New Zealand (2005)

Following the 21:00 flight from Singapore on 29th November 2005, we arrived in Auckland at 11:40 on the 30th. We picked up a hire car from the airport and drove North to Whangarei.

Whangarei Falls

We were spending our first few nights at The Lupton Lodge B & B. We had tea on the veranda and headed off to the Whangarei Falls. Following dinner in town (20:00 is considered very late in New Zealand - we were surprised to get served!) I managed to stay awake long enough to see about 10 minutes of The Aviator before falling fast asleep!

The Tutukaka Coast

1st December, our first full day back in New Zealand. I woke early and took full advantage of the hammock on the veranda and spent time reading before breakfast. We headed to the Tutukaka Coast.

Whale Bay

Our first stop was Whale Bay where we walked down to the water line and along the beach. This was a view of the bay from the trail.

Whale Bay

We were amased at how the lush green vegitation could grow right down to the clear blue sea.

Whale Bay

Trees on the beach.

Whale Bay

A New Zealand fern on the side of the trail back to the road.

Tutukaka Estates

We then headed to Tutukaka Estates where, after spending about 5 minutes working out how to get through a security gate, we walked to the top of a small hill and admired the views.

Tutukaka Estates

Whangarei Falls

We then headed back into Whangarei via the Whangarei Falls.

Whangarei

Small boats in the harbour at Whangarei.

Whangarei

We stopped at the Burning Issues Gallery where we once again spotted a nice piece of local glassware (which we later bought for far too much money).

Mount Manaia

We left Whangarei with the intention of walking to the top of Mount Manaia (430m tall with a distinctive summit, crowned with 5 deeply eroded pinnacles), however changeable weather made us think better of this idea.

Urquharts Bay

We ended up travelling on to Urquharts Bay and took a short coastal walk past some old gun emplacements (not quite getting as far as Smugglers Cove).

Urquharts Bay

Tammay got very worried about the cows!

Urquharts Bay

Dinner for the evening was a pizza we picked up in Whangarei and ate on the veranda.

Waitangi

2nd December, we checked out of The Lupton Lodge and after a nice long chat with the owners we travelled into Whangarei to pick up the vase we had spotted the day before. We drove up the coast to Waitangi where we stayed at The Copthorne Hotel and Resort. I left Tammay to have a sleep in the room and walked down to the water line outside the hotel to see if there was anything worthy of a photo.

Paihia

We travelled into Paihia and booked a twilight Kayak trip around the bay.

Bay of Islands

We were joined by two girls and a guy caller Tiger from Alaska who worked as a fisherman.

Bay of Islands

Waitangi Treaty Ground

We paddled to Waitangi where we walked up to the treaty ground, chatted, ate some food and threw a frisbee around.

Bay of Islands

Unfortunately none of us were lucky enough to catch anything (apart from seaweed) with the fishing lines we trailed from the back of our kayaks.

Bay of Islands

With the sun setting, we passed around some of the islands in the bay and made our way back to Paihia.

Sunrise from the Waitangi Treaty Ground

3rd December, I woke really early (05:30!) and decided to take a walk along the Waitangi coast around the treaty grounds and take a few photos of sunrise.

A Lone Fisherman

I spotted this lone fisherman out on the bay.

Waitangi Treaty Ground

The morning light was good providing great views of the Treaty Ground and surrounding bay. It was however really cold and I began to regret only coming out in shorts and a T-shirt!

Dolphins in the Bay of Islands

After another hour in bed to recover we had breakfast and headed to Paihia on a hotel shuttle bus for a Dolphin Discovery Tour around the bay.

Dolphins in the Bay of Islands

After a short stop in Russell to pick up additional people we headed out into the bay and around a few of the islands.

Dolphins in the Bay of Islands

As you can see, we saw lots of dolphins – many of the pods had young with them as seen here.

Dolphins in the Bay of Islands

I even managed to catch a few shots of the dolphins out of the water. If only I'd had my Nikon D200 at this point!

Dolphins in the Bay of Islands

Having the sun behind us would probably have been asking too much!

Dolphins in the Bay of Islands

Bay of Islands

Cape Brett

Cape Brett.

Bay of Islands

The Hole in the Rock

We passed through the "Hole in the Rock" and out to Cape Brett.

Bay of Islands

Me on the boat.

Bay of Islands

We were amazed at how the land could be so green while the sea was so blue.

A home by the sea

We spotted quite a few really amazing homes built right on the shore line.

Russell

We travelled back into Russell (around a number of nice little islands) where we alighted the ferry and had lunch. We then caught the 14:40 ferry back to Paihia. After a couple of hours sleep we walked across the bridge and back towards Paihia in search of somewhere to eat, in the end we simply decided to go back to the hotel for room service and watched Bringing Down The House on TV!

Sand dunes on the Hokianga Harbour

4th December, we checked out of The Copthorne Resort and headed West to Opononi were we parked the car and took a walk along the beach to view the sand dunes in the opposite side of the Hokianga Harbour.

Sand dunes on the Hokianga Harbour

It was amasing how grass so green could be growing right next to the sand dunes.

Sand dunes on the Hokianga Harbour

Although we didn't try it, it was possible to hire tabogans to slide down the side of the dunes.

Arai te Uru Reserve

We then travelled a little further West to Omapere, stopping to take a short walk along Signal Station Road in the Arai te Uru Reserve to admire the views of the coastline.

Arai te Uru Reserve

We turned South and travelled to Waimamaku where we stopping for an interesting lasagna lunch at a small cafe called Marelles.

Tane Mahuta

We took a short walk from the road to see Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest), the tallest living Kauri tree – approximately 2000 years old, standing 169 feet tall and 45 feet around. This photo doesn't begin to do justice to how big this tree actually is. An image below of Yakas (the seventh largest Kauri) shows me standing next to it to add a bit of scale.

Waipoua Lodge

We checked into our accommodation for the evening at the Waipoua Lodge.

Kai Iwi Lakes

We then travelled further South to the Kai Iwi Lakes. We drove around Taharoa, the largest of the three lakes. Unfortunately high winds and an overcast sky meant that it wasn't the most pleasant of places.

Waipoua Lodge

We headed back to our lodge for a late evening meal in our room.

The Waipoua Kauri Forest

5th December, woke to find it had been raining over night. We had breakfast and decided to wait it out in the hope that the sky would clear. By lunch time, after a bit of reading and watching TV, the rain had mostly passed so we headed into the Waipoua Forest for the Kauri walks.

The Waipoua Kauri Forest

We firstly went to the forest lookout, then to the Four Sisters.

The Waipoua Kauri Forest

The Four Sisters. We then went on to Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest), the second largest Kauri in New Zealand

The Waipoua Kauri Forest

Yakas, the seventh largest Kauri and the only one you can touch.

The Waipoua Kauri Forest

Cathedral Grove. At this point the rain started to hammer down and we were glad to have waterproof jackets... however my legs were another story!

Waipoua Lodge

We went back to the lodge were we spent an hour or so drying off and had an early dinner before our night walk to see Kiwi in the Trounson National Park. We met our guide at the Top Ten Holiday Park and were taken into the forest. We were lucky enough to see three Kiwi, one adult and two young. We also saw a 6 month old Kauri tree growing on the trunk of a fallen tree. Even at 6 months it was only 2 inches tall with two tiny leaves. There were lots of glow worms around the forest, cray fish plus we saw a cave weta. At the end of the walk our guide took us down to the river near the holiday park to show us a wall covered in glow worms. We also threw bread into the water for the eels, which you could clearly see under torch light. By the time we finished the walk the sky was completely clear and we spent some time admiring the view. We returned to the lodge and we spent a couple of hours in the front lawn having our first attempt at light painting an old tree. As you can see, even the twenty or so bursts of flash (through a red filter) were not enough to light up the tree.

Waipoua Lodge

This was a view of the tree in daylight.

Leaving the Waipoua Kauri Forest

6th December we checked out of the Waipoua Lodge and travelled towards Cambridge.

Woodstone

We were staying at Woodstone B & B, a brand new house that the owners had build on the side of Lake Karapiro.

Lake Karapiro

We walked down to the side of the lake which is where the New Zealand Olympic rowing team is based.

Lake Karapiro

Me on Lake Karapiro. We went back to the B & B and made use of their hot tub and I played with their two Labrador dogs. We had our evening meal in Cambridge at a restaurant called Onyx.

Aratiatia Dam

7th December, after breakfast, which we had outside our room, we travelled South to Taupo were we stayed at The Loft B & B. We visited the Aratiatia Dam, one of 8 hydroelectric dams on the Waikato River.

Aratiatia Dam

Three or four times a day water is released through the rapids, turning a small trickle into a raging torrent.

Aratiatia Dam

Tammay at one of the lookout points above the rapids.

Huka Falls Cafe

We made our way to the Huka Falls Lookout and then to the Huka Falls Cafe for lunch. Unfortunately it was 15:00 and their kitchen had closed – but we did end up having a sandwich and some free cake!

Huka Falls

After our free cake we made our way down to the Huka Falls.

Huka Falls

Here you can see the Huka Jet coming up towards the falls.

Lake Taupo

We then went to the edge of Lake Taupo were people were playing golf, trying to get a hole-in-one with a raft moored just off the water line.

Lake Taupo

Boats on Lake Taupo.

Lake Taupo

Boats on Lake Taupo.

Lake Taupo

We picked up a McDonalds and ate it on the edge of the lake, watching the sun set.

Lake Taupo

Sunset over Lake Taupo.

Sunrise over Lake Taupo

8th December, we woke very early so that we could travel down to the edge of Lake Taupo for sunrise. Unfortunately it was fairly cloudy and I didn't manage to get many nice photos.

Sunrise over Lake Taupo

A couple of fishermen out early. After another hour of sleep we had breakfast and a long chat with the owners of the B & B. We checked out and went into Taupo for a walk around the shops.

The Founders

We then drove South, around the East side of Lake Taupo to Turangi where we were staying at The Founders B & B.

Lake Rotopounamu

We had lunch in Turangi at the Mustard Seed and decided to take a short walk to Lake Rotopounamu.

Lake Rotopounamu

Unfortunately we made the 20 minute walk from the road to the lake only to realise that I hadn't brought my tripod with me.

Lake Rotopounamu

I decided that the picturesque forest path deserved a photo so I walked back to the car. We then went back to our B & B read for a while and then went out for dinner at the restaurant directly opposite.

Tongariro National Park

9th December, we had planned to do the Tongariro Crossing, however the weather wasn't great and the trip was cancelled (in any case, there wouldn't have been a view from the top of the mountain anyway!). We had breakfast at 08:00 and ended up talking to Chris and Peter Stewart (who owned the B & B) for ages. We decided to go to the Tongariro National Park and spend the day walking. This was a view into the forest from the road.

Taranaki Falls Trail

Our first choice was a 6 hour hike to the Tama Lakes but again the weather wasn't quite good enough so we settled for a shorter portion of this walk which entailed a 2 hour loop track to the Taranaki Falls.

Taranaki Falls Trail

Me on the trail.

Taranaki Falls Trail

Tammay on the trail.

Taranaki Falls Trail

Me on the trail.

Waterfall

We reached this waterfall on the way to the Taranaki Falls.

Waterfall

The Taranaki Falls

We finally reached the Taranaki Falls. Taking photos and admiring the view had turned this trail into a 4 hour walk.

The Taranaki Falls

Waterfall

One of the small waterfalls directly opposite the Taranaki Falls.

The Taranaki Falls

A view from the top of the Taranaki Falls Trail. At this point the trail turned back to the visitors centre. By the time we got back, the restaurant had closed but luckly we were able to have dinner at a cafe attached to the Grand Chateau which was open all day.

Taranaki Falls Trail

By the time we got back to our B & B the rain had returned so we stayed in, watched TV and read. We were thankful that our hosts, Chris and Peter Stewart, were so welcoming that Plans to play mini golf and rent (or even buy) a DVD for the evening were put to an end when we found everything in town to be closed. We ended the evening with more TV, reading, Shreik 2 and a couple of games of Backgammon.

Waimangu Volcanic Valley

10th December, our last day in New Zealand. We headed North back towards Auckland, stopping at Waimangu Volcanic Valley.

Waimangu Volcanic Valley

Pig & Whistle

After a late lunch at the Pig & Whistle in Rotoroa (chosen because it was the same place we ate at on a couple of evenings the first time we travelled to New Zealand two years earlier) we pressed on towards Auckland. We finally made it, finding Treasure Island Adventure Golf near our hire car depot. After an hour of mini golf (which Tammay won!) we returned our hire car and took the shuttle bus to the airport.

We took the 01:05 flight to Singapore on the 11th December, connecting with a 09:00 flight on to Heathrow. We finally arrived back in London at 14:00 on Sunday 11th December 2005 – ready for work the next day!