Hiking is one of our favorite activities. It’s an opportunity to enjoy nature, find scenic lookouts, get some exercise, and best of all it’s free! We were really excited to set out on some of New Zealand’s wilderness and we found great hikes for our first few!
We came across this 2 hour loop our first day touring east Northland. As our guidebook (NZ Frenzy by Scott Cook) says, it’s a bit of everything! Continue reading
After exploring the east coast of Northland, we headed to the west coast. We first stopped in a town called Opononi on the Hokianga Harbour to use their facilities. Upon parking, we noticed a statue of a young boy with a dolphin. Apparently, the town’s legacy is that in the summer of 1956, a friendly dolphin, Opo, befriended many of the towns people. When Opo died, they buried him in town complete with a tombstone and a local artist created the statue for the towns center.
We continued down the coast to a scenic viewpoint right off the highway. After a quick walk, we had beautiful views of the Tasman Sea, the Hokianga Harbour, sand dunes across the harbor, and the towns of Opononi and Omapere. Just stunning! Continue reading
For my birthday, Sara took us on our first non-tropical dive. She decided on diving the Poor Knights Islands using the only company that charters out there, Dive Tutukaka. The Poor Knights Islands are off the east coast north of Auckland. It has been named one of the top ten dive sites in the world and one of the best non-tropical dive sites.
After a red eye flight to Auckland, we chose to camp our first night in the city. Just across the bay in Takapuna, our new app told us there was a campsite on the water. As we pulled in, there were sailboats heeled over, kiteboarders soaring over the calm water, and campers enjoying the day. We knew we were in the right spot. Unfortunately, the site was fully booked for the night. We received directions for another campsite in town and headed over to checkin. The other campsite was okay – there were good facilities but I guess we knew what we were missing. We spent the afternoon organizing our new campervan home and walked to a grocery store nearby. On the walk, we couldn’t help but pause to appreciate the nicely paved roads and side walks, the green grass, the crisp blue sky, and the neatly laid powerlines which was such a contrast to Southeast Asia. It was nice to be here. That night, we had our last meal out – which was at a brewery, Mac’s Brewbar, with our favorite foods! The following morning, we went back to Takapuna park next to the beautiful campsite to have breakfast before hitting the road north. When we arrived, we were excited to see free yoga in the park had just begun. We jumped in, stretched and took the opportunity to get in the mindset for camping in New Zealand. To top it off, as the relaxing hour completed, Continue reading