Auckland part 1

We had a lovely drive up to Auckland from Rotorua. Well, lovely until we hit motorway traffic at rush hour and Rachel was still at the wheel! It was quite a shock after all the almost empty single lane roads. Luckily the route to Dave and Steve’s house was simple (along highway 1, turn into 16, then 13 then right and right!!) so we got there unharmed!
The first 2 days was taken up with washing all our slightly smelly clothes and bringing the blog up to date. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to go out - it was just that it rained solidly for 48 hours. Mind you, no complaints as the boys were perfect hosts putting up with our mess, cooking fantastic dinners for us and keeping us amused.


Luckily we had a fine day at last and the two of us went out for an explore with Dave (Steve had too many essays to mark!). We went first to the dams at Nihotupu which contained huge amounts of water and lots of pretty views. It was lovely to have a walk of decent length after so much sitting down.

Then we went to the beautiful beach at Piha which has it’s own TV surf rescue show! Lots of mini-surfers when we were there and fantastic views along the sands. We climbed up Lion Rock which is a Maori sacred site.

Back on our travels again this time making a round trip through the east half of North Island. We drove first to a goldfields area where we went on a train trip on the old gold line. This was a bit reminiscent of British Rail as the conductor seemed quite chuffed (no pun intended) that they only used the timetables to see how late they were running!

We also stopped at a lovely sandy beach at Mount Manganui where the hill of the same name sits at the end of the peninsular and is also important to the Maoris. Then to the very long beach at Kohioawa. First picture looking north into sunshine; second one looking south at the rain cloud that suddenly opened and soaked the area. Luckily we drove through it and managed to find a room at a holiday park at the most uninspiring town of Opotiki. Great fish and chips though.

The next day we drove across country to Napier. Lovely mountains, rivers and valleys ending up at the wonderful Art Deco town where much of it had to be rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake. Here is Gordon at the front of our hotel - more pictures of fabulous architecture in the next blog.