We live in an amazing country and we want to try and do all of the iconic kiwi trips/holidays. We did a major one when we lived here last time and went around the South Island in a campavan. It was truly amazing and I would highly recommend anyone to do it. In fact we plan to do it again.
(We've also been up to the Coromandel and visited the cool places round there - Hahei, Cathedral Cove, Hot Water Beach. We've been to Wellington (official capital of NZ) which is a lovely city and very arty. Last February we went over to Waiheke Island for Sam's wedding, another beautiful place.)
So this summer we planned a trip to the Far North. We spent the last week staying in Russell in the Bay of Islands with Sam, Paul, Renee, Ella and Jude.
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| Part of Russell from the Wharf |
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| Adam was determined to try fly the kite, but the wind had other ideas! |
We got the car ferry over to Russell and arrived at our lovely holiday home. We've really been spoiled with this one and don't think we'll go back to camping! It was lovely - a 4 bed house complete with kitchen, lounge, deck, tv, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier (after getting home and unpacking mostly clean clothes yesterday, I think having a washing machine will be a high priority for holidays from now on!). Here's a photo of our cottage, pinched from Paul (see his awesome photography work here: Paul Conroy Photography)
There was also a pool in the complex, just behind where this photo was taken from. It was perfect - just a short walk from the front of the house. After unpacking we hopped right in!
The pool was great, we all loved it and the kids came along really well with their swimming, especially Lani. She was confidently swimming on her own with no arm bands by the second day and by the end of the week was diving and bombing into the pool. Tilly is really confident in the water and will slowly follow everyone else around floating along with her little pink arm bands. Zach is not such a big fan of the water, although he does like it once he gets in. We actually got him to jump in on our second to last day there. That was only because he had accidentally fallen in earlier, so we convinced him that he knew he could manage it now! He just wanted to spend all the time in the spa pool instead.
On Sunday we had a chilled out day and went down to the beach for the morning and had our lunch down there. In the afternoon we moseyed around the pool and some of us went off for a walk and/or nap at various times :)
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| Long Beach, Russell |
Zach had a bit of a meltdown so once I calmed him down I talk him out for a walk. He's like a puppy and needed to burn off some energy so he didn't terrorise everyone around the house! We saw the local street theatre group performing a reenactment of how Russell was in the 1840s. It was nicknamed the Hell Hole of the Pacific because of it's lawlessness. It was a popular stop for sailors, pirates and harlots.
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| Pirates and Harlots and a game of cards |
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| The cheating yank making a run for it |
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| Twisted Fig Tree |
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| Blurry - he wouldn't sit still, but I love it for his cheekiness! |
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| Lighting the fuse of the canon |
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| Tilly's black eye after accidentally hitting her face against the edge of the pool! |
We went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds which was really good. We learned some of the history around the Treaty of Waitangi and the kids got worksheets to do while we went around. They had quite a lot of stuff to look around, more than I was expecting to be there, but I haven't got many photos because first I forgot my camera (d'oh!) and second I got a migraine about 30mins after we got there :(
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| Lunch at Haruru Falls |
On Tuesday we had a chill out day by the pool and wandering round Russell. We alternated going and doing stuff days with staying in Russell days. So on Tuesday we looked around the church which plays a part in the Waitangi history and is where Hone Heke is buried. The church also has bullet holes in the walls as a result of the fighting in the years after the Treaty was signed. Hone Heke actually cut down the British flag on Flagstaff hill multiple times after the Treaty.
On Wednesday we drove right to the tippy top (in Zach's words) of New Zealand to Cape Reinga. It's the furthest north you can drive too. There's another part that is a teeny bit further north but it's difficult to get to, so Cape Reinga is the one to go to. I forgot the camera again (double d'oh!) We drove up Ninety Mile beach to get there, which is actually only 54 miles long but is an official highway and a totally legal road. It was very cool. I stood up through the sun roof while Adam drove along, we had the windows down and the kids requested Gangnam Style, so we turned the stereo up load and I did the dance out the sunroof.
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| The boys doing doughnuts |
There aren't many places to actually get to the beach, so we drove on at the access point at the bottom and drove the whole way up to the access point at the top, which is actually a stream. You drive upstream to get off the beach and pass some huge sand dunes on the way.
We stopped to boogie board down them, but the climb to the top was really hard and the slide down didn't really make it worth it, so I only did it twice. It was beautiful though and the kids were super excited that we'd been to the desert :)
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| View from the top |
Then we carried on up to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga and ate our lunch on the grass. You can see where two oceans meet - the Pacific and the Tasman.
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| Where the Pacific and Tasman meet |
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| Zonked out after the big day out! |
Thursday was a relaxed day in Russell again, spending time by the pool, wandering to the shops etc.. followed by a BBQ by the pool.
And then Friday was our boat day. We'd planned earlier in the week to go out to the islands either on an organised trip or in a hire boat. We looked up the marine forecast on Thursday night and decided the sea was a bit rough to go that far in little hire boats so we went for the charter trip to Otehei Bay. It actually worked out awesomely and was an amazing day out. It's the same boat that does the dolphin cruise, they just drop us off at Urupukapuka Island then carry on to search for dolphins. Except we found dolphins on the way to the island - bonus! It was a magical experience.
Included in our trip we got fish and chips lunch on the beach and kayak hire. We took the kayaks out first into the beautiful bay. The water was so blue and clear and there were tons of starfish on the sea floor. It was a paradise island.
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| Walked off the wharf and into paradise |
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| Playing tag |
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| Renee having a stroll in the bay (and probably walking over 100 starfish on the way) |
We also walked to the top of a big hill and got a full 360 degree view of the surrounding islands.
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| Windy at the top! |
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| Ella in Sunset Bay |
We had a really great time, up there with our best holidays ever.
