A Little New Zealand Holiday

During nearly a dozen years of London living my brother had married a Kiwi and started a family there. Late last year the whole troupe emigrated to New Zealand where my sister in law could be close to family, and us relatives in Australia need only leap the 'ditch' to visit.
A few weeks ago it was my turn.
 With just ten days up our sleeves we decided to explore just the North Island outside of our time staying with my brother who has settled on a few acres in the Tauranga area on the north coast. I have never been to New Zealand before but might well have been born one had it not been for a Sliding Doors' style decision by my grandparents five decades ago. My English parents had decided to emigrate as ten-pound poms but an argument ensued as to the destination. New Zealand or Australia?My grandmother won out and Australia it was.
I admit as our plane flew over turquoise water and emerald islands towards Auckland airport I did have a thought of "Damn it Nanna!" Luckily we soon flew over some trashy industrialised areas and I didn't make a parachute migration from the plane there and then.

North Island Interior View

It is a fact that everywhere you visit does not look as you imagined it, no matter how many people give a description or how many lonely Planet books or Google Images pages you scour.
Hilly was my initial thought of New Zealand. With all that seismic activity the whole place is one big green crumpled doona. I was fascinated with how little the place looks like Australia despite our relative nearness- sure there were places we visited that reminded me a bit of such and such a place in Australia but on the whole it was completely unique to my mind. I have heard comparisons to England as well but once again though certainly there were little nods to the UK landscape here and there, but on the whole, nothing like. The green of New Zealand is a different green- it is lurid and beautiful with a gold twang that makes it almost hurt the eyes- the grass of the UK I found was a deeper darker shade- also ridiculously verdant but of a hue that only copious rain and limited sunshine can give. Strange to go on about grass but if you are from a country that is largely khaki for much of the year- green grass everywhere is a pleasant oddity.
But back to our arrival- without reliving all of the saga and frustration let's say that instead of arriving in Auckland at 2pm and making our way in a dignified manner to my brother's, enjoying the scenery along the way, our arrival at 5pm had us driving our hire car through the rain and darkness directed by a GPS which was lacking some vital updates (the wrong way on a one-way major road is one example) to finally arrive just after 9:30pm, exhausted and road-weary to greet my sister in law the only person in the house still up.
 My first morning was not much more auspicious- I woke from the sofa bed to see the family cat outside with a live bird in it's mouth squawking it's unhappiness. In my nightie I leaped out the door giving chase, skidding in the wet clay soil and getting scratched by bushes. I stood there feet muddy, heart pounding and wet (it was still raining) and looked out to morning sun on the distant sea, struggling to gain some pleasure out of the pristine scenery when the damn cat was in the bushes somewhere close by munching on a bird.
Luckily everything was uphill from there on now. Nanna had finally had her laugh I think and I was back to being able to gush over this new country we were visiting.
Though the weather was a little unstable, my brother's family took us out to The Mount, at Tauranga; port of cruise ships and the odd seal as we found out. It's a little mini mountain on the end of a peninsular with thermal spring pools at it's base as well as a lovely walk around it's circumference. I am sure there is a Maori story to the place but I never found what it was. The scenery was stunning even when it began to rain and we all got soaked running back into town but we were soon all warm and cheered and enjoying a delicious lunch in one of the many cafes.
My family enjoyed a dip in the thermal pools before we left. I declined and volunteered as 'bag lady'.
What I thought would be some steaming rock-pools was in fact a public pool style affair with a circle of singing people at one end and all sorts of people steaming away in various temperature pools.
My husband assured me it was a pleasant experience except for your eyeballs broiling a little underwater.
A few days later my husband Fil and I and our two teens headed off by ourselves with a map on our laps, verbal directions in our head and our GPS switched firmly OFF.
The weather still cool and showering we headed south to lake Taupo ( Via Rotarua where we admired the plumes of steam everywhere but rushed to switch the car air-con off using outside air- sulphur is wicked!)  where we paused long enough to decide that while the place must be stunning on a nice day, the bitter wind off the lake was freezing and the snow-capped peaks on the far side were best admired from a heated car.

 Onwards again through thousands of acres of pine plantations and stunning ravines and spring wild-flowers we finally popped out in the Esk valley which was one of those milk and honey type of places- vineyards and orchards everywhere- food of every variety brimming over the valley floor.
Our destination was however the Art-Deco town of Napier on the south-west coast and as it was already after 2pm and we only had one night at this seaside town we could not pause in the lovely Esk valley.
Napier with it's promenade and art Deco pavilion and black-pebble beach is gorgeous. We stayed at the Masonic right opposite the sea. Our rooms, though almost a century old were well appointed with modern furnishing with a Art-Deco sympathy. Attached to the hotel was an Irish pub called the Rose where we enjoyed a dinner and local ales and wine.
After exploring the streets we learnt that the trying weather was about to abate for a few days and so we stayed on the next morning as long as we dared to enjoy the blue-skies before we began our next drive down to Wellington.
More farmland and forest and stunning scenery with snow-capped mountains and incredible beautiful valleys and we finally found ourselves on the east coast looking out over creamy pale blue water and winding our way down to Wellington.
Arriving around 5pm we only had time to check into our inner-city hotel and drop our bags before we set off to explore before it got dark and then find some dinner. Wellington has two main food areas in the city and the one we were staying close by to was Cuba Street. Along this straight stretch, part of it pedestrian only, is a range of food from every country and for every budget. We settled on a pizza place reputed to be excellent. We can now testify to that!
Staying in a self-contained flat and having yet to buy food turned out to be a bonus to getting teens up and moving of a morning. With wide blue skies outside I was literally jumping out my skin to explore this beautiful city.

Stunning view of Wellington from the Botanical gardens- take the cable car!
 

Fil had kindly made up a little schedule for things to see but I completely rail-roaded him when I got my first glimpse of the sea. Wellington harbour is fantastic- one of the nicest I've ever seen with it shoulders of mountains and clear blue water. It's hill-sides of pastel historic townhouses are delightful and the harbour front- done up over the years for people to enjoy rather than boats to dock in-  is fantastic. The city feels like it was made for the people of Wellington to enjoy, not so much the tourist which is such a nice change.

 We enjoyed our breakfast looking out on part of this lovely vista.
Next we took the city cable-car up to the botanical gardens- the views were excellent down to the city and harbour but the gardens themselves are well-worth a visit. We enjoyed walking down through them and out into the formal gardens at the bottom- everyone enjoying the sunshine and flowers everywhere. A few more walks around the city and Fil and I were thinking we would like to spend some time living in this walkable, stunning city. Sure we would be in the age minority - Wellington seems full of younger people -but it just has such a nice feel to it- I'm sure mid-winter this feeling may fade (!) but on a blue-sky warm day it is just magic!

We left Wellington a little sadly but the beauty of the east coast was a nice salve. We had a long drive that day of about 5 hours and we were more than glad to reach to reach our little cabin on the beach at Oakura, south of New Plymouth right on sunset.

 The beach cabin was small- my eldest son had to Vaseline his feel to fit into the bunk but the location was wonderful. I would have liked to stay here longer too- everyone we spoke to was friendly and seemed very, very happy. Our pub dinner was excellent too. I would highly recommend this pretty little township by the sea.

Beautiful Oakura Beach

Now, did I mention Mount Taranaki? OMG! There you are driving along relatively flat green farmland and maybe you notice a cloud that looks like a snow-capped mountain- only it IS a snow-capped mountain. Mount Tarantaki rises out of the land-scape like snow-cone dropped on the footpath. We couldn't stop looking at it- and what's more, we were told it's over-due to erupt. I kept thinking about everyone in the region and how much this slumbering monster preyed on their subconscious. As well it should! My sisiter in law back at Tauranga had told me that when a volcano erupted near Lake Taupo some years ago, they had ash everywhere and that was a few hours drive away. If you live near Mount Taranaki I would be worried about more than ash!

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On our return trip back to my brother's place we made a detour to the Whaitomo caves to see the glow-worms from a boat. I don't want to spoil it for anyone visiting but I have to say that looking in silent darkness at a galaxy of blue stars is one of my favourite experiences ever- a must-see!
Back to my brothers with more trips exploring their very pretty local area as well as enjoying time with him and his family. Seeing people move from a ground-floor town house with a little garden that refused to grow a vegetable, to a few acres of rolling green farmland with flowers and fruit and vege-gardens and a smattering of farm animals was just lovely. Like seeing people go wild after being espaliered.
 From their place we made one other sight-seeing trip by ourselves- to Hobbiton- location of Peter Jackson's films.

 

Me at home feeling tall for once

During our drive there, I was trying to squash down my high-expectations but in fact it was way better than I imagined- and I imagined a lot! Once again to avoid a spoiler let's just say we loved it, I was in raptures and I left very reluctantly, designing my own hobbit hole in my head. The cider at the Green Dragon with the pork pie softened slightly my pain at going. Don't miss it if you are on the North Island of NZ. $75 per adult seems a lot but it was a bargain in my opinion.

Soon it was time to leave, sad farewells and promises to return. In spite of our many hours of driving and exploring we only saw a fraction of the North Island and there's still the South to see.
Next time we visit my brothers place, the pig may have piglets, their Labrador puppies, more building work will have been done, gardens extended and our niece and nephew grown. Then there's all that exploring left to do...I am looking forward to it all already!