Our first order of business upon arrival at Auckland was meeting our new German friend from the China trip, Stef. We got drinks by the water, followed by ramen, the fanciest ice cream and lots of booze. It was great to catch up and hear how her time in New Zealand has been. We fell asleep that night full of beer and excitement for our New Zealand adventure.
The next morning we gathered our bags and headed to meet my parents!!! It was so nice to see some familiar faces from home. There were lots of hugs and things to catch up on.
After a quick breakfast we boarded a ferry to the island of Waiheke. There,the hop on hop off bus took us around the rather large island for views of the ocean, walks on the beach, cute shops and a beautiful winery. The wine was delicious but drinking wine in NZ is not cheap! Sadly, the Mudruck Winery would be the only one we would visit.
The next day we picked up our car. Danny was clearly meant to be our driver. He handled driving on the left like a pro. It was an overcast, slightly rainy day, but we drove to Waitakere Ranges National Park. Danny weaved us through the mountains down to the beach where we saw black sand. Then we checked out our first of many waterfalls. It was nice to be back in nature.
Day 3 took us away from Auckland to the town of Rotorua, the culture capital of New Zealand, where we spent the next three days exploring the surroundings. We saw a waterfall, walked amongst sulphur hot springs, did a Redwood tree walk, hiked in the rain and attended a Maori dinner. The dinner was an interesting look at Maori culture and dance. The weather in Rotorua wasn't great so we didn't get out in nature as much as we would've liked.
After Rotorua we drove to the Waitamo glow caves. Our tour took us deep into a cave where we boarded a small boat in the pitch black. As the boat slowly moved through the cave river the ceiling began to glow with small dots of light. Small bugs let off this light to attract food. To us, it was like seeing the stars. Really amazing. From the caves we went to Hamilton for our last night together which also happened to be Danny's birthday. We celebrated with a nice dinner and even some cake!
There was enough time on our final day to walk around the Hamilton Gardens that turned out to be a gorgeous, sunny last day. The small walk through the different gardens was a great way to say goodbye to the North Island.
Sadly, it was a rushed goodbye to my parents. It was so good to spend time with family and I think everyone had a wonderful time! The week together went by fast but it was a great one.
