NORTH ISLAND

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We began our adventure on the North Island of New Zealand.  We arrived in Auckland on January 19 after some 31 hours of air travel beginning on January 16.  Despite the length of the journey, the time difference between Albuquerque and New Zealand is only 4 hours (minus one day) so it was easy to get on schedule on the first day.

Auckland is a beautiful city built on a large bay.  As we flew over the bay, the Kiwi’s were hosting the Louis Vuitton Cup, the sailing regatta which precedes the Americas Cup.  It was an incredible sight seeing the sailing ships on the course as well as hundreds of other boats watching the event.  After settling into our hotel, we explored Auckland by foot, bus and ferry.  We enjoyed traveling to one of the suburbs, Devonport, which lies across the harbor.  It provided great views back to Auckland as well as some wonderful dining.  We also spent a day enjoying Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater Adventure viewing sea creatures from the ocean as well as penguins.  Lots of fun!

We then left Auckland via car and headed north to Paihia.  There we enjoyed the Bay of Islands and took a boat ride out to the “Hole in the Rock”.  It was an incredible sight but it was a very rough ride to get to view it.  Thankfully we’re both okay with rough seas so we thoroughly enjoyed both the ride and the great views going to the Rock and returning.

After leaving Paihia, we drove down the west coast of the North Island to the south of Auckland.  By the way, Ed did a great job of driving on the opposite side of the road, especially when doing it in rush hour in Auckland!  Our next destination was the Waitomo Caves.  The highlight of the caves is the glow worms which glow a bright green and cover all the walls and ceilings in the interior of the cave.

We then went inland to Rotorua where we visited the Maori Center and thermals area known as “Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao” or “Whaka” for short.  We spent the day learning about the Maori traditions and their history.  We also watched a great live performance during which Maori men and women sang and played a variety of instruments.  They also did a “ball dance” where the women made balls attached to their arms “dance” to the music.  We also saw the famous “Huka,” the Maori war dance which has now been adopted by most of New Zealand’s professional sports teams.  The teams do the Huka before a game to try and intimidate their opponents (and it does work!).

Next we went along the Bay of Plenty, their “Pacific Coast Highway” and spent the day enjoying ocean views before arriving in Gisborne for the night.  We next drove back inland along the “Thermal Highway” to Taupo.  We spent a couple of nights there on the shores of Lake Taupo and explored the “Craters of the Moon” thermal area as well as Huka Falls.  It was a relaxing prelude before spending our first week of New Zealand trout fishing at Angler’s Retreat (see, THE FISHING).

Following Angler’s Retreat, we spent two more nights on the North Island as we headed to the catch the ferry to the South Island.  We did so on February 7 and waved good-bye to the North and began our South Island explorations (see, SOUTH ISLAND).

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