Tag: New Zealand

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Wellington

Yesterday we drove from Taupo to Wellington, but not before stopping at the Taupo farmers market to check it out. It was a cross between a flea market and farmers market.

The drive was long and pretty scenic but it was mostly overcast and we did get some heavy rain, which unfortunately obscured the mountains. Anyway we arrived in Wellington and checked into our Airbnb in time for us to go out for a short walk and Yanmei took this:

Today we decided to go to Zealandia, which our host recommended. It is a 500 acre sanctuary where they are trying to restore the habitat to pre-human levels for plants and birds. Until humans arrived there were no mammals in New Zealand, which meant that birds thrived here. Humans not only hunted the birds, they also brought predators like rats, possums and cats that severely damaged a lot of bird species. Zealandia is surrounded by a predator-proof fence to keep all those things out, which makes it feel a bit like Jurassic Park.

Inside are rare bird species and native forests.

The lizard above is a Tuatara, which is the last living species from its order. The rest went extinct with the dinosaurs.

After Zealandia we did some shopping in Wellington, before heading back. Now I’m writing this blog before dinner 😀.

David

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Mt Maunganui to Taupo

We arrived to an Airbnb in Tauranga last night, it was a beautiful little one room cottage newly built on a small farm. Yanmei got a few fresh eggs from the chickens.

The next morning we headed to Mount Maunganui, which is a very small mountain on the coast at the tip of the peninsula. We could see it from our room (on the right, below).

It is part of the Bay of Plenty and is a popular beach destination, especially now in the summer. Hiking up Mt Maunganui is one of the top recommendations on TripAdvisor.com for North Island, so that was our goal.

First we took a few photos in the harbor.

Our host recommended we start early because it gets hot, but of course we didn’t listen and started our hike at 10am, and it was starting to get warm, although is was partially overcast as you can see from the pictures. The hike was moderately challenging. Yanmei really enjoyed the views and wants to come back.

We made it to the summit in a bit over an hour, then headed back down a different route. As we got closer to the beach we could see there was lots of activity.

We had lunch and then headed to our next stop: Taupo. Taupo is a large lake in the center of North Island. They call it the Great Lake. It was about 160km. Shortly into the drive it started to downpour rain, and there was some lightning and a few big cracks of thunder.

After the initial downpour, the rain eased up and after about half an hour it was over. We got to Taupo safely and checked into another good Airbnb picked by Yanmei, with a little bit of a lake view. After resting a bit we decided to check out Huka Falls, which was okay, but we’ve seen a lot of great waterfalls, so…

More interesting to me was this sign:

It’s the first “no drones” sign I’ve seen. I bet they will become a lot more common in the next few years. Anyway after that we headed back to our room for the night and there was a pretty go sunset from our view.

David

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Auckland 2

This morning we checked out of our Airbnb and headed to downtown Auckland for a free walking tour. Free walking tours are usually good because the guides are working for tips and this one was no exception. We didn’t actually see anything too special, but there was a lot of good information and history about Auckland and New Zealand.

The above picture is of the British governors office from the 19th century. The interesting thing about it is it is made entirely of wood, but it is shaped and painted to appear to be stone, to give an appearance of solidity and wealth. It is now part of the University of Auckland campus.

After the tour we had lunch and left Auckland for our next stop. A friend of a friend of Yanmei’s had a small farm just south of Hamilton. The drive was pretty nice, but nothing spectacular yet.

The farm was a lavender farm.

I happened to get a cool shot with the telephoto lens.

After the farm we headed to our next stop, which was another Airbnb near Tauranga.

We have a pretty busy schedule ahead of us, because we have to be in Christchurch on South Island by January 16th to pick up our RV.

David