There and Back Again...: Tiki Tour 2012

Sitting on the ferry on our way back to the South Island is the perfect setting to wrap up our blogging for the last portion of our North Island adventure…so here goes!

We left off in Raglan after some killer surfing at Ngarunui Beach. Surfer Steve was a great coach and both of us were able to get up and catch some waves. We would love to prove it via photos, however, Surfer Steve being his laid back self has yet to email them to us. We’re not holding our breath that we’ll ever see them...but who knows, it may be a nice surprise a couple months down the road. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and a great way to end our time in Raglan.

Heading to Northland the next day, we had a quick stopover in Hamilton to rest our heads before attacking the big city. The only thing notable about our stay here was the incredibly ridiculous showers at the holiday park we stayed at. The shower was turned on via a button, which in turn had to be pressed every 17 seconds to keep the water coming (yes, I counted so I could accurately report). Anyone who knows how much I love a good shower can imagine how irritating this was…however, we both got through it, had a nice dinner and were ready to head north the next morning.

HEAVEN...

We had a long drive to get to Kerikeri which is in Northland – the Northernmost area of NZ – and once we arrived we treated ourselves to two nights at a beautifully restored hotel. Before we got there we had to stop off in Whangarei for a few Irish beers, after all it was St. Patty’s Day. We went into an Irish bar had a few beers and a snack amongst many people who were entirely too sober for it being St. Patty’s Day. I guess they don’t take it to seriously here, I mean there were kids in the bar on St. Patty’s Day, what’s up with that?

No, I didn't drink them both!

Rock Sculpture in Kerikeri, NZ

For some reason the skies decided to open up and proceed to downpour on us the entire time we were in Northland. Of course, we wouldn’t let a little rain dampen our spirits, so we headed out and about to find an adventure. Wine tasting it was, and enjoy it we did! We also made time to visit Waitangi where the treaty was signed between Britain and the Maori people many many moons ago. Of course, the fee to get into the actual grounds was horrendous, so we settled for a photo of this plaque just outside as well as this cool fish and chips boat!

We were rested up and ready to head back out on the open road after our relaxing couple of days. After a brief detour (the highway was flooded out and people were forging the rivers due to all the flooding) we ended up on the road toward the Kauri Forest. The Kauri tree is among the world's mightiest trees, growing to more than 160 feet tall, with trunks of up to 50 feet wide and can live for more than 2000 years. The rain was still being persistent, however, we made our way out of the car, down the short path to view the largest kauri in the area. The photo doesn’t do it justice as you need to stand before this incredible giant to really appreciate its enormity. Stand before it we did, long enough to take the photo, then we were back to the car to dry out. John did such an amazing job driving through the nasty storm the past couple of days, that we decided a brewery pitstop was in order (you all know rain or shine we would’ve stopped).

Hallertau is a solid brewery with some great IPA’s and a few German beers to honor and represent the hopply named brewery. They even had some beers from the US and had a Sierra Nevada on tap, not sure how long it took to get down there so we opted for some of the beer brewed on premise. Great job with the brew pub.

That night we stayed in North Auckland and early the next day headed into the city, thankfully the rain had subsided just long enough for us to enjoy a dry day out. Auckland has an amazing skyline that reminded us very much of Seattle. They even have their very own version of the Space Needle. The Sky tower & Casino is a huge tourist trap and yep…we fell in. Although I will say it was well worth it. With only having a day in the city and shopping being out of the question, from the Sky tower observation deck, an amazing panoramic view of the area enabled us to see for miles (The Sky tower is the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere, a little fun fact for ya).We even tried to gamble for you Glee Nelson, unfortunately, us not being at the top of our gambling game, couldn’t figure out how to work the machine (I’m having a flashback of Messenger Christmas party circa 2009…although we didn’t try it with a $20).

After visiting Gollum and the Orc in the Sky city gift shop (sorry, no hobbits Thorsten) we decided it was time to head toward the Coromandel Peninsula. Not before, of course, John had his peeking duck meal at the Chinese BBQ place featured on Grabone that day. An experience it was, and we headed off, full of duck and not needing to eat for another 12 hours.

The rain started up again and challenged our itinerary which had us scheduled to stay around the peninsula the next couple days, so we decided to put that adventure on hold and head south to Tauranga. We rented a quaint cabin for the next three nights, which turned out to be the longest we have stayed in one place since our tiki tour began. The next morning we headed off to Matamata in search of some hobbits for Thorsten (a fairly young one, still trainable without super hairy feet). Unfortunately, we didn’t run into any hobbits but we did stumble upon Hobbiton. Yes, we paid the ridiculous $66 per person to tour the Hobbiton movie set, and it was worth every penny. The details on the hobbit holes and the various props were simply incredible. It was great because they remade the village for the new Hobbit movie so everything was up to date and looking very authentic.

The rain stopped long enough for us to enjoy an afternoon back in Coromandel at the hot beach. The hot beach is a pretty cool place where a hot springs comes up right under a sandy beach at the edge of the ocean. People flock to these ‘hot spots’ on the beach and dig-dig-dig until they’ve created their own personal hot pool, right there at the beach. It’s quite a funny sight to see, everyone in their swim suits digging to create their hot water pool, crammed together in these two tiny areas at a huge beach. Great day, thanks for the suggestion Rachel Gray.

Our last day in Tauranga, we headed to Mt. Maunganui and beach which is home to NZ’s first artificially constructed reef. The short hike was great, and on a hot day it felt amazing to finally be out in and see the sun. We enjoyed a couple of cold ones and laid on the beach for awhile watching the surfers catch waves. After our beach time and a quick picnic we were back on the road, headed for the smelly town of Rotorua.

Rotorua is a huge thermal hotspot in New Zealand where the pungent smell of sulfur welcomes you. Before we made our way to the city, however, we had a quick stop off to try zorbing. Zorbing is probably one of the COOLEST things to do in NZ (okay, not really) but it’s pretty fun. You jump in a giant bubble filled with a few gallons of warm water, they seal up the outside and send you on your way down a grassy hillside track, twisting and turning the entire way down. John and I did it together and it was probably the quickest way to burn through $45, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

The holiday park we stayed at had thermal pools that you could relax in while soaking up all the natural minerals found in the water. Other than those couple things and a sweet little Belgian bar that we hung out at one night, Rotorua doesn’t have much to offer. They call it the Vegas of NZ… Rotovegas? We don’t get it.

Quick detour through Lake Taupo for a killer steak and mushroom pie…don’t judge us because we go out of our way for pies…then onward to Hawkes Bay.

Hawkes Bay was our next stop to fill up on some art deco architecture and of course the vino from the region. In the early 1930’s a large earthquake hit Napier and destroyed much of the town centre buildings. When rebuilding, many of the structures were designed utilizing art deco techniques. Very cool to see, Shmeegs, you would have loved it. After visiting Mission Estate (the oldest winery in NZ) we headed to Hastings where we would continue our wine tour via bike the next day.

This bike tour was a little lengthier than the one we did with you Kylie and Tyler, but once we reached those cellar doors, we would forget all about it while sipping delicious wines. After our tour we grabbed our loot and headed back to the holiday park to continue our own personal tasting. Not a terrible way to spend an afternoon.

The next morning we were off to experience our first high tea. The ladies tried to get us to dress up; however, we opted not to and simply enjoyed sipping our tea and eating our cakes and sandwiches. Note to self…don’t eat a huge breakfast before high tea. I don’t think we ate anything for the rest of the day.

Look what we passed on the highway…Mt Bruce! Pretty cool Daddio…

Martinborough was a quick stop before arriving in Wellington later that day. We dropped in to Te Kairanga Cellar door for a quick tasting and some more goods purchasing.

Wellington showed us another great time, John had his first Teppanyaki experience, which of course he loved and afterwards we headed to Hasigo Zake Beer Bar, a great beer bar with a lot of beers from the states like Rogue, Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. They also had an awesome selection of NZ beers and a great one from Norway from the Nogne O Brewery The next day we were off to the WETA Cave, which is the company that did all of the costuming, modeling, digital effects etc. for the LOTR movies. We watched a pretty cool behind the scenes clip of what exactly they do at WETA across their 8+ departments. Very interesting work, and cool to see how some of the details of the trilogy and other huge blockbusters came to be. We rode the cable car from the botanical gardens to the town centre and enjoyed a couple of brews at the Bruhaus which was a nice place and had some good beers on tap. So far our favorite brew bar in Wellington has to be the Fork and Brewer, with the Tap House in a close second. No dinner necessary that night, we drank it.

We took full advantage of our late checkout the next morning, fit in some amazing Malaysian food for lunch, and were off to the ferry terminal. South Island, here we come.

Shannon’s Top 5 North Island Adventures: