Tag: New Zealand

Hello! Last time we left you, we had just celebrated Xmas and new year and were enjoying having the family to visit us here in New Zealand. This time we head off on a 10-day road trip around the North Island and show you some of the sights of this amazing country.

First stop, the steaming and bubbling volcanic town of Rotorua. We drove down to Auckland and picked up Vinnie from Toms house after his New Years Eve celebrations and we headed South to Rotorua. We stayed 4 nights in Rotorua in a house overlooking the lake. If you don’t know Rotorua is famous for all the geothermal activity in the area. In downtown Rotorua there are steaming pools of water in the park and a strong smell of rotten eggs. We took the chance to visit two different Geothermal Parks

The first of these was Te Puia, run by the local Māori Tribe who live in a village on the site. It was a really entertaining tour, and we were shown round by one of the local Māori people.

The geyser at the park erupts at least 15 times a day and each eruption lasts about 30 minutes, so we got to see it erupt twice during our visit.

As part of the visit, we were welcomed into the Māori meeting house to see some traditional dancing and singing including the mighty Haka!

They even have a university on the site where local Māori students get to attend to learn the way that Māori arts and crafts are done and keep the traditions of these people alive.

The second park we visited was Waiotapu Geothermal Park a bit further south of Rotorua. This park was more extensive, and the tour started with the eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser.

After this, we went for a walk around the rest of the park. This included the Champagne Pool, a steaming lake of sulphurous water, the largest in the southern hemisphere which was effectively sitting on top of the volcano. There were huge craters full of bubbling mud or steam that looked like the entrance to hell. There was even an acid pool! The pH of the water was 2, which is very strong acid, so beware anyone that slipped into that, the colour was amazing.

No trip to Rotorua was complete without a side trip to see the shire! We had an amazing visit to Hobbiton to see where the shire was filmed, and we were all blown away by the tour!

Such a beautiful place and very cleverly preserved for the visitor. Highlights were going inside one of the hobbits houses as well as the free beer at the Green Dragon at the end of the tour. We would really recommend visiting this place if you ever get chance, but book well in advance as its really popular.

We took the opportunity to sample some of the other delights of Rotorua including a meal out and then it was time to move on to Wellington. A long drive as it turned out that took us past the spectacular lake Taupo and past Mount Ngauruhe, otherwise known as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings fame. The volcano was shrouded in cloud as we drove past.

We stayed in Wellington for 3 nights in the Travelodge in the centre of the city. We took the cable car to the top the hill to see the views

We took a trip the amazing Weta Studios where all the effects, sets and costumes were created for the Lord of the Rings films. This was another really memorable experience! These lot all ganged up on me with swords!

We took a visit to the Wellington Museum, ate out every night. Vinnie got to finally sample some New Zealand mussels, oh and we drank quite a lot of beer one night exploring all the excellent craft beer breweries that are in this city.

The next stop on the tour was the town of Stratford. Not a very special place other than the fact that it resides at the bottom of Mount Taranaki, and huge 2900m volcano that rises from the plain on the west side of North Island. We decided we wanted to have a go at climbing it. However, that day Mount Taranaki didn’t agree and had its head in the clouds. So, we set off to the Dawsons Falls visitor, about 1000m up the side of the peak and attempted to do the walk to Fanthoms Peak, a side summit on the volcano about 1900m high.

The start of the walk took us through an ancient forest that felt prehistoric. The trees were covered in a thick growth of moss. We got to the top of the tree line and sat on a rock seat that had been built in commemoration of Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander mountaineer who was the first to summit Everest with Tenzing Norgay. Then the path weaved through thick bush that eventually led to a wooden walkway that took us to the rock scree slope to the summit. The summit was in cloud, and it was cold! So, we decided to turn around there. The views were to die for, we could see for miles all the way over to mount doom in the distance.

Our last stop was back to Auckland. The drive back to Auckland took us down the “Forgotten World Highway” which was a spectacular route with views around every corner.

The trip was nearly over, and the fellowship would soon be dissolved: Very sadly we had to put Vinnie back on a plane to the UK. We still had one day and night left though to explore Auckland, meet up with Tom again and finish the road trip in style!

We hope you enjoyed this little insight into our trip! See you again soon!

Hello to everyone! Wishing you all a very happy new year and let’s hope 2025 is another great year.

We have been busy since I last posted. We have spent some time exploring more of this wonderful country and we have welcomed family on to the boat for Christmas.

Last time we left you, we had just come back from an amazing week in the Coromandel Peninsula. We decided that we would take a trip North up to the Bay of Islands the next week, however the weather had other ideas. Instead, we stayed for a couple of rainy nights with our friends, Donna and Mark on Coral Moon in Opua Marina and then headed back to Whangarei.

The week after, we needed to head down to Auckland. For one, we had to attend an interview at the US Embassy to apply for a B2 visa to enter the US by boat. And secondly, we had to collect our youngest son Vinnie and Ailsa’s mum Judith from the Airport when they arrived in New Zealand to stay for Christmas.

We had two days before they arrived to take a look around the city. It’s a great place. We were impressed with the buildings and the city layout with the views over the harbour. We took the chance to visit the sky tower and have a drink in the bar, 50 stories up with an amazing view of the city and the surrounding area.

I’m also glad to say that we passed the interview at the US embassy and got our B2 visa. This means that we can now go through with our plans to visit the US. More on that later.

Here’s a short video of some of the stuff we saw in Auckland, mostly from the top of the Sky Tower.

After a couple of days, we headed to the airport to meet the family arriving for the UK. It was an emotional reunion!

We hired a house for a few days to allow Vinnie and Judith to beat the jetlag and acclimatise to New Zealand life and we took the chance to show them a bit of Auckland including another visit to the Sky Bar! Vinnie also had the chance to meet up with his old college friend Tom who is working and living in Auckland.

After a few days we headed back to the boat, did some shopping and got things ready just in time for Christmas dinner! Tom drove up and joined us too. It was a lovely couple of days and of course, we all ate and drank far too much, as well as playing the usual ferocious card games.

We have day trips out between Christmas and New Year. The weather here has been fabulous blue sky and about 25 degrees.

We took a drive up the coast from Whangarei to the Bay of Islands and the town of Russell with lots of stops on the way to take in the views and the beautiful coves and beaches.

Vinnie and I walked up to the Whangarei Falls where we were picked up by Ailsa and Judith.

We took a drive to the Waipu caves. We didn’t manage to get far into the caves as we were totally unprepared with our footwear, but we did do the spectacular walk that features in the video above.

Today on New Years Eve we visited the Waipu Scottish Highland Games! Waipu was settled by the Scottish in the 1800’s and this was the 152nd Highland games including lots of bagpipes, tossing the caber, dancing and throwing the hammer. All good fun and in true Scottish tradition, there was lots of rain showers (Scottish mist) but no midges!

And finally, here’s some thoughts about our plans for 2025. it looks like we are going to stay in New Zealand until around April or May and then we shall be heading back to the UK for a couple of months to sell our house. We shall return to New Zealand again around August time and get Azimuth ready to sail back up North. The plans at the moment are to head to Fiji and then spend the end of the year (cyclone season) in Micronesia in the islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. 2026 will see us head up to Japan and beyond!

We hope you all had a great festive season, and we look forward to telling you more about New Zealand in the next post.

Dom & Ailsa on SV Azimuth.

Hi to everyone. We have been having a lovely time in New Zealand since we last checked in. The people we meet and the more places we visit, the more we like this country.

Having a car again is a bizarre experience after nearly 3 years without one. We had forgotten the ease of jumping in your car and just nipping to the shops, or going on a day adventure. No need to work out the local buses or haggling for a taxi, or praying that your dinghy engine doesn’t conk out!

That said then, we have been out for quite a few day trips in the local area and to experience some of the amazing scenery that Whangarei and its surrounds has to offer.

Last time, we visited Bream Head, and I left you with a video of that walk on my previous post. Well, a few days later we decided to head back to the same area and attempt to summit Mount Manaia, an imposing lump of rock with many pinnacles that rise menacingly from its head. The weather was superb again as we set off from the carpark at the foot of the mountain. I shot this video which gives you a taste of this walk. A steep but very well-maintained path guides you to the top where we stopped for lunch with a view to die for.

It was hard going with a lot of steps to climb, but we are starting to get our land legs back and this was definitely helping improve our general fitness!

We were pleased to be invited a few days later to go on another walk with some fellow cruisers, Andy and Julie who we met when we were checking in to NZ. Their boat is moored in Whangarei town basin, so we met up with them in town and set off towards Whangarei Falls. it was another hot day, and the walk wound up a steep sided river valley with a stop at a small park called the Alan Reid Memorial Park. This was a little enclave with a spectacular walkway in the trees and a waterfall.

Eventually we made our way to the pretty Whangarei falls that cascade over a basalt cliff studded with columns, into a large plunge pool.

It was a lovely walk and fun to share with Andy and Julie

Now the legs are starting to loosen up a bit! We took advantage of the great weather and this time at the advice of the marina manager, Blair, we drove about 60 kms South of Whangarei to Mangawhai Head where we walked along the spectacular beach and then up along a cliff walk.

The video below gives you a sense of scale of the beach, and the vistas of the area.

On the way home we stopped off for Pizza and beer at a local brewery. The beer in NZ is great!!

The best we are saving for last in this post. Since about October, I had been in touch with a sail broker in New Zealand and had reserved 2 second hand sails for Azimuth. We needed to go and pick these up. The sail broker lives in an area of New Zealand known as the Coromandel Peninsula, a strip of mountainous terrain that sticks up of the East side of North Island, not far from Auckland. Our travel guide describes it as a beautiful place to visit, so we thought why not make a road trip of it?

The weather looked great last week, so we prepared everything as best we could. Bought a few camping supplies, loaded up the car and headed off South from Whangarei. The roads are very easy in North Island and the traffic was light and it took about 3 hours to get to the town of Thames at the bottom of the peninsula.

This place had some history. It felt a bit like a wild west town and with good reason. In the 1860’s the town was the focus of a gold rush with discoveries of gold packed quartz veins all around the area. At its peak there were some 120 bars and hotels along the main street of the town all catering to thirsty gold seekers.

We arrived around lunchtime and stopped at a cafe. We had a walk around the town.

Then we headed to our first campsite of the trip just outside of town up the Kauaeranga valley, called “Shag Stream”!?!

We pretty much had the place to ourselves. Very pretty spot.

The next morning, we headed to Thames and visited a gold mining museum where we got to go on a tour of the underground workings and see the gold processing plant which was originally driven by a water wheel. The plant had been lovingly restored and was in full working order.

I videoed the tour here for those of you that are interested. It was a fascinating insight into the mining history of the area.

We also got to pan for gold! Although I don’t think there was much to find. Ailsa claims she was successful. I will let you decide in the pictures below:

After the tour we took a drive up the west coast of the peninsula towards Coromandel Town. We had many stops along the way just to take in the amazing views

The road is pretty crazy. It hugs the cliffs and occasionally is diverted in land up steep ravines. Beautiful place!

We stopped at Coromandel town for lunch and then headed to a nearby holiday park where we had booked a glamping pod for the night right on the beach. It was an idyllic spot and again we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

I put together this short video of the trip up the peninsula.

The next morning, we really headed off into the wilds, the far North of the peninsula.

About 10 miles north of Coromandel Town, the tarmac road stopped, and the gravel road started which was to take us the next 30 kilometres to the top of the peninsula. This road was even more spectacular and hair raising that the last. Eventually we came to a small car park where we planned to walk out along the top of the peninsula to Muriwai. You couldn’t have asked for a bluer sky with views of the sea, the farmland and the rugged peaks to die for.

Another 10 kilometres further along an even more tortuous road brought us to our home for the night at Fletcher Bay. Again, virtually empty, we had our pick of wonderful camping spots not far from the beach and surrounded by steep hills.

I woke up really early the next morning to the sound of bird song, so I climbed up the hill and sat and watched the sunrise.

We took a slow drive South again, this time down the East side of the Peninsula. This featured more crazy roads in the North and then sweeping beaches and more touristy towns. We stopped for the night in a lodge next to a place called Hot Water Beach. Reputedly, a hot spring rises at the beach and in one particular spot, you can dig a hole and bath in the warm water. Well, this had been “touristed” to death. We found the beach which was vast, and it was obvious where the spring was located as it was packed with confused looking people with spades all digging holes. I walked down for a look and even tried stepping in some of the abandoned holes, but the water temperature was tepid at best!

We left fairly quickly and chilled out at the lodge. It was located right next to a brewery which unfortunately was closed for the night! Damn!

The next morning, we went to get our sails. We were warmly welcomed by Dave and Tracey on their 25-acre farmstead nestled in the foothills. A stunning place. We spent at least 2 hours chatting about our cruising adventures drinking tea on their veranda! We left with the car stuffed with two new sails and bags of fruit that they picked for us.

For our last night we headed South to the town of Waihi. Another mining town. This was the first-place gold was discovered in NZ back in 1863. The “Martha” quartz vein was found to be very rich in gold. It was mined extensively underground and then in 1980, the mining company somehow got the permission to dig a huge open pit right next to the town centre. You can literally step off the main street up a bank and you are faced with a huge hole in the ground which is now collapsing on one side.

We took a look at the gold mining museum but unfortunately just missed out on doing the mine tour. There is still a working underground mine at the bottom of the pit.

Just out of Waihi, the road enters Karangahake Gorge which was to be our final camping spot of the trip. We pitched the tent not far from the gorge next to the river at a place called Dickies Flats.

Being a friday night it was busier at this site. Then we realised the next morning why: A marathon running event was starting from this location and about 500 people descended on the area. We made a quick getaway and headed to the Gorge visitors centre where there are a number of historical walks. The gorge is littered with old gold mine workings and processing plants. The old machinery lies abandoned in the most beautiful of settings of the steep sided gorge. To get access to the mines, the old timers had to cut pathways and tunnels into the steep rockfaces of the gorge and we got to explore this fascinating area.

What an amazing trip!

Join us next time as we head further North from Whangarei whilst we wait for family to arrive for Xmas!

Dom and Ailsa on Azimuth.