New Zealand : part 1 - Auckland
3/02/2020 This morning we left from Hope harbour to sail to the Boatworks, while cleaning and arranging the last mess. We lifted our boat out of the water, cleaned the exterior (and ourselves as it was an extremely hot day! 😎 ) and we quickly left to the train station at Coomera that brought us right at the entrance to the international airport of Brisbane.
Only four bags and two car seats. Not too much luggage for one month in the cold, right?!
04/02/2020 We arrived at 1 am and after a short night in the airport IBIS, we went to get our Juicy car. A small Mazda 3 was a good fit to our budget 😏 And also just a perfect fit for our luggage.
On our way to Auckland we decided to visit the West Coast and went to Piha beach.
It was a bit disappointing as it didn't look as rough as presented by the guide. We did our best to make pictures without buildings in it ...
After lunch at the Piha Cafe (quite good!), we visited the Kikekite waterfalls. What a gorgeous walk! Better with hiking boots though and it was way to hot to be in jeans!!!
Good for your heart rate: lot's of ups and downs!
Time to head for Auckland as we need to strip our cloths and get some rest 😂
Lots of prairies but very few sheep 😟 We don't need a gps to see we're going in the good direction!
Our Juicy hotel is ok. We have a spacious room and it's at an excellent location right in the city centre, but it smelled of ... feet 🙈 Nothing a good beer and open windows can't solve 😆
05/02/2020 Geoffrey planned a tour around the city that was just excellent. First stop: breakfast! Yaaammmmm!
Passing by Galway street, Queen street and St-Patricks Cathedral, we arrived at the Sky Tower.
The view from up there is amazing and a bit scary (you won't see me walking on the glass! ) 😳
Auckland is quite trendy and green, sailing seems to be great and there are good hikes around on the many volcanic fields.
Then we took Mayoral drive along the Q theatre and the Town Hall towards the Auckland Art Gallery and Albert Park.
Albert Park is a bit of a short climb with a wonderful view over the city.
We crossed the park towards the Auckland museum and Wintergarden and passed through the university grounds. It seems to be quite cute with its old and small buildings. Must be great to study in this city 😉
And in the museum you could easily spend a whole day! It's great for all ages. We focussed on the Pacific Ocean discovery and migration as the girls could relate to everything we visited in the last year 😎
They used to make amazing things from shells. We still have a lot to collect to be able to make something similar!
A virtual boat race to discover new islands! Guess who won 😎
The only Kiwi's we'll ever see during this trip ... 😔
And last but not least the geological explanation of how New Zealand grew out of the fire. It's very well done and unfortunately we were too late for the movie. We would suggest you start with this!
The way back was maybe a bit too much for the girls 😌 We passed through Parnell Road that seems to be a very good place to go out for dinner! We, however, chose a restaurant a bit closer to the hotel so we could take a refreshing shower! The Mexican Cafe is very very good!
06/02/2020 Before leaving Auckland we wanted to visit the America's Cup centre in the Wynyard Quarter. It's a grey day and we were happy with the extra shirts and socks we bought yesterday 😳😱 We're tired and all having a bit of a throat ache (no Corona virus 😉). It's this weather we're not used to!!!
Almost ready for the real job 😂
Our next boat?
The old America's Boats go out for a short sail with tourists.
They still have some work for the area to be ready for March 2021. This will be an underground metro connection to the city 😲
While the buildings are very pretty, ...
... surroundings do make you say "wow" but in a different way 🙈
Time to take the Southern Motorway (1) and then the State Highway (2) towards Waihi. It's the Southern part of Coromandel Forest Park. The road up there is pretty, but we see so much litter and dead animals, it's terrifying...
Our first AirBnB, Te Ahora, is so "home'y"! It's fun to be "living" in a suburban area and a real house again 😀 We miss LouiseAnna, but it's great having children that stay on their chair instead of jumping up and down while having dinner! 😏
07/02/2020 Time to get into the mountains! We went to the Karangaheke Gorge today and ventured on an amazing hike.
It's a historic Gold mining site, full of remnants and km's of tunnels everywhere along the gorge. We did the Rail Tunnel loop with an extra addition to the Waikino Rail station in the middle of the loop. Do not forget a torch if you want to do this hike 😀
Hard to imagine how they built everything up here and what the gold digging process and treatment must have done to the environment and aquatic life ...
You can walk endlessly in these tunnels and it's hard to chose which way to go!
And if you dare turn off your flashlight you can see glowworms !!! For free 😏
It's Saturday and many locals come to swim here. We realise we're close to the end of the walk as we didn't meet so many people along our way 😏😅 This is the scariest tunnel. Pitch black, bad ground to walk on and very wet!
We're just putting a toe in the water, too cold for us! 😅
A bit further up the road towards Waihi, you have some more waterfalls to visit about 50m from the road.
And Waihi is quite nice to go for a beer and visit of the Martha mine.
We're happy to call it a day and have the rest of the day off 😅😋
We re-arranged our bags in the booth of our small Mazda 3, so we are ready for the next 5000 km and 12 more hotels/AirBnB's. Just want to enjoy the sun and hot tub before hitting the road again! 😎
Comments