Kia Ora!

Time to tell you about my adventures of New Zealand. But where do I start and what will I share with you? I am going to share you a blog of one week travelling and do this the next six days. Eventually you get the adventures of my six amazing weeks in New Zealand.

So let’s start with the first week. I arrived the 4^th of January in Auckland. Tried to find out what my trip for the next six weeks was about. I received my itinerary of the Stray bus, a hop on – hop off bus, and went through all my pre-booked activities together with the travel agent. So the only thing what was left is be on time at the 6^th of January to start the trip.

Everything was new and I didn’t know what to expect. I knew I should go to Paihia (Bay of Islands), but that was it. It was a great start, nice group of people, nice hostel to stay in and great sunny weather. We explored Paihia, had a barbecue and some drinks in a bar.

On day two I had a day tour to Cape Reinga, the most Northern part of New Zealand. We drove with the bus on 90 miles beach and stopped to have some fun in the dunes, sand boarding. We continued driving and arrived at Cape Reinga. This was a stunning view where the Pacific Sea and the Tasman Sea are coming together. Beautiful weather, great company, such a good day!

I spent day three on the water. Starting with a cruise to the hole in the rock, spotted a lot of dolphins and had amazing views. The second tour was for swimming with dolphins. Something what was on my bucket list for many years. There were dolphins everywhere, I even spotted a swimming penguin. Unfortunately there was not a good spot to swim with the dolphins or a baby dolphin was around, so I was not allowed to do it. This was a huge disappointment, but nothing to do about.

The next day I started with a four hours walk to the Haruru Falls, along the beach, in the rainforest, together with Heidi. It was nice! In the afternoon I drove back to Auckland and visit the Skytower over there.

Day five was about wine. I took the ferry to Waihiki Island and went to a couple of Wineries. I also visited two beaches. The Batch Winery with 360 degrees view was definitely the highlight of the day.

On day six we travelled from Auckland to Hahei. What a beautiful place to stay! The most beautiful beach of New Zealand and I explored this beach on the water with a kayak tour. Went to the Cathedral Cave Beach and learned a lot about the native birdlife in New Zealand. We even sailed with the kayaks. In the evening we played Card Against Humanity.

The next day I went up really early to see the sunrise. Unfortunately the sun was hidden behind the hills. But the sky was still pink/orange and great to watch! I took some beautiful pictures. We visited Hot Water Beach for digging a hole for your own spa, because of the hot water under the sand. In the afternoon we walked to the top of the hill, enjoyed the great views and took our ‘earned’ Apple Crumble Cider in the local Brewery.  

And this was just week one, tomorrow I will publish week two. More pictures about week one are to be found in Photo Album New Zealand 1. Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow.

Cheers, Kirsten!