28th Birthday Week

October 2020

In October, we were finally out of lockdown and could go travelling a bit more. On my birthday we popped over to Rangitoto Island and hiked up it with a picnic. I hadn't been to Rangitoto as an adult, so it was nice to see another bit of New Zealand. 

For those less familiar, Rangitoto - the volcano that dominates Auckland's skyline, is the city's largest and youngest dormant volcano (probably not the safest mix when I think about it). Rangitoto Island formed in an eruption just 600 years ago, the name comes from Maori, meaning 'bloody sky'. With the eruption being recent, as these things go, it's interesting to note that the eruption remains in local Maori historical memory, and footprints have been found between volcanic ash layers.

The black lava fields that surround you on the hike to the summit make the eruption appear recent, and turns the landscape alien. It's hard going as the loose scoria is jarring on your ankles, and the black rocks soak in the sunlight, creating an incredibly hot environment for hiking. The most direct route takes about an hour each way to the summit, passing lava caves along the way (which need a torch to venture into). Views from the top are pretty stunning, and also make for an excellent lunch spot. Did you know the track to the summit and roads on the island were all built by prison labour in the 20s and 30s? I thought this was an interesting fact.

Although I had my birthday off, it fell midweek so aside from the day trip we kept it low key. At the weekend however, we planned a road trip down south. 

We started with the Wiatomo caves in the mighty Waikato region. The tour included a beautiful boat ride through the cavern, looking up above at the ceilings covered in glow worms and was just stunning.

 

Our next stop was the great Redwood Forest by Rotorua, where we paid for the treetop walk. This was a really cool experience seeing the forest from a different perspective, and the ticket also allowed us to come back a second time at night.

We took advantage of this, as the trees were lit up in interesting ways at night, and provided a quite different experience. Overall, I preferred the forest walk at night, as it was totally unique (and had fewer children). 

After a full on Saturday, we slept well in a little caravan on the outskirts of Rotorua. The next day, we drove to Mount Manganui, as it was yet another place I had never been (I know, I call myself a kiwi!?). A summertime resort town, and for good reason, Mount Manganui is absolutely gorgeous. Even though it was October, the sun was shining in full force, and it was absolutely heaving with tourists. 

You know NZ is small when you run into two different sets of friends within the first hour of arriving, all of whom live in Auckland! Tired out from socializing and driving, we stopped off at Rice Rice Baby, a Vietnamese restaurant, for a spot of lunch.

Happily satiated on Bahn Mi (an epic sandwich which I highly recommend you try as soon as possible if you haven't already) we headed slightly out of town to escape the crowds, and stopped in at The Rising Tide, a brewery. We shared a tasting paddle of interesting beers, and chilled out for a while.

Feeling sufficiently recovered, we headed back into town for a sunset beach walk, followed by dinner. The crowds had thinned by now, and the experience was much more pleasant.

We had dinner on the waterfront, enjoying the last of the sunset at a lovely placed called Dixie Browns, where we shared an excellent prawn starter, followed by delicious steaks. It was a lovely birthday dinner courtesy of dad (thanks dad, best birthday present!) and felt like such a treat.

The next morning we got up bright and early to conquer the mount. Mount Manganui is perhaps best known for its walk up the mount, with incredible views. But largely unshaded, its a hell of a climb.

 It only takes about forty minutes to an hour, but its incredibly steep and hot and we were both dripping and dead by the end of it. 

If it had been slightly later in the year, I would have most certainly swum after the descent. But look at those views! So worth it, especially early morning before the full sun hit. What a weekend!

The birthday treats weren't quite over yet though, as the next weekend one of my best friend's Shyla took me away for a night to a little bach. We went to the Auckland Botanic Gardens for a high tea picnic (and with over 64 hectares of garden to explore for free, its really worth the trip!)

Followed by what I class as one of my favourite pictures of me because it's hilarious. My mouth full of cheese, with an epic fondue spread in front of me, complete with rules on what to do if one drops the bread in (no nearby lakes to go jump in sadly).

 I felt incredibly lucky, and whilst ok, you can't really beat that I was in Corfu the year before, I certainly felt spoiled by my friends and family for my 28th birthday. 

Winter 2020

June-October 2020

With lockdowns left right and centre, and in the midst of winter, the next few months passed with very little activity from us.

Other than cosy nights in, we did manage to get the odd trip out and about. We took a hike at Long Bay up around to Granny's Bay, which was wonderfully scenic and I highly recommend.

We took a day trip to Piha, the epic west coast beach known for its scenery. 

We packed a small lunch and began our trip. The drive itself, while beautiful, led up some very narrow and windy roads and Ben did his best not to curse at cars and cyclists cutting over into the lane. 

Upon arriving to the beach, it was so windy! That didn't stop us though, we huddled in our jackets and had the beach all to ourselves. 

We also hiked out around Shakespeare, another awesome area for walks and views. I fondly remember sending videos to friends while the wind was blowing us about and also aww-ing at all the baby lambs (although I drew the line at Ben bringing one home with us, cute as they were).

Before we knew it, spring had arrived and with it our neighbourhood blossomed - literally. We would often walk (and sometimes jog) down the main street which in springtime was particularly beautiful. Walks have always been a wonderful thing for me as an adult, and especially within mine and Ben's relationship. It's a time for us to de-stress, having deeper and more meaningful conversation and just take the time to really live in the moment and appreciate that you aren't working.

It was a welcome change from dreary winter, however with it came the heat. We loved our little apartment, but summer equipped it was not. 

Unfortunately it had no heatpump or any kind of air conditioning, and double glazed windows and full sun left us melting. We resorted to pulling our couch outside for fresh air picnics looking out to the street below and coming up with funny theoretical stories about husbands rushing home to their wives.

Road Tripping Part II

 Bright and early the next morning, we headed out for 90 Mile beach, trying to beat the rain. We had been lucky the day before with the weather, but we knew we were in for a storm. It was wild and windy, but we managed a walk without a dousing. (Also, did you know 90 Mile beach is only 55 Miles long?)

We stopped for a quick sandwich break for lunch, followed by the real treat, huge ice creams from the local store in tiny Te Kao! A perfect pick-me-up before we hit Cape Reinga. Can't get much more kiwi than that, bro. 

Our last stop before the cape lookout was the Giant Sand Dunes just off to one side, people were gamely boogie boarding down them, but in the rain the best we could manage was a bit of a walk and a photo.

And then at last we reached the tip, Cape Reinga! Known as the most spiritual place in New Zealand to the Maori, they believe all spirits travel up the coast to the Pohutukawa tree here, to enter the underworld. 

Wild and beautiful, here you can watch the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean meet, although just as we began the walk down, the heavens opened and we could see very little beyond the pouring rain.

We were so soaked by the time we were halfway there that we simply embraced it, and strolled through the downpour.

Cape Reinga is of course famous for its lighthouse. This was built in 1941 to replace an earlier lighthouse built in 1879 and situated on the nearby Motuapao island. This was extremely difficult to get to, and in fact lighthouse keepers and their family used a flying fox from the mainland to the island to get there. 

I imagine this was rather terrifying and dangerous, and indeed in 1914 the lighthouse keepers wife was swept off the rocks. This led to the construction of the new lighthouse in 1933 in a safer area. Cape Reinga's lighthouse was in fact the last watched lighhouse in all of New Zealand. 

Peeling my sodden jeans off one leg at a time in the nearby public bathrooms to get into dry clothes wasn't my favourite moment, and I was looking forward to a hot shower and some warm food. We had booked a little studio farmstay on the west coast on the way back down, and as soon as we arrived we treated ourselves to hot showers.

We were dismayed by the incredibly creepy dolls displayed in the incredibly creepy chair (visible in the background below) but very happy with the homemade dinner our hosts brought us, chicken pie, potatoes and cheesy cauliflower washed down with red wine. Perfect.

The next morning was the last leg of our trip, we took the West coast route back, to change things up. The weather was windy and wild, and we had the roads to ourselves.

We stopped off in the Waipoua forest to see Tane Mahuta, The Lord of the Forest, and New Zealand's largest Kauri tree. This beautiful giant is about 2,000 (yep you read that right) years old, and is still growing!

What an excellent little road trip all in all. 

Road Tripping

May 2020

Poor Ben's birthday was spent in lockdown, and although I did my best to cook something fun and buy something nice, I could only hope the next year's one would be better. 

Happily by the end of May, lockdown eased and we were able to take a road-trip to celebrate. We decided to go up north of Auckland, as neither of us had explored that area much. 

We left before dawn, cresting the Brynderwyns as sunrise broke out across Uretiti beach - it was one of the best views I've ever seen. 
Our first stop was Kawakawa, for toilets - though not for the reason you would assume. The Hundertwasser toilets were designed by the famous artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and are notable as they are his only project in the Southern Hemisphere. They are known as the most photographed toilets in New Zealand, so I followed the trend.

Our next stop after a quick ferry over was Russell, in the Bay of Islands. It was a glorious sunny day, and I was madly tempted to swim, even though it was far too late in the year and far too chilly. 

Twee is the word that comes to mind for me for Russell. Gloriously quaint and picturesque, it's just adorable. However our stomachs were complaining, and we had a lunch booking near Kerikeri so off we went again. 

Our lunch at the vineyard was everything I hoped, and I would absolutely recommend a visit. Especially as we walked away with a rather nice dessert wine.

Feeling rejuvenated, we popped into the Stone Store, New Zealand's oldest surviving stone building. Built somewhere between 1832-1836. It was build to sell produce from local farms to ships, as well as European goods to the Maori. However over the years it had many purposes, from a Library, to a Barracks to a boys school. 

Our next pitstop was the nearby Rainbow Falls, a 27m waterfall near Kerikeri. 

A very short walk, it was lovely, easy and scenic. We were a bit too late in the day for rainbows, but it was pretty nonetheless. 

We had travelled a long way and done a lot in one day, so it was time to start heading to our accomodation, a little caravan for the night. 

Cheap and adorable, I would definitely recommend. The owners house wasn't too far away, but they were happily out of site of the outdoor compositable toilet and outdoor shower. I still felt rather exposed showering in the wilderness of the garden, but it was also somewhat lovely in the rain. (Braving the outdoor toilet in the night with only a torch was somewhat less lovely).

Our very last stop for the night was for dinner; we popped out to a nearby a fish and chip shop on the water, in Mangonui. The sunset painting the water in pastel pink whilst we drank beer and waited for our hot dinner was magical.

The ridiculously overpriced fish and chips which weren't all that great - less so. I'd come back for the views, but not to eat. Give me Stanmore Bay fish and chips any day! 

February-May: A very strange Housesit and other tales

February 2020

We couldn't look for a flat until we had jobs, so to pass some time whilst we looked, we organized a housesit - our first (and to date, last) in NZ. It was halfway between Taupo and Rotorua, so a nice way to do some site-seeing. 

It was very rural (we saw petrol for $1.60, whereas in Auckland it was $2.30 so this was rather spectacular). The housesit was also very strange, and that's without taking the pet emu into account. Apparently, the emu had once escaped and they had to chase it down the main road. Happily this did not happen when we were housesitting. 

The owners were lovely, but boy did they love to talk. We soon learned that the husband had built their coffins in advance which were currently being used as bookshelves (how, enterprising?) and he really, really liked trains. Like really liked trains. 

Finally, we escaped the train lecture, train museum and the working miniature train, and the owners left. We were left to look after a chill cat, a herd of angry cows, and a talkative emu. It was going to be fineeee.

Luckily the countryside was beautiful, and we only had to nervously look over the gates occasionally to check the cows (and emu) were ok, had water, and hadn't escaped. 

They also had a wonderful veggie patch and I was able to pick homegrown tomatoes until we were bursting. This was the start of my own personal mission to have my own veggie patch, no matter how long it might take.

Since we were only looking after a cat, we had the freedom to take day trips. We popped over to the Huka falls, where the placid Waikato river turns into a mighty roar, as almost a quarter of a million litres per second erupt from the gorge and fall 11kms below. 

Being so close to Rotorua, it seemed a shame not to stop at this geothermic oddity. I highly recommend Kuirua Park, as its free and central. If you don't want to pay, its a great spot to check out the steaming, bubbling, sulfuric geothermal activity.

We also stopped for a meander amongst the mighty Redwoods.

It was drizzling steadily, though somewhat sheltered under the trees, so we only went for a short wander, rather than an epic hike.

During our housesit, Ben interviewed, and was offered a year long contract at Auckland University. Job sorted, I quickly followed, finding a short term temp role working in admin for Auckland Council. February over, we spent March staying with Ben's sister as we settled into our new roles. 

A week after starting however, the world changed, as New Zealand went into its first lockdown, due to Covid. 

A period of strangeness followed, as we tried to work out our new roles working from 'home'. The two-week planned stay with Ben's sister as we looked for flats suddenly became much longer, as we had no other option. My role didn't last much longer, as the council let go must of their temporary staff. 

Still, I kept looking, and as soon as we dropped levels and were able, we viewed a couple of flats, and moved into our first proper home together, the day before Ben's birthday in early May. 

Our little apartment in Albany would be home for the next 10 months, through lockdowns and job hunting, it was our little haven. Small, and boiling in the summer, but we loved it nonetheless. 

It was modern, and clean, and I loved the kitchen to bits. Plus it had a balcony! We really couldn't complain. It was a perfect first flat.