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New Zealand Honeymoon

December 2022 - January 2023
A 30-day adventure by Jessica & Keanan Read more
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  • New Zealand Honeymoon

    Less than one week to go!

    December 14, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ -4 °C

    It's hard to believe that we will already be en route to New Zealand a week from today! After a less than perfect experience with the initially booked travel, just having new plane tickets to get us there and back is a relief. We've gotten the packing process started, and made so many last minute Amazon orders. While there's still so much to do, we're both ready for the adventure of a lifetime!Read more

  • New Zealand Honeymoon
    Day 1

    1 of 2 super long travel days complete!

    December 20, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    Aloha! While our flight delay meant that we missed out on our grand plans for a beach sunset, we still were able to make it out for some Hawaiian tapas tonight in Honolulu. Our gamble on "basic economy" without the ability to choose seats paid off with extra legroom bulkhead seats for the 12hr flight. We bid on a "sky couch" for tomorrow's flight so we'll cross our fingers and hope we get lucky on that one as well! Back to the airport bright and early for the second half!Read more

  • New Zealand Honeymoon
    Day 3

    Kia ora New Zealand!

    December 22, 2022 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    After a solid 3hrs of sleep (time changes just aren't my thing) we were greeted at the airport by the longest and thankfully also the fastest moving security line I have ever experienced. We were eager to board and try out our SkyCouch! The SkyCouch ended up being a little tight for 2 adults but we both enjoyed having the whole row to ourselves and being able to move around more than we typically would. Food was also pretty good on board and I got to try some New Zealand wines. The process for bringing our tent and hiking boots into the country was pretty elaborate, so we spent a while in that line once we arrived and then made our way to our hotel in the center of Auckland. After settling into our hotel, we walked down to Viaduct Harbor to grab a later dinner overlooking the water. The sunset wasn't until almost 9pm and is going to get even later as we travel south! Coming from the northern hemisphere on the winter solstice and landing in the southern hemisphere on summer solstice was quite the change, and I'm sure we're going to appreciate the long daylight hours once we're on the road!Read more

  • New Zealand Honeymoon
    1
    Day 4

    Auckland exploration

    December 23, 2022 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We both managed to sleep a little later this morning, but we still got a pretty early start. We got breakfast before exploring some of the city's parks and other walking highlights while we waited for museums to open.

    We then made our way to the maritime museum, which houses a really neat selection of exhibits, ranging from the first wooden canoes used by the Maori when they first settled in New Zealand, to the highly engineered, sleek, but massive carbon fiber boats used to win the America's Cup. We then took a ride in one of their sailboats to see Auckland from the water. The boat was crewed by a bunch of old, retired Kiwis, who clearly just like being on the boat and sharing their passion with others.

    For lunch, we walked over to the Wynyard Quarter to get some delicious fish and chips from the Auckland Fish Market. Then it was time to pick up our campervan - our home away from home as we leave the city behind. Keanan hopped behind the wheel for his first time driving on the other side of the road/car, and we had a very tense drive back to our hotel in Auckland, where we opted to let the hotel valet park it. We're both excited to get it out of Auckland tomorrow, and onto less populated roads, just as when we first picked up our car in Edinburgh 5.5 years ago.

    We then spent our evening enjoying our hotel's rooftop pool before going out for dinner and gelato, and crashing earlier than we have been so we're well rested for our first day of driving!    Read more

  • New Zealand Honeymoon
    Day 5

    Raglan

    December 24, 2022 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Tonight will be our first night in the van! We are parked at our first "holiday park" and Keanan is already sound asleep!

    This morning we checked out of our hotel in Auckland and started driving south to Raglan, an eclectic surf town on the west coast. While we had originally planned to just grab lunch and check out the main surf spots before heading along a scenic drive to a beach further south along the coast, our less than carefree drive here on narrow, windy, paved roads left us less than enthusiastic about the unpaved versions that would be necessary for that scenic drive. We decided to stay in Raglan instead!

    After grabbing lunch, we made our way down to the water to rent kayaks. One of the highlights is a stretch of the coastline known as the limestone coast with its signature "pancake rocks" which is located across the inlet from the town. The strong current made this crossing challenging and very splashy. Our first stop after crossing was a beach known for having the blackest sand in the area. It was really neat, with sections looking almost blue. From there we continued along the coast, going between various rock formations before heading back across the inlet.

    When we got back to our van we spent some time unpacking and organizing our things into it before going out to dinner in town. We followed up dinner with a drive down to a popular surf spot to watch surfers and the sunset.    Read more

  • New Zealand Honeymoon
    Day 6

    Meri Kirihimete!

    December 25, 2022 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Since Christmas is a national holiday here, we knew nothing would be open and it would be a great day for some scenic driving and some short hikes. We took advantage of our amenity-packed holiday park to make some hot breakfast, wash dishes and top off both our water and gas tanks before setting off.

    Our first stop was Bridal Veil Falls, a tall, narrow waterfall with a path and viewpoints from the top to the bottom. We then set off on a scenic drive through the grassy hills, along the coast. Not long after leaving Bridal Veil Falls, the road became gravel, which took us by surprise. It ended up being about 20km of gravel, luckily interspersed with paved sections for the steepest parts and very uncrowded, and Keanan handled it like a champ! After we got back to pavement, we stopped for lunch (PB&J) by a bridge over an inlet. One of the guys fishing off the bridge mentioned how boring and straight the roads become as you head further south, which at this time is definitely sounding like a welcome change!

    Our next stop was Marokopa Falls, which was not as tall as Bridal Veil Falls, but much wider and tiered. The path to the bottom of this one was closed off. A few minutes down the road, we came to Piripiri Cave.

    Just a few minutes beyond that was our planned camping spot for the night, Mangapohue Natural Bridge. We knew the hiking trail was closed for erosion, but it offered a picnic area and a long drop toilet so we could avoid using our van's porta potty, which definitely grosses me out. Since it was only 2:30pm, we decided to check out another potential camping spot another 20 mins down the road at Haggas Lookout. The lookout was completely overgrown and didn't have a toilet, so we turned back around to come back to the natural bridge.

    We watched some downloaded Jack Ryan in our van to kill some time when we got back and then brought our dinner and cooking supplies to the camping area to make our fancy Christmas dinner of pasta with tofu sausage! We both crashed pretty early (definitely before sunset) but on one of my toilet hikes overnight, I went looking for some of the glowworms that this area is famous for. I didn't find any, but the clear night sky was beautiful, and we will have plenty of glowworm opportunities on our black water rafting trip today!    Read more

  • New Zealand Honeymoon
    Day 7

    Waitomo Black Water Rafting

    December 26, 2022 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today we got up early to head to one of the activities at the top of both of our must do lists - black water rafting. After being fitted for wetsuits and rubber boots, we were driven to the start of the tour, where we repelled down 35m to the cave below. We then ziplined through a dark cavern, lit only by the glowworms overhead. These were just the first of many glowworms seen on the tour.

    Glowworms are the larva stage of a fungus fly and use their glowing butts to attract insects in the cave to their mucus-y strands used to trap prey similarly to a spider web. They spend about 9 months in this stage before becoming adults. As adults they don't have mouths, so they only live 2-3 days, most of which time they spend mating and laying eggs. The first eggs to hatch, eat their siblings and the process repeats.

    Anyways, after ziplining we jumped into the cold water with our tubes and paddled and drifted through more caverns with glowworms lining the ceiling. We then ditched our tubes and continued by foot/swimming through the cave, climbing up waterfalls and sliding down slides as we went.

    We both had an incredible time and thought this was a unique and adrenaline pumping experience!    Read more

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