New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland and took the airport bus into the city. After dropping our bags at the Ibis hotel we made our way to the viaduct harbour and had dinner at  Snapdragon. We started with a grilled halloumi salad since neither of us can remember if you can get it in the states. Mo had scallops with mushrooms and I had a white fish with gnocchi. These meals were great! Good first choice for Auckland.

The next morning we slept in for a bit and made our way down to the harbour again for the ferry to Waiheke island at 11. Here is Auckland from the ferry.

We immediately got on to a little bus tour of the island which was nice to be able to learn a bit about the island. 

The driver dropped us off in an area called Oneroa and we had a great seafood lunch with local wines and olives at Vino Vino.

After lunch we caught the local bus back to Stonyridge winery (apparently one of the top 10 wineries in the world for tastings). This was a great tasting - all red wines, we had the tasting in lounge chairs and the views were amazing! There was even a helicopter that took off while we were there. Perhaps some people are too rich for the ferry. The last wine we tasted went for between 260-500NZD depending on the vintage. It was nice, but both Mo and I agreed had they not told us which was the freaking expensive bottle we would not have been able to tell.

We had dinner at Elliot Stables - de niro restaurant, good, but nothing special.

The next morning we picked up our rental car - a little red Mazda 3 - and drove to the Coromandel peninsula for the hot water beach. This is where for 2 hours either side of low tide you rent a spade for 5 dollars and dig your own hot tub. Here I am in the process of digging hole #1. After digging this beast we determined we found the coldest water on the beach.

We set off to find a better spot and managed to find the hottest water..I swear it boiled through the sand. It was like goldilocks...too cold, too hot... But we did manage to sit in it for a while and when a big wave would come, it cooled our boiling pot enough to make I enjoyable for a few minutes.

In a few hours, the whole beach was absolutely covered in people digging holes.

We left the hot water beach and headed toward Rotorua. I took a turn driving on the left side for the first time. Hardest part? Indicators are on the ride side of the wheel. I spent much of that day shouting expletives when accidentally turning the windshield wipers on.

We stayed in a 4 person room at the Base Rotorua hostel, but were the only 2 in the room! We had seafood chowder and lamb dishes for dinner at the Fat Dog Cafe. We decided on this because we had eaten at the Funky Dog in Chiang Mai and the Smiling Dog in Ao Nang. I'd recommend eating anywhere called 'adjective' dog cafe...all three were great!

Te nex morning we went to Hellsgate mud bath and sulphur spa. Stink City. It was fun, hopefully good for the skin and we got to smell nice and sulphurous for the ride to Gisborne.

We stopped for brunch at Fig cafe in Whakatane. I could've eaten my way through the entire menu....but we split eggs benedict and the pesto pile up instead. Very good, but not quite Le Paris Go brunch.

After lunch I gound hokey pokey ice cream! I wa very excited about this - one of the things to try in New Zealand. I wasn't so impressed...but it was much better than the durian ice cream I tried and dumped into the street in Siem Reap.

Once we neared Gisborne we followed the wine map to some of the wineries, but in a very comedy of errors way, we always seemed to end up in someone's driveway or the cellar door was just closing! 

Luckily, we found the Gisborne Wine Centre later that evening where we were able to taste 10 wines from 10 different vineyards. My favourites were of course the reds. I've been on a red kick for a while!

One of the beautiful things about New Zealand is the landscape you see while driving. Here are a couple of the hundreds (??!) of snaps we tried to get in the car. Note they do not do the scenery justice at all! Those little white blobs in the first picture are sheep. Unfortunately, I am severely allergic to this beautiful scenery and have had to keep the tissues, eye drops, and antihistamines close. Mo would also like me to point out that in fact she is not allergic to New Zealand. There's a first, something I'm allergic to tht she's not.

After Gisborne we headed to Taupo and did a 5.6mk hike to Huka falls. Also not doing justice to the power and amount of water flowing here are some photos.

We got back to our hotel and started the pack for the plane home!

In the morning Mo went for a run and I was told that photos of the lke were a must.

All packed up, ready to go!

Of course the drive to the airport was fun - there was an incident on the harbour bridge which closed it and there were "major delays" on the motorway. I attempted to get us into the city without using the motorway and this craptastic map with no names for the yellow roads. Unbelievably we made it in with no wrong turns, stopping only once for assistance!

We got the bus back to the airport and Mo got us into the lounge with her mysterious status that randomly appeared.

Currently sitting in the lounge waiting for our 13 hour flight to LA. Slightly dreading my assigned middle seat on this full flight!

Cheers to a great trip!