Cathedral Cove
Auckland and Surrounding Beaches- We had a long day/night of travel flying from Bangkok to Auckland, with a layover in Brisbane. We landed in Auckland around 7pm local time, and got some beautiful views of small uninhabited islands and the rugged coastlines on our approach. After landing in Auckland, we got through immigration and retrieved our bags quickly, but then spent almost 2 hours in line waiting to get through customs declarations. We had read that this could happen since NZ is very strict about what is allowed in the country to prevent invasive species and other issues (fair, considering they're a remote island), so we had made sure our hiking boots were clean (yep, they even look at that) and filled out our online applications. Once we got to the front of the line, we quickly worked our way through the different security check points. We didn't run into any issues, except Mel had to surrender an extra ham and cheese sandwich she had saved from the flight (apparently even hot food from the plane is off limits). During the last checkpoint where they do a final scan of your luggage, the woman in front of us was having an argument with security because they had found like a full picnic lunch of fresh food in her bag (including eggs!). We couldn't believe she had made it that far with the food and thought she'd be able to sneak it in. We didn't stick around to see what happened, but it was entertaining.
We finally exited the airport and took an Uber to our Airbnb in downtown Auckland. We were staying in the spare room of a nice apartment with our host, Stephen. We settled in and then headed walked a few blocks away to grab a quick bite to eat at McDonalds (since our contingency ham sandwiches were confiscated) before going to bed, exhausted from a long day of travel. Melissa slept great and mostly beat her jet lag, but Carson didn't have the same luck. He was battling a cold and barely slept, and was definitely feeling more jetlagged, so we took it pretty easy that morning. Eventually, we got hungry so we grabbed brunch at a nearby restaurant. We got eggs benedict and an egg scramble and it was SO good because it really tasted like brunch at home which we had been missing. We were still getting used to being able to talk to everyone in English and hearing English spoken around us, and for a while it was really weird! As great as brunch was, we had our first dose of reality when we got the check and realized we definitely weren't in SE Asia anymore (the prices were a lot like the U.S.). We knew that going in, and had budgeted for it, but it was still jarring spending almost as much on one meal as we sometimes did in a full day.
After brunch, we headed back to the apartment where in the daylight we could appreciate the beautiful views from Stephen's plant-filled terrace. We caught up on some trip planning and expenses, took a brief nap, and then headed out on foot to the explore the city. We walked to the harbor and appreciated the city's beautiful skyline and parks. The waterfront reminded us of Seattle with all of the nature and lively restaurants and bars. The views of downtown were also beautiful with the Sky Tower as the centerpiece. We grabbed dinner at a Japanese restaurant downtown and had some delicious ramen. On our walk back to the apartment we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some staples so we wouldn't have to eat out every meal and blow our budget. We also bought our first of many Whittaker's chocolate bars that all of the Kiwi friends we had met told us we had to try. We started with milk chocolate and totally understood what the hype was about! After indulging in some chocolate, we headed to bead to try and catch up on more sleep.
The next day, we ate a quick breakfast at the apartment and then walked back to the harbor to catch the 9am ferry to nearby Waiheke Island, known for its beautiful beaches and wineries. After a smooth hour-long ferry ride we arrived on the island. The island is deceptively large, but luckily it had a great bus system running along the main routes so we hopped on a bus and headed to the beach. We started at Oneroa where we sat and enjoyed the views. We then hiked along to Little Oneroa Beach and then made our way up to Fishermans Rock and enjoyed overlooking the lush greenery of the island and the beautiful blue water of the ocean. We pretty much had the trail to ourselves too, which was really peaceful, though we did have a nice chat with an older woman who lived on the island but had previously lived in New York City. We hiked back down to the beach and grabbed a bus back into the town of Oneroa where we bought delicious sandwiches from a deli and some SnackaChangi Chips (kettle cooked chip brand also recommended by our Kiwi friends- this would be our first of MANY bags). After lunch, we went to a nearby bar overlooking the ocean where we tried some some of the local wine (rosé and white) from Man O War vineyards which is the largest winery on the island. Unfortunately Mel was starting to battle yet another cold, so she wasn't in the mood for much wine, eve though it was delicious. After drinks, we hopped on a bus to go further east on the island to Onetangi Beach. Escaping the hot sun, we relaxed under the boardwalk for shade and a short nap with the waves lulling us to sleep. After about an hour, we bussed back to port to catch a ferry back to Auckland. We were pretty tired and didn't want to walk all the way back to our Airbnb from downtown, so we figured out the local bus route that would get us a lot closer. When we got back to our Airbnb we made chicken soup and a salad to help us recover since we were feeling sick and were still tired from flying.
The next morning, we repacked our bags and took an Uber to Apex Rental Cars to pick up our car for the next nine days. We had reserved in advance and got a nice hybrid Toyota Rav4. We checked out the car and Carson had fun figuring out how to drive on the left hand side of the road (and just drive in general- we hadn't driven a car in 7 months!). The hardest part was that the turn signal and wiper blades were swapped around which a hard habit to break. Feeling confident that we weren't going to drive into oncoming traffic, we headed off to start our great New Zealand road trip!
We drove about an hour due west to the western coast for our first stop at the Muriwai Beach. This beach is beautiful on its own, with steep cliff faces down to the ocean that reminded us of San Diego (and people paragliding off of them), but it is also famous for having large Gannet bird colony. Gannets are white seabirds, with a yellowish head and super bright blue eyes. There were hundreds of birds nesting on the cliffside and flying around and making all sorts of racket. There were also a lot of feathery babies and adolescent birds still hanging by their nests who were working up the courage to fly (we even saw a few attempts). Carson was in heaven with all of the photo opportunities. We both had a great time watching these social birds, especially the reunions of the mated pairs- when one partner would return to the nest after gathering food, the couples would rub necks and dance/sing at each other. The babies were awkward looking white fuzz balls with black faces looking nothing like their parents. After eventually pulling Carson's arm to leave, we headed about an hour south to Piha Beach where we grabbed a quesadilla and a took a quick walk on the windy beach. The beach was framed by large rocks and full of surfers and sun bathers, but we had to keep moving to head to make it to the Coromandel Peninsula, which was more than a 4 hours drive east. Fortunately, the drive was beautiful once we hit the peninsula and we stopped at a bunch of pull overs for beautiful views of the coast line. Unfortunately, there are about two roads onto the peninsula, and the one we were meant to take had a serious traffic jam. We ended up circling back to take the other route which brough us across the middle of the peninsula over a small mountain pass. The road was a little bumpy and narrow, but extremely secluded and beautiful. Eventually we made it to our Airbnb in Whitianga which was right next to Mercury bay (our room even had a view of it). The Airbnb hosts had an adorable chocolate lab puppy and two cats so Melissa was in heaven hanging out with them. We grabbed dinner nearby at an Indian restaurant and watched Lord of the Rings (when in NZ!) before bed.
Coromandel Peninsula - The next day we drove up the coast about 5 minutes to Buffalo and Ohuka Beach where we had a quick breakfast and enjoyed walking along the sand for a while at low tide and watching the birds. We then drove about 30 minutes to the trailhead for New Chums Beach. We parked the car and followed about a mile long path that took us along the sand, over rocks, and through the forest to a "secret" beach (it's not that secret, but it does take some effort to get there, so it's pretty secluded!). Along the way, we took an offshoot of the trail to that led to a high vantage point where we got a bird's eye view of the beach we were about to visit. It was picture perfect- a secluded cove surrounded by rich green trees, with a white strip of sand leading into turquoise blue water. It looked so inviting, and the hike up was tough, so we were ready to head down to this paradise and relax. We hiked down to the beach and found a spot in the shade to relax and then hopped into the big waves at the beach. The water was pretty cold but refreshing with the sunny day. After we got out of the water, Melissa read while Carson ventured off to look for birds. He was able to find 3 endangered New Zealand Dotterel and was ecstatic when he got back to show Melissa the pictures. We packed up our things, hiked back to the car, and headed to lunch nearby where we had massive seafood wraps. With full stomachs, we decided to drive around the coast and see more of the beautiful hilly and green peninsula so we drove up to Monty's View and Otama, making lots of stops for photos along the way. We walked around the beaches at Otama, and Carson saw more lifer birds. We decided to head back to the Airbnb and on our way stopped to get something to eat for dinner at the grocery store since it was a NZ holiday and restaurants had an extra tax. The only pre-made thing we could find was fried chicken and potatoes so we took what we could get and headed home to watch more LOTR.
We checked out of our Airbnb early the next morning to head to Cathedral Cove so we could try to beat the crowds. After about a 45 minute drive, we parked our car in the lot and hopped on the paid shuttle to take us to the Cove trailhead. After a pretty and relaxed couple of mile walk through the forest with views of the coast, we made it down to the famous beach. We were able to see Cathedral Cove and its massive arch through the rock leading from one side of the beach to another (it looked like a Windows screen saver). We took pictures and walked through the cove and around the beach. It was beautiful, but it was definitely a popular spot, so as more people started to show up we decided to leave and get the shuttle back to our car so we could head to Hot Water Beach. Hot Water Beach is famous for being on top of natural hot springs; if you hit it at the right time, you can dig your own private hot tub in the sand right next to the ocean. We found a spot at Hot Water Beach to lay but sadly we weren't able to dig a hot pool of water since the tide was too high. We did go in some others that were already dug, but it was more like a Luke Warm Water Beach. If we go back, we'd definitely try to time it better, because the concept is so cool! We had Subway sandwiches for lunch on the beach and relaxed before driving about 3 hours southwest to our hostel in Waitomo, located next to the Glowworm Cave Tour that we had scheduled for the next day. The hostel was a pleasant surprise! It was part of a ranch, so it was secluded with a lot of rolling hills around us and animals around that we could go visit. There were 2 dogs, 4 horses, 2 pigs, 1 goat, and even a deer! We got settled, cooked ourselves some gnocchi with veggies for dinner in the shared kitchen, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.
Waitomo Glow Worm Caves - The next morning we walked down from the hostel to the meeting point of our tour of the famous glowworm caves. We signed up for the Black Labyrinth tour a couple of months back when we'd made a lot of our New Zealand reservations and we both sort of forgot what we'd signed up for. After getting sorted into groups and putting on our wetsuits, boots, helmets, and headlamps, we found out that we would be exploring the caves in inner tubes, floating down an underground river, and jumping off of waterfalls! We hopped on a shuttle which made a quick pit stop at the river first where we all practiced jumping backwards with the tube into the river and landing safely. This also got our wetsuits wet to help keep us warm. After we all practiced, we headed to the cave entrance. From afar it looked like a small hidden hole in the ground in a farm field, but as you entered the cave it slowly got larger. We turned on our headlamps and headed in with our two guides. There was a constant stream flowing through the cave that we followed. Eventually we made it to our first waterfall jump where we took turns hopping off the rocks backward with our tube into the stream. It was easy, but definitely got our adrenaline pumping! After the jump, we floated down the river and turned off our headlamps. As our eyes adjusted, we saw we were surrounded by glowworms hanging from their silk threads all around and above us on the cave ceiling and walls. Our guides told us about the glowworms, Arachnocampa luminosa, which are only found in NZ. They're not actually worms at all, but the larvae of carnivorous fungus gnats. The glow comes from bioluminescence, which helps attract their prey to them. Seeing them all in the quiet, pitch black cave was like nothing we'd ever seen; it was like being immersed in the middle of a field of stars! We reached the end of the rafting section and hiked/scrambled further through the small and dark cave to an even higher waterfall jump. From there, we drifted on our tubes the rest of the way out of the cave, where we got to appreciated the otherworldly beauty of the glow worms one final time.
We exited the cave and were shuttled back to the main headquarters where we took warm showers and were given cups of tomato soup to warm us up. We had an awesome time on the tour, and in the end we were really glad we splurged on the tubing experience since we got a longer tour (about 3 hours), and seeing the glowworms while floating down the river in the tubes in silence was such a unique experience (jumping off the waterfalls was pretty fun, too). You'll have to take our word for it, though, since we couldn't bring our phones or cameras.
Hobbiton - We had some time to kill before our next adventure of the day, so we drove about an hour to Cambridge where we grabbed some kebabs for the road and then drove to Maungatautari Mountain to eat them. After lunch, we went for a walk along one of the trails to look for birds. We got a quick glimpse of a Kaka (a rare red New Zealand Parrot), but it flew away pretty quick. We couldn't spend too much time birding since we had to get to our Hobbiton tour which at 4pm, so after a nice walk through the secluded forest, we hit the road again and drove about another hour to Hobbiton. The set is located on a sheep farm with large, rolling green hills (yes, it looks exactly like you expect if you've seen the movies!). We checked in for our tour, took some photos with Gandalf in the gift shop, and got onto a bus which took us to the set. We learned that the land was and is still owned by the Anderson family, and they were approached about using the land when some of the location scouts for the movie saw it during an aerial search. The original LOTR set was actually removed after filming, and part of it was even burned down for a scene in the movie (you know when Frodo has the vision of the Shire burning when he's with Galadriel- yep, they actually burned the Green Dragon Inn down to capture that). The Hobbiton set was rebuilt when the Hobbit movies were being filmed, and based on how much interest it got, they decided to keep the set up this time after filming wrapped and allow people to tour it. Since then and with the popularity of all of the movies, the set has been constantly maintained with beautiful gardens and some of the greenest grass in all of New Zealand. There were many different Hobbit houses, each with different size doors and knickknacks outside to show the occupation of the resident Hobbit. We learned that the different size doors were used to play with depth perception- larger doors made Hobbits look smaller while smaller doors made Gandalf look huge. We walked up the hill to see Bilbo and Frodo's house and then got to explore a Hobbit home that was fully decorated (no hobbits were home, though, so nobody offered us afternoon tea). After exploring the house, and taking lots of pictures of us looking huge, we headed to the Green Dragon Inn where we grabbed a pint of beer and relaxed by the fireplace and outside by the pond taking in the views. Since we're both LOTR geeks, we really enjoyed the tour, and if you are also a fan, we would definitely recommend it! It's pretty rare to get to visit a movie set like that, and this one is so beautiful and unique. It was funny, though, because it was obvious that half of the people taking the tour were extreme LOTR nerds, and half probably hadn't even seen the movies but were there for moral support.
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