NZ Short Break | FindPenguins

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Trip start
January 15, 2026
NZ Short Break Traveler
Leaving Canberra
January 15 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Elaine and I have had a more relaxed start to the day than we expected. Our first messages for the day were telling us our flights had been cancelled, followed not too long afterwards by a rearranged itinerary. We'll get into Auckland later than we had planned, but at least it will be today!
In the meantime, we will relax and enjoy sitting around in the Qantas lounge.Read more
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NZ Short Break Traveler
Arriving in Auckland
January 15 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 21 °C
This trip has been tortuous. It's just after 2300 local time, and we are on our way to our hotel in the city just under five hours later than our original plan. We were told ATC staff shortages slowed down all departures out of Sydney. Then, when we arrived here, the aircraft had to stand off until a gate was available. Thankfully, everything has been going smoothly once we were disembarked.Read more
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NZ Short Break Traveler
Hotel Indigo
Jan 15–18 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 20 °C
If one ignores having to evacuate the hotel within an hour of arriving, Hotel Indigo has been a very pleasant place to stay. Our room was spacious, the bathroom layout worked, and everything worked.

We were high enough to have a good view across the harbour. When I wanted to, I could sit watching everything from little sailboats to container ships moving around on the water. Yatchs raced one night, and ferries crossed regularly through the day.

The hotel is next to St Patricks, the Catholic cathedral, and so it appears everything is downhill. Getting out has been easy, getting back less so. We are still sore after walking down from the 19th floor on Friday morning and are still taking uphills more slowly.

The hotel restaurant serves excellent breakfasts, with a combination of buffet style cold dishes and hot dishes cooked to order. Even when it was busy, the hot food service was pretty quick.

Everywhere we have wanted to get to in the city is within walking distance or accessible by bus, so shopping and sightseeing has been easy from here.

We head off later today to Tauranga, after a very pleasant stay here in Auckland.Read more
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NZ Short Break Traveler
A long night
January 16 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
We thought things were looking up until we were dropped off at the back of the hotel rather than the front, and it was pouring down. What looked like buzzer buttons that might have elicted a response from the reception staff went unheeded, so we dragged ourselves around to the other side of the building in the torrential rain.

Then, to top off our night, we had just about settled into our room when the building fire alarm activated. Eventually, after what seemed like endless alert messages, the evacuation message was given. Elaine and I got ourselves dressed and walked down the 19 levels to the street. We had got most of the way down when we started to meet people coming back up, who let us know that the evacuation was over, but we were disinclined to walk back up! Elaine was rather forthright on that!

When we reached the lobby, people from lower floors were asked not to use the lifts, but that didn't stop them. Elaine and I got split up at this point, but she was rescued by one of the hotel staff who selected half a dozen people staying on the higher floors and used the service lift.

By the time it was over, my quick calculation was that the trip had taken 21 hours from bed to bed!Read more
What a disaster! At least you will have something that u could talk about for years. Look after yourself. Regards Michael [Michael Lucas]
1/15/26Reply
TravelerNot what you need!
1/16/26Reply
TravelerAnd we're still suffering!!
1/16/26Reply
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NZ Short Break Traveler
Ed Sheeran Concert
January 16 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
What a well organised place Auckland can be, even though we made it as difficult as we possibly could getting into the stadium!

I'm not an Ed Sheeran fan, but Elaine likes him, and it gave us a good excuse to come here to see his opening concert of 2026 in the southern hemisphere at Go Media Stadium.

Getting there started smoothly. The bus departure point was a 10 minute walk, and the queue moved quickly with buses waiting. But we made our first bad decision as we got off when we hadn't checked which entry gate we needed to use and proceeded to circumnavigate the outside of the stadium and then having to double back once we were inside

We then found our seats occupied by a couple who were reluctant to admit they were in the wrong place and getting annoyed when we insisted they move. That was our next bad decision - insisting they move rather than taking their seats. We were seated in front of a family group who made a running commentary throughout the concert, including a child who kept regularly swinging his feet into the back of my seat.

Ed started on a small rotunda in the centre of the stadium. He held the crowd with the stories of his progress and the genesis of each song. Sometimes, he gave the impression of changing the order of the set list and played up the pre-concert feedback in the songs he had chosen to sing. There were some nice techno touches like an extending bridge from the stage that he used to transition back and forth to the rotunda during the show. Overall, I thought it was a consumate performance and went so smoothly that little had actually been left to chance.

After all the little dramas earlier in the evening, the return to the city was remarkably uneventful.

ps. The fish and chips at the stadium was really good.Read more
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NZ Short Break Traveler
Driving to Tauranga
January 18 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 19 °C
Today was about as simple as it could get. After breakfast, we picked up our rental car and packed our gear into it, drove to a shopping centre for a little retail therapy, then drove down to Tauranga.

Once we were on State Route 2, there was very little other traffic, the countryside was green, and Elaine took over the driving just before the really windy bits.Read more
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NZ Short Break Traveler
Water and City Lights Studio
Jan 18–20 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 21 °C
Elaine found and booked this place. It was a great choice. Situated under the main house on a battleaxe block, it had great views across Rangataua Bay to Tauranga, completely justifying its name.

There was a small garden with a variety of flowers. Two of the rose bushes were still in bloom, as well as some lillies. Small birds flitted in and out of the shrubs, and I saw a kingfisher in the trees closer to the shore. In the afternoon, with the tide out, wading birds started feeding on the mudflats, and what might have been ducks swam close by.

Sitting quietly looking out over the garden and bay was a very pleasant way to spend an hour resting in the afternoon.Read more
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NZ Short Break Traveler
Visiting Maunganui
January 19 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Found a shopping centre, had lunch and then did some shopping. I can't get too enthused about shopping centres.

Earlier, I had driven down to Mount Manganui, but the area was so crowded and busy that it didn't appeal, even just to stop briefly for a coffee.Read more
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NZ Short Break Traveler
Tauranga Historic Village
January 20 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 19 °C
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Trip end
January 22, 2026