Spoiled by California?

This morning we took a half day cruise around the Bay of Islands. While the Bay of Islands was beautiful, we didn't think it was a "must-see" like the guidebook said. Maybe it's because we're spoiled by the California coastline, which we see on a regular basis.

One of highlights of the cruise was cruising through the Hole in the Rock at Percy Island. The other was finding several pods of bottlenose dolphins playing in the bay. Getting up-close and watching the dolphins frolic was definitely more interesting than passing through the Hole in the Rock. There were probably a dozen or more dolphins in the bay, including a couple of baby dolphins. Our captain thought one of the babies was only a few hours old. We weren’t able to get into the water and swim with the dolphins because there were baby dolphins in the pod. Otherwise, we could’ve slipped on a wet suit and flippers and swam with the dolphins.

Once back to port, we gassed up the car and headed out for the Waipoua Kauri Forest. If you think gas is expensive in California, try $6.80/gallon here! Granted it is 91 octane…but still…$6.80/gal?! (BTW, they also have 98 octane for $0.40/gal more).

We decided to visit the kauri forest because neither one of us knew what a kauri tree looked like. And kauri trees seemed like a big deal in Maori culture. We soon discovered what’s so special about the kauri tree. They’re BIG! I’m talking redwood trees big. They’re not as tall as redwood trees, but they’re definitely wider than redwood trees. Tane Mahuta (lord of the forest), is 51.5m high (a little over 150 ft) with a circumference of 13.8m wide (about 50 ft). It’s estimated to be Tane Mahuta sprang from seed around 2000 years ago. We were impressed by these giant kauri trees and wondered if they were the inspiration for the tree people in the Lord of the Rings.

Driving North to the Bay of Islands

Before we hit the road, we made a stop at the local supermarket to pick up some rations for the drive and lunch. Greg discovered meat-flavored potato chips and picked up 2 bags of chips: honey soy chicken and chargrilled beef with black pepper. He says the chargrilled beef chips taste like beef ramen noodles. I bet the chicken chips taste like chicken ramen noodles.

We found our way to SH1 pretty easily and soon we were driving through rolling, green hillsides with cows and sheep grazing on the pastures. We took a small detour to visit Whangarei Falls. It drops 25 meters into a brush-rimmed pool. There's a walking trail that takes you along the river and through fields of wildflowers and a grove of trees. After our short hike, we got back on the road to the Bay of Islands.

After another hour of driving, we arrived at our destination, Paihia. It’s a small, sleepy beach town right next to the water. Our accommodations for the evening: the Saltwater Lodge, a cool backpackers hostel. We visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, overlooking the Bay of Islands. Waitangi is historically significant because the first treaty between the Maori people and the British Crown was signed here in 1840. The treaty is how the Maori people get screwed by the British. There's an amazing Maori meeting house and war canoe. The war canoe is over 30 meters long and was built from three kauri trees. It's huge!

We’d love to post pictures, but we’re having trouble finding WiFi access here. As soon as we find an internet cafe or something, we'll post pictures.

Black Sand is Really Hot

After grabbing a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast (and coffee for Cheryl) at Dizengoff’s, we headed out to check out Auckland and the surrounding areas. While Auckland and the surrounding region is the most populated area of New Zealand, it really isn't a very impressive city. It's actually not very big. There isn't an impressive skyline (e.g. NYC, Hong Kong, San Francisco) or a unique landmark (e.g. Sydney Opera House or Golden Gate Bridge). Even the harbor was disappointing. Good thing we're only here for a day!

We we went to One Tree Hill, which is a park in Auckland. It really didn't feel like any of the parks I'd been too. It was open and pastoral with rolling green hills, trees, walking paths and sheep (yes, sheep) right in the middle of the city. We had our first sheep sighting as we hiked up to the top of the hill.

After enjoying the views at One Tree Hill, we headed out of the city to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park to visit black sand beaches, Karekare and Piha, with a short stop at the Arataki Visitor Center.

Karekare beach was made famous by the film The Piano. Too bad neither one of us has seen that movie. We had a picnic lunch at Karekare and discovered that black sand is really hot on bare feet. (ouch!). At Piha, we climbed up Lion Rock, which sits just off the beach. We both like Karekare beach better because it was more rugged and less populated than Piha beach.

Yay, We’re Here! (and our butts hurt)

After a 13+ hour plane ride, the title of this post should be obvious. We arrived in Auckland at 5:00 am, picked up our bags, cleared customs and got our rental car. It didn’t feel like we were in a foreign country, until we got to the car. Greg tosses me the keys and says, “Here, warm up the car.” I walk over to the left-side of the car, open the door and…there’s no steering wheel.

Oh yeah! The driver’s side is on the right-side in New Zealand. And they drive on the left-side of the road. Hmmm…driving on the wrong side of the road and the right-side of the car is gonna be interesting. We (Greg) only drove on the wrong side of the road once on our way into Auckland. =)

On Our Way!

Well...we're all packed and heading off to the airport now! Our next post will be from New Zealand. Yay! =)

Plans or No Plans?

Once we realized that we were departing for New Zealand in less than a week and a half, Greg and I suddenly got really busy researching places to visit and stay in New Zealand. Greg read our entire Lonely Planet guide for New Zealand, and he is a self-proclaimed non-reader! Maybe it's because I made a comment about how the husband usually plans the honeymoon. =P Greg says he started reading because all my questions about where we should go and what to do in New Zealand stressed him out and now his head hurts from all the reading he did. Anyhow, we now have a rental car, our return flight from Queenstown to Auckland, our ferry reservations from the North Island to the South island, all of our accommodations, and even some of our activities booked.

The funny thing is that when I booked our plane tickets way back in July, I kinda figured we'd arrive in Auckland with a really rough itinerary of what parts of New Zealand we wanted to visit and how long, but not have anything really booked besides a rental car. We'd basically wing it. Pick a city, drive there, find a bed and breakfast or a hostel once we arrived, and then go plan our activities. I mean, it worked for me and my brother when we backpacked through Europe for 4 weeks before he started med school. In fact, some of the most memorable moments of our trip came out of trying to find a place to stay when we arrived in some city and didn't speak the language. So, if winging it worked back then, why wouldn't it work now?

Well, we've got some ideas:

• My tolerance for staying in 1-star hotels/motels/hostels with questionable cleaning practices has gone way down, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't stuck with only flea-bag places to sleep, especially on our honeymoon.
• Despite his go-with-the-flow image, Greg is secretly a planner. The idea of flying 13.5 hours to get to New Zealand and missing out on some amazing New Zealand experience (e.g. a Hobbit sighting expedition) because we didn't have a plan just doesn't work for him.
• While 3 weeks seems like a long time, it's not long enough for all the things we want to do! So, we have to plan some of our trip to make sure we include our "must-do" activities.

While we've got quite a bit already planned, there's plenty of opportunity for flexibility and spontaneity along the way too.

Welcome to our blog!

We're getting ready for our honeymoon in New Zealand, which is coming up in a few weeks! To share our adventures with everyone back home, we decided to create this blog. Hopefully, we'll find time to post updates on our journey -- stories and pictures.