I arrive at 2am after a ten hour flight from Kuala Lumpur and it’s straight to bed so I’ll have some energy for my first Southern Hemisphere Park run in the morning. When I was planning this trip back in November I specifically organized it around park runs – crazy as that may sound, it will make sure I at least keep up 5k every week and I think it’ll make it easier to get out more during the week too. Park runs are all over NZ and Australia so this is my first of hopefully eleven on this trip. I have great intentions so hopefully will get them all in.
After very little sleep I’m up at 7am and ready to take on the first parkrun. I uber to Western Springs Park which is less than ten minutes on the motorway from my hotel and it’s right by the zoo. It’s a nice course with three laps around a lake. It’s much hotter than the weather looks so I could do with a bit of rain but it holds off for the actual run. Afterward while looking for WiFi to call an Uber a guy connects me to his hotspot and actually walks me to the other end of the park and waits with me til the uber arrives – what a nice intro to the people of NZ.
When I get back to the hotel and shower I decide to have a little snooze as I’m gonna need it to last the day ahead…. cut to three hours later and I jump out of bed to get organized… I’ve a wedding to go to!
My friend Karina who has lived in NZ for about fifteen years is tying the knot today and I’m thrilled to be here for the occasion. The weather has not cooperated for an outdoor ceremony but it doesn’t impact the fun of the day as we drink champagne and get ready for the nuptials. The view from the hotel which backs onto the Auckland Viaduct Harbour is pretty impressive:
It’s a lovely ceremony with a few close friends and family and I complete my ring bearer duties with poise and grace (if I do say so myself lol!!). Congratulations Wynn and Karina!
After the ceremony we go downstairs to Giraffe restaurant which is run by NZ Master Chef judge Simon Gault. The food is amazing and the man himself is there and gives us a wave from the open kitchen area. It really is a feast of food especially the suckling pig and the monster fish:
After an amazing meal we hit LuLu’s bar for some more drinks and dancing. There’s a brilliant band doing jazzy style covers with a three-piece brass section and they really get the crowd going. Great end to a great day.
Sunday morning and there’s not much Auckland sightseeing to be done as the weather is not great. I did manage to get to see the sky tower in between clouds mind you…
It lashes rain while we have breakfast so we set off from a very wet Auckland to Waitomo.
This is Day 1 of the honeymoon and Wynn is doing the driving. It’s a tough one as it’s bucketing down but the rain eases and the driving conditions improve somewhat as we get closer to Waitomo. There’s still some lovely scenery to see along the way. We reach Waitomo in the afternoon and head for our cave tour.
It’s fascinating! The size of the caves themselves are impressive and we see stalagmites (the ones that grow up) and stalactites (the ones that grow down) but the big draw are the glow worms:
Our guide is called James Brown, a young Mauri lad with a very unique peculiar way of talking…. lots of pauses in odd places – it was very hard to know if he was being funny or just a bit special!
After the glow worm cave we visit the Discovery Centre and museum to find out what these little glow worms are all about. There’s a very informative video and it seems these tiny worms known as arachnocampa luminosa are about the size of a mosquito and are actually the lava of a gnat. They glow when they are hungry and they capture prey by hanging threads of silk from their nests, which capture flies and other insects, which they then feed on. Quite amazing for such a small creature.
Time for some dinner at a local eatery and back to our Caves motel for a reasonably early night, as let’s face it, we are all dealing with some level of hangover from yesterday!
Monday morning we set off for Lake Taupo and the weather has brightened up considerably. The lake is very picturesque and we have a lovely wander around.
There’s a scenic lookout point before we continue on to Huka falls:
Huka falls is fabulous and the weather is gorgeous for us to explore..
Onwards on our journey we pass huge pipes that really stick out on the beautiful green hills. They are piping water to be used for geothermal heating and energy.. amazing.
As soon we arrive at Rotorua you can smell the sulphur in the air. It really is like boiled eggs. We check into our digs.. the very fancy Fern Motel (pity about the smell!!!) and head for Te Puia to see the mud fields and hot geysers. The main geyser has constant activity and then a big spurt a couple of times an hour…
It’s very cool walking around the park as the boiling springs and bubbling mud are everywhere:
You can’t visit Rotorua without a dip in the hot springs so we head to the Polynesian spa for some water therapy. This place is amazing. There are five hot pools of varying heat and they are really relaxing to float around in. We decide to treat ourselves to massages and take the last three available appointments. None of us quite know what we’re booked for but as it turns out Karina has a water therapy massage, Wynn a Swedish massage and I get a mud wrap massage… all were amazing and we are totally chilled when we come out.
Tuesday morning before getting on the road to Gisborne we have breakfast in downtown Rotorua and visit a park called Kuirau which has thermal springs and mud pools all around…
Carrying on our road trip, we stop off on the peninsula of Ohope where at the general store, which is more or less at the tip of the peninsula, you can see the beach on one side and the Harbour on the other. We go for a walk along the beach where there are lots of tree branches washed up and pick some tiny purple shells
Onwards to Opotiki through some farm country and more lush greenery and through the 60km or so of the Waioeka gorge. Before setting off today we read about warnings on the road and we see there are workers removing fallen trees and bush. You have to take it easy on these roads after bad weather as there is often fallen debris:
The gorge is beautiful to drive through…
Next stop the beach at Gisborne…..
odohertyelaine 
Sounds as thou you’re having a fab time in NZ. Enjoying your blogs. Hope the weather improves. Where do you go next?
LikeLike