We’ve talked about this trip for so many years. Hard to believe that we’re just days away from embarking on a 2 month tour of New Zealand! It’s great to plan and run your own tour so you can tailor it to your interests and build in as much flexibility as you like on the journey but plans are never …
Taking the long way
Our first stop was Los Angeles for two nights. Nice to have the break before we do the very long LA to Auckland legs. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza LAX – great hotel with very friendly staff. Thursday we biked along the Strand, a 20 mile bike path along the ocean from Santa Monica to Redondo beach. Rented a …
Slow and Low
Jeannie often describes our biking style as “slow and low”. That is pretty much how we spent Monday after a pretty long sleep after our marathon flights from LA to Sydney to Auckland. I greeted the maid at about 10 AM and indicated that no services would be needed since we were still not dressed and the contents of our …
Northland
Wednesday 9/12 We are finally on our way to really exploring New Zealand! Our destination is Paihai in the Bay of Islands and Koru Cottage which will be our home base for 4 nights. Once we got by the outskirts of Auckland the scenery became intensely Middle Earth with rolling hills and amazingly dense brush, The roads are winding, narrow …
So many big trees!
Our destination today was Warkworth, just a convenient stopping point on the way to the Coramandel Peninsula. We drove across the island to the Kauri Coast. We stopped for a walk in Omapere. The New Zealand nature reserves are all well marked and very well maintained. This one had a long track down to the bay and a short …
The Coromandel Peninsula
We had a great breakfast at the Cafeteria of a chocolate shop just around the corner from our hotel. We were smart and kept out of the chocolate shop itself. We waved hi to Auckland on our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. If we have any time in Auckland it will have to be squeezed into the last couple of …
Hauraki Rail Trail
Cloudy morning with a light mist as we started out on the Hauraki Rail Trail. We could bike to the trail from our cottage which was great. This trail is advertised as family friendly, suitable for even the little tykes that are just off their training wheels. As long as the tykes are riding some itty bitty mountain bikes, we …
Rotorua
We checked out of the cottage in Paeroa this morning. It was the guard’s house attached to a gold refinery building which has been refurbed, it’s latest version is the Refinery Cafe which is open Wednesday through Sunday. We have been here on Monday and Tuesday, so last night they were in doing prep for the morning. We could occasionally …
Hawkes Bay
The owner of our Rotorua bach suggested that we stop at Haku Falls and Taupo on our way to Hawkes Bay. Haku Falls is more a very powerful rapids than a waterfall but the colour of the water is amazing. That colour is just a result of the number of air bubbles in the rushing water and it quickly disappears …
Wellington and Leaving the North Island
Bit of rain on our drive down to Wellington from Napier but we were still running early for the check in time at our bach so we stopped at Queen Elizabeth Park in Paekakariki. We took a walk on their wetlands loop which wound through some farmland and then into a wetlands that was built in an area used by …