Island.

Feb 11, 2013- all day chasing swimming with dolphins sailboat tour in the Bay of Islands (this will be a separate post). Made a brief stop in the small town of Russell after the boat tour (there's a ferry between Paihia and Russell).

Feb 12, 2013-  Leaving a trail of dust- we're heading north to Cape Reinga: the place where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean collide.  Every turn along the coastal highway we saw gorgeous beaches.  We stopped at:

Cable Bay:

Te Paki Sand Dunes:

You can rent boards and go "surfing" down the sand dunes. Seriously???  Sounds like a fantastic way to damage/scrape off all your skin.

WOW!  These sand dunes are HUUUUGE….and they just keep going…on and on and on…. an endless ocean of sand.  

We bought a bag full of avocados from a road-side veggie stand.  Turns out they're rock hard and not ready to eat yet.  I hate waiting!! 

Cape Reinga:

Set up camp near Cape Reinga at Tapotupotu Bay:

Mark cooking up another awesome dinner in our camper. We watched the girls play from the windows.

Steak- real steak!, corn, and fried potatoes for dinner. And REAL beer (adults) and L&P soda for the girls. Oh. so. good!!!!

I'm not sure we've ever dealt with as many mosquitoes as we did on that one night we spent near the Cape.  The humming noise of the mosquitoes was so loud we couldn't hear the ocean!  Those nasty little buggers kept finding ways to get into our camper…the. entire. night. long!  We spent THE ENTIRE NIGHT smashing mosquitoes and trying to figure out where/how they were getting into the camper.  Which probably explains why we left bright and early the following morning!!!!

Feb. 13, 2013-

Let's get outta here!!!  Mosquitoes are gone now but we hope we don't have to spend another night like that one!  

Ninety Mile Beach:

Which should really be called 55-mile beach….

…. zooming south….

Feb. 14

Heading south along the west coast via Hokianga Vehicle Ferry.  One of the amazingly huge Kauri trees:

I guess these trees are very sensitive- or at least their tree roots are.  As you walk into the entrance to this forest there's a small station where you clean off the bottoms of your shoes with a fungicide.  We actually completely missed the sign to see these trees so we ended up back tracking about thirty minutes to find them.  If we'd come at the right time of day we would have tried going on a night kiwi spotting guided tour.  Oh well.  Maybe next time!

…. zooming south even more….. 

Raglan:  Heading even further south to Raglan.  We made drove into the Raglan campground just as the sun was setting.  

Feb 15

When was the last time we've seen a rainbow????

Drove into Raglan to find a good cup of coffee.  This is a super cute, hippy-ish sort of town.  Supposedly a good surfing town.

 The day after Valentine's Day….Mark bought me this absolutely sweet flower bouquet.  I found the perfect spot for it in a cup holder on the dashboard.

and then over to….

Waitomo Caves: Seeing the glow worms (no photos!  darn!!!) was one of the highlights of this trip.  We saw two caves: Waitomo and Aranui.  

Otorohanga:

Kiwi House: KIWIS!!!!  Kiwis are a nocturnal bird.  Quite rare to see in the wild so we were thankful for this opportunity to see them.  They did request no photos to be taken of the kiwis in their man-made habitat (which we complied with).  They were quite a bit bigger and more skittish than I had imagined.  Although perhaps being in captivity causes the skittish behavior (or perhaps they're just like that in the wild!).

Taraunga:

Heading over to see a friend in Taraunga (Bay of Plenty)

Visiting Trudi and her family….

Trudi used to be one of Mark's coworkers when he was in the forestry division of his company.  Several years back she came and visited us in the USA…and she always said we'd come visit her.  Not sure if she meant it but we took her up on her offer!  

Trudi grilling up some fresh Coromandel mussels. Oh so good!! I can't believe how big these mussels are- at least three times the size of any I've ever seen!

 Feb 16

Mount Maunganui:

Short hike up the mountain (with minimal whining) …. gave us phenomenal views of the area. The beaches were unbelievably beautiful.

We ate dinner at the Stone Grill- some place that Mark had tried on previous trips to NZ. The stone is sizzling hot and cooks your food. 

Feb 17

Left Trudi and her family after visiting a local school and walking around the local neighborhood.  Such a gorgeous place!  I can see how people feel very safe about letting their kids walk around by themselves.  All of New Zealand seems to be very relaxed and super friendly.   

Hot Water Beach:

We got out to the beach with our rented spade about two hours before low tide.  When we first got to the beach and started digging there were only a handful of people trying to find the patches of hot water.  As the evening progressed more and more people arrived trying to find their own spot.  We learned that it's called HOT WATER beach for a reason….the water was freaking scalding HOT!  We danced around on the hot spots trying to find just the right temperature to sit in. 

Cathedral Cove (sea kayaking):

We used Cathedral Cove Kayaking to guide our three-hour, one-way kayaking trip.  We kayaked past Gem Bay (need to come back here and snorkel!), saw a few sting rays floating in the ocean (a little harder to see).  Stopped at Cathedral Cove where our guide made us fantastic lattes and hot chocolate.  

After our sea kayaking "expedition" we stopped for wood-oven fired pizzas, great beer and wine and liquor sampling at Purangi Winery.  Had a great visit with the owner.  Their gin is the best we've had yet!!!

Coromandel:

One thing that a few people mentioned was doing a snapper mussel barge fishing tour out of Coromandel.  That means the fishing boat we were on followed very closely to a mussel barge collecting farm-raised mussels.  Apparently snapper love to eat mussels and follow the barges as well.

We caught lots of snappers.  They were biting like crazy….lots of nibbles and lots of too small snappers.   This fishing trip wasn't like the cushy ones we've been on in Alaska.  We had to borrow the poles, buy the bait and hook it ourselves.  Ava "caught" lots of snappers (okay, so I was the one doing most of the fishing).  Mark spent most of his time baiting our hooks.

Time to head south…. Tried to overnight in a hotel in Rotorua but sadly the hotel we wanted was booked full. Maybe because we looked like scuzzy campers! After seeing busloads of tourists in Rotorua we decided to give it a miss and continue on.

We headed to Blue Lake campground very close to Rotorua. 

Waimangu:

This part of New Zealand is a hot spot just like Yellowstone National Park in the USA- lots of geothermal activity.  Waimangu is one park in the area where you can see the geothermal activity up close and personal.  It's a one-way walking tour with a 45-minute boat ride (which mostly showed things that you used to be able to see when the water level was much lower).

Taupo:

Final destination!  

Here's the deal.  We knew that Ava's birthday would be on the day we'd leave New Zealand- soooo…. I thought we'd try to celebrate it before we left.  Through the help of our good friend (I'm talking about you, Shell!) I got in touch with Jane of Calamity Cakes.  Isn't this cake amazing???  I emailed her some photos of horse cakes we'd seen online and she was able to create this one for us.  And, it turns out that Jane is married to someone Mark used to work with.  How's that for nice and fun coincidences???  Jane, that cake was not only beautiful but it tasted GREAT!  Oh, and I think I might have forgotten to mention that Ava talked about getting her birthday cake EVERY DAY since we'd first arrived in NZ.  Eep.  Towards the end we had to curb her non-stop but very cute chatter …peppering me with questions about her special cake.  Can I blame her???  It lived up to and blew past all our expectations.

We're coming to the end of our visit…and we finally get to see the lovely family that is renting our home back in Wisconsin.  Amazingly we were all in New Zealand at the same time.  They've been extremely busy running all over visiting family on their home trip.  We got to meet up with them at Clint's sister's house & family.  It was wonderful to see them and meet Clint's family.  Plus, Clint's awesome sister made a dream come true for Ava: she FINALLY got to ride on a horse!!!!

Meet Jelly!

What a sweet horse!  Thanks for letting the girls go for a ride!

Ah….this is the life! (check out Ava's birthday post for more photos)

Best breakfast in Taupo…at Dixie Browns!

Eggs benedict.  Dangerous but oh so good!

The girls got waffles with a scoop of ice cream:

Sadly…it's time to head back to Auckland…we have to fly away.  Darn!  We'd really rather stay here in New Zealand.

Dropped off the camping beast.  Waaaaah!!!!  Overnighted at the Novotel hotel in Auckland…which is conveniently *right* next to the Auckland airport.  

Feb. 23-

All checked in and ready to *sigh* head back to China:

Love the information board.  All the flights that weren't yet boarding were listed as "Relax" on the board. LOL!  That pretty much sums up New Zealand.  

What can I say?  New Zealand was a truly amazing experience…blue skies, fresh air, completely relaxed and friendly. Beaches, caves, mountains, forests, rolling hills….