NEW ZEALAND PART 1: NORTH ISLAND

For the month of January, we diverged from our strategy of living in one city for a month and took a different approach. Instead, we went on a month-long road trip around New Zealand, spending two weeks on each island. It was a significant shift from the first four months, so we were both excited and a little nervous. It meant a lot of time on the road, a lot of check-ins & check-outs (11 different Airbnbs!), and limited independent time. In the end, it was an incredible experience filled with challenges, unforgettable moments, and lots of PB&J sandwiches. The month flew by, and we are grateful for the experience.

Cape Town to Auckland

After the longest travel day of our life (a 9.5-hour flight from Cape Town to Dubai, followed by a 16-hour flight from Dubai to Auckland), we landed safely and successfully in Auckland in time to celebrate the new year. Back when we were planning our trip, I had thrown out the idea of celebrating the new year in New Zealand after reading that it’s one of the first places in the world to experience it, which is how we ended up in New Zealand for January before Australia.

We picked up our rental car at the airport, drove to our Airbnb, unpacked, and took a nap. It took a little motivation, but we went to dinner at a cute spot Jeff had booked for us a week earlier to celebrate New Year’s Eve. After keeping ourselves awake long enough to usher in the new year, we joined the locals in watching fireworks over the Auckland skyline, then promptly went home and passed out to sleep.

We spent a few nights in Auckland to get settled in before our crazy road trip, which turned out to be a good thing. Not only was the jet lag insane (11-hour time difference from Cape Town!), but we encountered an unexpected health issue which involved an urgent visit to the doctor and corresponding medication from a pharmacy. We were grateful to have been in an English-speaking, developed country, in a major city, when this happened.

During our visit to Auckland, many restaurants and shops were closed due to the holidays. We spent time preparing for our road trip ahead and leisurely exploring Auckland’s downtown and the nearby hip neighborhood of Ponsonby.

One day, we took the ferry over to Waiheke Island, which is a nearby island known for its beaches and wineries. We visited a winery, Cable Bay Vineyards, which had a beautiful view and gave us our first taste of New Zealand wine. After, we walked to the town of Oneroa for lunch at The Oyster Inn to try local oysters.

Auckland was a great way to ease into our month in New Zealand. After our first few meals and a trip to the grocery store, we quickly realized how expensive New Zealand was! We knew it would be a fun challenge to keep our food budget down by living as much as possible off of cheap eats like ramen, frozen pizza, and sandwiches for the next month, which we did!

Auckland to Rotorua

On the road! From Auckland, we drove to our next stop, Rotorua, which was a 3-hour trip. Rotorua is famous for geothermal wonders and Maori history; it reminded me of my hometown with its heavy tourism appeal built on natural geography and native tribal history.

We only had one full day in Rotorua, and we made it count! Our agenda for the day included a visit to see a geyser and traditional Maori cultural performance at Te Puia, followed by an evening soak at the Polynesian Hot Pools.

Te Puia is a geothermal wonderland and Maori heritage site. It’s home to the largest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere, Pōhutu. I had never seen a geyser before and was so amazed by the sight!

We also marveled at the mud pools; the signs said that the mud pools are better after it rains, so we lucked out because it had rained the night before! As we explored the park, we found some quieter paths with hardly any other tourists, which was a welcome treat from the crowded areas of the park (it was a Saturday during summer!). We loved the random steam rising from bushes and rocks.

After wandering the grounds for a couple hours, we walked back toward the main entrance to join the crowd forming and waiting to enter the Maori-style hut to watch the performance. Unexpectedly, Jeff was picked out of the crowd to be the honorary "chief" and engage in a ritual to grant us (the batch of tourists going to the show) entry into the building for the performance. They called us “Mr. and Mrs. Chief” and had us sit in the front row for the performance - it was a riot!

After a fun, successful afternoon at Te Puia, we headed to the Polynesian Spa, a place with thermal hot pools overlooking Lake Rotorua. There were a variety of pools at different temperatures, along with a cold plunge pool. Jeff convinced me to try “rotations” with him, altering hot pool soaking with cold plunge/cold showers in between. We soaked in most of the pools including the “grotto pool,” and the Rachel Spring and Priest alkaline pools. There was an occasional light rain during our time there, and the evening ended with a full rainbow over the lake! Sadly, our swimsuits reeked of sulphur after our soaking!

Rotorua to Ahuriri (Napier)

From Rotorua, we drove to the Hawkes Bay region to the first of two Airbnbs we booked in the area. On the way there, Jeff found a great pitstop for us at Huka Falls near Lake Taupo. We took a short hike which led to a view of the rushing waterfalls that appear in an unnatural shade of blue.

Our next Airbnb was the "Winstonland Studio," a super charming old shed that had been converted into a cozy one-room beach cottage. We loved it! Unfortunately, I came down with an achey flu when we arrived, but thankfully the cottage was a comfortable spot to spend a day resting to feel better!

While there, we enjoyed cooking a couple meals, wandering around the quiet, beachside area of Ahuriri, and visiting downtown Napier. Most of Napier was destroyed during a 1931 earthquake, and the subsequent rebuilding of the area led to its current high concentration of Art Deco buildings today, which offers a fascinating time capsule of Art Deco architecture.

Ahuriri (Napier) to Haumoana

From Ahuriri, we had a short drive to the other side of Napier to stay at Chambourcin Cottage in Haumoana. On the way there, we visited a couple Hawkes Bay wineries. We first went to Craggy Range, which I had seen on a few lists as a “must” winery to visit in the region. It was modern and had a nice view of the “craggy” mountain. The wines were quality, but we didn’t love the taste of them.

We decided to stop at one other winery before checking in to our new Airbnb, which we ended up loving - it was called Black Barn Vineyards. It had a beautiful restaurant on-site (Black Barn Bistro) with lovely outdoor terrace seating under vines. The vineyard also hosts concerts, open-air cinema, and a weekly growers’ market during the summer months. We enjoyed tasting a few wines at Black Barn, and ended up picking up a bottle of their 2014 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, which we really liked! They also had a shop with nice homewares and takeaway food items, so we picked up rosemary lamb shoulder and mac & cheese to cook for dinner that night, as well as some New Zealand cookies called “Afghans.” Afghan cookies are a chocolate cookie with corn flakes in the dough, which makes them light and somewhat crispy, topped with chocolate icing and a walnut. They’re delicious!

We made our way to our next Airbnb, called Chambourcin Cottage, which was nearby. It was by far the nicest and most expensive spot we stayed in during our entire New Zealand trip. It’s the type of place we probably couldn’t afford to stay in if it was in California. We loved it so much that we had no qualms about spending both nights in, making dinner and watching movies in the cozy living room. I did a load of laundry in the nicest laundry room of our travels - it had a massive, new washer AND a dryer! It was dreamy.

We only spent two nights at the cottage, so on our only full day there we took the complimentary bikes they provided out to ride along Hawkes Bay, visiting a couple different wineries for tastings at Elephant Hill and Clearview. It was super fun!

Haumoana to Wellington

From the cottage, we drove to Wellington, our last stop on the North Island. On the way, we passed fields dotted with sheep and giant kiwi bird statues, a national symbol of New Zealand.

We stopped for lunch in Martinborough, a charming town in wine country with an old downtown square that reminded me of Sonoma in California. After lunch outdoors, a walk around the town, and an ice cream cone in the square, we hit the road to Wellington Airport to drop off our first rental car and stay in the city for a few nights.

Jeff and I were both excited about Wellington. We imagined it as a smaller version of what we liked about San Francisco. Though it didn’t live up to our internal hype and was a lot more backpacker-ish of a vibe, it was still a great stop filled with some of the best food we had in New Zealand. Unfortunately, our Airbnb was the worst of the trip - a laughably bad, hostel-like place that turned out to be a 6-month experiment that was going to shut down a few weeks after we left. The location (near Cuba Street) was great, though, and allowed us to walk around to explore Wellington’s beautiful waterfront, botanical gardens, and downtown area of restaurants, bars, and shops.

During our last night in Wellington, we prepared for an early morning ferry ride over to Picton - stay tuned for part two of our New Zealand road trip on the South Island!