NZ North Island Adventures

We headed to Auckland on Good Friday from Omori.  We drove up the west side of Lake Taupo and ended up on the old Taupo road as we wound are way around to State Highway 1, the main route into Auckland.  When I say wound around, I really mean it.  It was an adventurous drive with lots of tight corners, blind hills, and generally a typical NZ road.  When we joined State Hwy 1, I was glad to be heading into Auckland as the traffic leaving was jammed for more than 100 km.  We had a brief lunch with our friends Tony and Helen and met their new grand daughter Indi.  Great to see new mom Sarah and dad Jens looking so happy.  We left mid-afternoon and headed on to catch the car ferry to Waiheke Island to spend some time with our friends Pip and John.  We had a lovely 12 days on the island, chilling, walking dogs on the beach, trying new wineries and whisky distilleries, and generally enjoying a quiet pace of life.

Whisky on Waiheke

View from Stony Batter WW2 Gun Emplacement

Whanau on the Beach

Onetangi Beach, Waiheke Island NZ

After 12 lovely days on Waiheke it was once again time to move on and head back to Auckland to meet up once again with our friends Tony and Helen and head up to Helen's family Bach (cottage) north of Whangarei.  Swimming in the sea every day (hypodermic every time), walks on the beach, and again, just chilling with good friends.  The Bach has been in Helen's family for over 50 years and is very simple, a couple of bedrooms, a common room with a small kitchen, couch and chairs. They had some erosion damage from Cyclone Gabriel but not as bad as further south in Hawks Bay thankfully.

Misty Morning at the Bach

The BACH!

After the Bach, we started back south again to eventually get back to Wellington where our flight back to Canada would start.  In the meantime we had a brief treat in a thermal suite at a hotel in Taupo where we had our own hot pool in a private courtyard off our room.  We filled it from the thermal spring running on the property and we could have it as hot as we could stand.  One plunge in the evening when we arrived and another first thing in the morning before we left.  

After Taupo, we headed back to Palmerston North for a few more days with Penny and Spencer.  Had a great "goodbye" dinner with their son Harry and his partner Jenna as they prepared to head off the UK for a few years or so. 

We said our final goodbyes and headed back to Wellington to spend a few more days with Jan and Tony on Alishan.  Managed to get caught up with their son Hayden and daughter Chrissy and their respective families while we were there.  Great to see the grand-kids again, they grow up so fast when you only see them every 5 years or so!  Managed to get a day fishing with Tony and his friend Richard before we left and I landed a 4.5 kg snapper!  The biggest fish I've ever caught.  Between the 3 of us we landed a lot of good eating fish!

A surprise red snapper

After a few short days that went by way to fast, we came to travel day.  We ended up with a 24 hour day of travel, arriving at Wellington Airport around 2:00 pm May 3rd (7:00 pm BC time on May 2nd) and arriving back in Sidney, on Cygnet at 7:00 pm May 3rd.  Thankfully our friend Bert was waiting for us at the ferry dock in Sidney and drove us home. 

Starting Out from Wellington NZ

On the Ferry from Vancouver - A little worse for wear!