New Zealand Trip Report

As this was DH’s birthday, I had booked dinner at the Harbourside Ocean Bar & Grill. This restaurant is in the old ferry building and has views of the harbour. We had scallops for an appetizer, I had lamb for my main, and DH had mussels and fish (I forget what kind). Then, the staff brought out a Happy Birthday dessert plate, which was lovely. I found both the scallops and the lamb a bit rare for my liking, but DH enjoyed his main.

After dinner, we returned to our apartment nearby and turned in early.

Day 3

For our 3rd morning, we had booked a walking tour through the cultural centre kiosk on the harbourfront with a Maori guide. https://www.tewharekura.com/experiences/guided-tour We had booked this before we left Canada, and Te Wharekura emailed us a couple of times, including the day before, to confirm. We understood why when we discovered we were the only two on the tour, and the Maori guide, Prince, and his cousin, Jeanette, had come in from out of the city to conduct the tour. What a privilege it was to spend time walking through the Auckland CBD with these two and learning more about Maori history, culture, and experiences in that area! We could relate, as Indigenous Canadians who have also been affected by colonization, so we felt a real bond with Prince and Jeanette. I think they felt it, too, as they sang us a song after we returned and did the traditional Maori greeting of rubbing noses with us before taking photos together. At this time, we learned that it was a couple of days before “Matariki” (Maori New Year—when the Pleides reappear in the Southern Sky), and that was the reason for the abundance of Maori decorations in the CBD.

In the afternoon, we decided to walk up to the university area and Albert Park (named after the consort of Queen Victoria). It’s a lovely park complete with statues, fountains, amazing trees, and views of downtown. We were attracted to a gorgeous, filagreed clock tower across the street and decided to explore. It adorns a building that’s part of the university, so we were able to go inside and admire the architecture and the art, including Maori weavings, inside. We wandered around the university some more before heading back down the steep hill towards “home.”

Day 4

I’d booked a trip to a glowworm cave for this day. Most tours go to Waitomo Cave, but I decided to book a tour to Spellbound Cave, instead, as I’d read that there are more glowworms, smaller group sizes, and one got more time inside the cave. This meant that we had to forego Hobbiton, as there are tours that combine Hobbiton and Waitomo, but not Spellbound. But we were more interested in New Zealand’s natural sights and Maori culture than in a movie set, although that would have been fun, too.

Our driver from Navi Outdoor Tours picked us up early in the morning, and the mountains were poking out of the mist as we entered the rolling countryside of Waikato—stunning!

We arrived at the farm where Spellbound Cave is located. At that point, we had to sign in to tour with a resident guide, not with our driver. Apparently, the group of 6 other people who were also supposed to be on our tour had cancelled, so once again, we had a private tour. Bonus! A van ride took us farther into the countryside until we reached a spot nearer the caves. At that point, Ross, our guide, showed us the path down toward the cave and said he’d meet us there. We enjoyed traipsing along this stretch of Middle Earth and spotting wild goats and limestone outcroppings. When we reached the river that enters the glowworm cave, our guide outfitted us with helmets/headlamps before leading us to the cave entrance. Before reaching the darker interior, Ross showed us some glowworms hanging by their threads, so we’d know what we were looking at.

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Then we turned on our headlamps and made our way down to a boat. Once we were settled, Ross steered the boat through the cave by pulling on a rope, which made our progress nearly silent, while thousands upon thousands of glowworms glittered overhead. It looked like we were floating under the Milky Way, but one that we could almost touch. It was an amazing, magical experience.

We then walked a short distance to another cave, known as “Spirit Cave.” This cave doesn’t have glowworms, but it has a boardwalk built through it where one can see stalagmites, a skeleton of a moa (a now extinct giant bird) and a goat. Not far from the goat remains, a hole in the cave ceiling, hidden from the outside by brush, suggests how the animals likely met their fates. Once inside, the dense darkness would have made it impossible to find their way out, if they were still mobile. At one point, Ross turned off the lights lining the boardwalk, so we could experience the darkness for ourselves.

The whole quest was enhanced by having it all to ourselves, save for Ross. We were lucky.

That evening, we soaked in the hot tub on our balcony while enjoying the view of the lighted Matariki message on the side of the ferry terminal.

Day 5

On this day, we were heading back to Middle Earth to visit Hell’s Gate with a stop at Tirau, a kitschy town filled with corrugated steel “art,” for second breakfast. Hell’s Gate is a geothermal reserve in Roturua. We chose this out of the possible options in the area because it has mud baths (we have been to plenty of hot springs but never to mud baths), and because it is Maori-owned. What an unreal, otherworldly place! The earth’s crust is thin here, and everywhere there is mud and water bubbling, boiling, hissing, and steaming. It is not a small area, either. After our walk, we had a mud bath—each group has a bath to themselves for a set amount of time. It is not a pit of mud, as I expected, but warm, muddy water, with tubs of mud available to smear all over oneself. After showering off, one is free to spend as much time in the hot springs section as desired. It was so relaxing and made our skin feel wonderful.

On the way back to Auckland, our guide from Enzoy Tours wanted to show us the Blue Pools. What a lovely spot; the water is so clear. We thoroughly enjoyed our day.

Day 6

We had left the last day open to various possibilities, depending on the weather, which turned out to be, again, glorious. So we decided to hop on the ferry to Devonport Village, a suburb of Auckland that sits across the harbour from the CBD. At the last minute, I’d been able to book a Segway tour of the area. This was my second time on a Segway and DH’s first. I thought it would be a good idea to have the practice before our Segway ride around the base of Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia the next week, and it would be a good way to see Devonport.

After some training and practice on the wharf, four of us tourists plus the guide set off for the tour. We started with a park and some old houses along the coast and then headed up Takarunga (Mount Victoria) for spectacular views. We explored the bunker that’s up there. It was built in the late 1800s, and there is still a cannon in it. We loved this tour and really enjoyed doing it by Segway.

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After returning to Auckland CBD, we walked over (and up) to an area called Ponsonby that is supposed to have a lot of cute shops and restaurants. However, we must not have found the main part of it, because there didn’t seem to be much to the area, although we did enjoy some of the sights and views along the way. We didn’t see anyplace we wanted to have dinner, so we decided to head to Silo Park, a former industrial area now known for eateries and art installations. It turned out there was a Matariki celebration happening there, with live entertainment and bonfires. What fun! We enjoyed the festivities for a bit and then went into the former fish market, now a food court, for dinner. We walked home, enjoying the sights of the harbour and bridge at night, and then packed for our morning flight to Sydney.

New Zealand Redux

The next day, we flew to Australia, but we spent one more night and day in Auckland on our way home. We stayed overnight at the Pullman Hotel near the airport and reserved a late checkout. The follwoing day, before our evening flight home, we walked to a lovely sculpture park not far away. Most of the park surrounds a pond, and it is a peaceful and fun little refuge from the airport noise and traffic. We then walked further along to see something that showed on Google Maps only as “The Maori.” This turned out to be a “marae,” a meeting place and a sort of community/cultural building. There seemed to be a gathering or meeting going on inside, so we stayed outside and admired the fantastic carvings on the building and gate. After this, we were ready to head back to the hotel for lunch and some relaxation before our flights home.

Although it was winter in New Zealand, and the weather could have been gloomy and wet, we had gorgeous weather the entire time. The days were warm and sunny, and the nights were chilly, which was perfect for us.

There’s a selection of our New Zealand photos here, if you’re interested: https://www.amazon.ca/photos/share/gbDdgnog1DR0f8VuslIG6YFWERglzac9ynJiHpi2thF (Sorry. Even though I sort the photos in ascending order, when Amazon creates the share link, it reverses the order.)
[Photos of the glowworms courtesy of Ross, who had a better camera and more experience photographing in the dark.]

(The Australia portion of our trip will be a separate trip report, when I get a chance.)

Thank you for sharing your wonderful adventure! Between your report and beautiful photos I'm inspired to visit New Zealand someday even though the 18hour flight seems daunting.

Diane, I felt the same way as you about the length of the flight but finally did it in 2024 because of the scenery in LOTR and it was worth the flight. Because we flew Figi Airways to save money and counting 4 internal flights in NZ and Australia, we went through a total of 15 different airports.

BB

Thanks for a lovely TR and for taking me back to our much briefer visit to Auckland, Whaiheke Is., and Rotarua (among other locales) when we visited our son who lived in Welllington back in 2011-12.

NZ is a special place and the Māoris are a strong people. Wonderful that you experienced a direct person-to-person bond during your visit.