NORTH ISLAND:
Starting in Auckland, finishing in Wellington
Auckland
Early up at 3:30 for 4:30 departure to Brisbane airport and a smooth flight to Auckland. Overcast with drizzle on arrival but temp pleasant. Short walk out with food and drinks before an early night.
Early rise at 5:45 for 6:45 pick-up and a coach 3hrs north to Bay of Islands, off the map above. Kenny, our guide/driver was very loquacious but informative and funny en route. It was first to Waitangi Treaty Ground for a tour of the site where it was signed in 1840 by the British and Maori. We toured a Maori House and the British Representative's House, finishing with a Waku Maori war canoe, seating 120 and last on the water last year for Waitangi Day, 6 Feb.
Back into Paihi, we then took a ferry to Russell to be guided by Steve who was our very funny guide - story of the French not doing much whaling, just sailing up and down irritating the British. Plus a Maori chief repeatedly chopping down the British flagpole to irritate the British after the Treaty was signed, until rugby was invented! There were many more too including much about Russell's past as the Hellhole of the Pacific and much inbreeding within the population!
Waitangi Treaty Ground, Bay of Islands
Maori Meeting House
Waka - War Canoe, on the water last in 2014
Nice pad in Russell
Paihia in the distance, from Russell
Entertainers group outing
Auckland waterfront at night
Back to Paihi and a late arrival back home for a drink before back to hotel and another early night.
We took a ferry to Waiheke Island in fine weather, a bus tour of the island to Onetangi for a coffee stop, then walkabout Onara with a bite to eat. Some great bays and beaches, unique and expensive up market properties around the island, plenty of vineyards and very pretty.
Departing Auckland
Approaching Waiheke Island
Nice pad in Waiheke
Onetangi
Onara
PS to Auckland - the Copthorne Hotel has a 'green' offering - no room service to save the planet, and the staff the trouble of cleaning it! There's novel!
Rotorua
We had a pleasantly quiet and scenic drive once away from Auckland to this place in the middle of geothermal activity and smelling of sulphurous fumes, although not as bad as we had expected. We were staying outside the town itself at Wai Ora Spa by the lake so not affected.
Hell's Gate nearby, so named by George Bernard Shaw, was steaming with bubbling water and mud, sulphurous fumes and deposits. The sunshine is staying with us as we move!
Next into town for a walkabout, a light lunch at Atticus Finch with a Pinot Gris potent in gooseberries, then to Rotorua Museum, with lots of Maori history and culture. The town was pretty, spacious and low on people.
Great lunch at Atticus Finch!
Rotorua Museum
PPS Wai Ora Spa Resort also has a 'green' offering with no room service/cleaning while we were out!
Taupo
En route to Taupo, we stopped first at Waimangu for a walk through this group of steaming and bubbling geothermal fields, past Frying Pan Lake, to Lake Rotomahana, formed by as volcanic eruption in of Mt Tarawera in 1886. The surface seemed to be venting everywhere. Sadly, the eruption destroyed some dramatic pink and white terraced deposits that we were only able to see in photographs, but which had been popular tourist sites.
Frying Pan Lake
Amazing mixture of algae & chemical colours
Lake Rotomahana
Next, it was a stop at Wai O Tapu, another geothermal wonderland, but different with lots of brilliant colours deposited on the rocks around the vents - sulphur yellow and orange most noticeable. Nearby was also a mud pool bubbling in a mesmerising way.
People just visible to give scale
Champagne Pool
Orange from antimony and/or arsenic
Steam everywhere!
Sulphurous water
Bubbling mud pool
You can become a bit too absorbed watching mud bubble!
Taupo is a huge lake and we had a terrific outlook from our hotel, and great sunsets. We wandered the town then took a trip on a replica steamer to see some of the lake and stop up close at the Maori carvings, very good. Snacked by the lake on the second evening, finding a very pleasant 9% Montana from Marlborough Region, so we had a couple of bottles, very pleasant indeed!
Ernest Stamp replica steamship on Lake Taupo
Our hotel from the lake
Maori Carvings
Some took a dip near the carvings
An active volcano had started spewing steam on the other side of the lake, from 3 years ago and was still doing so, distant enough thankfully.
Wellington
We stopped at the very interesting National Army Museum on the way, in an otherwise rather uninteresting drive to Wellington. Only so as there weren't many places to stop, but it was very sunny. Pattern forming? Lovely rolling hills enroute but much evidence of a dry summer with the yellow grass, somewhat unexpected, and Extreme Risk fire warnings abound.
The hotel location was great near the redeveloped dockside, with lots of restaurants and other interesting places to stroll. We visited the Parliament Buildings for a very informative guided tour, including the House of Representatives, then took a ride up on the cable car to overlook the city and harbour, and the sun continued to beam down.
Parliament House
Waterfront
St John Ambulance post quayside
Dragon Boat Practice gets underway
Water feature in bohemian Cuba Street
Jean peaks through interesting bridge architecture!
We spent the rump of the next day in the magnificent Te Papa Museum. Quite a place and the best museum I have ever visited.
(Note to self on how to speak Kiwi - substitute i for e (best to bist) and e for a (that to thet) and you're nearly there!)
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