The Land of the Long White Cloud (Part 1)

Jane had taken advantage of some very reasonable airfares during the year, and booked a fourteen day trip to New Zealand. Our plan was to fly into Auckland, and out of Wellington. We were fortunate to be able to spend time with a lot of family and friends down the length of the country, with our basic itinerary as follows:

28 Dec – Fly Sydney to Auckland. Arrive PM

29 Dec – Whangaparoa

30 Dec – Raglan

31 Dec – (NYE) Cambridge, then Rotorua

01 – 04 Jan – Rotorua

05 – 07 Jan – Hawkes Bay

08 – 09 Jan – Feilding

10 Jan – Wellington

11 Jan – Fly Wellington to Sydney

We arrived to a very different climate than Australia, and saw a quintessential Kiwi summer outfit at the airport – Jandals, boardshorts and a puffer jacket! Our motel was simple but comfortable, and I could well understand why the pool wasn’t unlocked, even in the height of Summer.

Our plan was to head to Whangaparoa to stay with Ryan and Sarah (Tickelpenny) for the night, and for the boys to meet their youngest cousin. They were going to be out, so I contacted an old friend from Palmerston North days (last century!) on the off chance he might be up for a visit. He was, and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours with Pat and Vanessa. On our way we stopped at a bakery for breakfast, but the EFTPOS machine wouldn’t accept our travel card (apparently they have different fee structures for different card types), and we hadn’t at that stage drawn any cash out. I was going to head to an ATM to rectify the cash situation, when a young lad behind me insisted that as I was a tourist in his country he would pay for our pies. Very unexpected, and quite lovely.

We spent a most enjoyable evening with Ryan, Sarah and Ted, and I had a dubious trip down memory lane with a long neck of Lion Red. Wow. Did I ever like that stuff? It tastes kind of like beer, only not as good! On the other hand, Jane was introduced to Toffee Pops and kind of enjoyed them! As a thank you, I baked chocolate croissants the next morning. Such a good way to kick off our journey.

 Ted, MacK and Hugo

We travelled to Raglan, to stay with one of my oldest friends – Tonya. She has a fantastic house in what is a retro/hippy village with a surfing bent. MacK was introduced to his first black sand beach and spent longer in the surf than I thought he would have. Tonya introduced us to a game that MacK has become enamoured of – “Exploding Kittens”. Funny, ridiculous game where the rules don’t really matter. Perfect for Master six! The next morning I was up early and went down into the town to look for a bakery and coffee/chocolate. I found both, with a sourdough bakery just setting up a roadside stall as I got there.

Clockwise from top left: Our welcome at Auckland International Airport; Attempt at a whole family and Tonya selfie; Tonya, MacK and I; Us at the Bridal Veil Falls - this time the selfie worked!; Bush in New Zealand is very different to Australia; Standing at the Bridal Veil Falls Lookout - one of our last fine days.

I can’t remember the name of the Café I got coffee from but did have a funny experience. Hugo was having great fun leaping around the retro couches and at some point came back to me. A local bloke came in and sat on the couch, and I told Hugo he had lost his trampoline. This bloke (think your typical hulking biker looking dude, with a long beard and a plethora of tattoos) chimes in with a cheeky “Tough little buddy. You snooze, you lose!” The Barista asked him if he had full cream milk in his Latte, and this tough looking bloke’s (surprising) response was “No way Bro. I’m a vegan. Have you got Almond?” Just one of those experiences that are a little bit odd.

We went to Cambridge via Hamilton, where we visited both of the schools I attended there (Southwell and St Pauls Collegiate). That was a really nice trip down memory lane. I was surprised at how familiar the roads were – I hadn’t thought about or travelled on those roads in more than 17 years, but there were very few surprises. We spent several hours on NYE with Townsville friends (Kelly and Patrick) with highlights being the backyard fireworks and seeing MacK reconnect with Alistair after several years. Our final destination on NYE was Rotorua, where we stayed for a few days (see following post).

 

  This sign was on one of the Boarding Houses at St Pauls. If you can't read the translation, it is "It is through the older siblings that the younger one learns the right way to do things, and it is through the younger sibling that the older one learns to be tolerant".

Seeing the "Tickelpenny Auto Electrical" sign meant I knew we had reached our destination!