New Zealand Holiday Tour

Apr192017

Posted in Geology • Nature • North Island • NZ

Meeting our NZ family again and Waitomo Caves

Anne here…

What a very, very special couple of days. Family and more family… the family links to some were technically closer than others. But without exception just the loveliest, friendliest most welcoming people.

Firstly we met up with Chris, Belinda, Amelia and Ben and immediately continued our friendship with them from our previous visit three years ago. To go on the tour in Waitomo caves just 30 minutes later just felt totally natural.

Waitomo Caves

We visited two caves in Waitomo, each quite different. The first with a walk through caves with stalactites and stalagmites followed by a silent boat trip through the glow worm caves. Very magical to be in dark caves with hundreds of little twinkling glow worm lights above us. (unfortunately no photos permitted).

The second cave had huge cavernous chambers with even more dramatic stalagmites and stalactites. Wow.

This was followed by an impromptu visit to relatives of our relatives! And the most wonderful NZ hospitality including afternoon tea, homemade jams and the warmest, loveliest welcome.

A very special day. And the sun shone.

Apr182017

Posted in Beaches • North Island • NZ • Scenary

Busy in Raglan

By Paul Thomas

Paul here…

Apologies for the lack of posts.

We’re in Raglan with our New Zealand cousins and its been pretty hectic… canoeing, walking on the beach, meals out and catching up after 3 years.

Heading off to to the Coromandel today – about a 3 hour drive.

Apr172017

Posted in Nature • North Island • NZ

We actually saw a Kiwi

By Paul Thomas

Anne here…

Seeing a Kiwi is not an easy task. The kiwi bird is nocturnal and fairly rare in the wild.

But yes, we cheated by going to the Kiwi House and Native Bird Park in Otorohanga. But realistically that was our only opportunity to see one and even then it wasn’t guaranteed. They have several night vision sheds to deal with the nocturnal issue and then it is pot luck. But we spent at least 10 minutes watching a real kiwi. Unfortunately no photos are allowed. And if I was uncharitable, I’d describe it as an engaging but also rotund, brown, slightly fluffy, football sized bird. But seeing a kiwi bird in real life was oddly magical and special.

The site is a not for profit charity, run by bird enthusiasts and has lots of other interesting birds and geckos, which Paul was allowed to photograph. A lovely Easter Sunday afternoon.

Apr162017

Posted in City • Nature • North Island • NZ • Scenary

Hamilton Gardens

By Paul Thomas

Anne here…

As I said in an earlier Blog post, Hamilton Gardens was a real highlight for me especially. Here are some of our favourite pics:

Hamilton Gardens

Apr162017

Posted in City • North Island • NZ

Cambridge and Hamilton

By Paul Thomas

Anne here…

Leaving Rotorua and, based on good advice, we called into Punnets cafe on the outskirts of Cambridge for a local favourite: berries whisked into vanilla ice-cream… mmm… delish!

Cambridge is wealthy and horsey; lots of stud farms; large bungalows with well manicured lawns and is a fruit growing area. It’s very pleasant.

Hamilton is a modern multi-cultural city – the fourth largest in New Zealand. And it also made a good impression, slightly contrary to our expectations.

Waikato river from the Novotel

Here is the view from our Novotel hotel room window. The river was very full and is a key feature through the city.

But it was definitely Hamilton Gardens that completely stole the show for me.
It was so good we did it twice! Well that’s not strictly true. We saw five themed gardens on Saturday but it suddenly started pouring with rain, perhaps appropriately when we were in the tropical garden, so heavily that we had to abandon our visit. But I loved it so much, I was really keen to go back this morning – a really lovely way to spend Easter Sunday morning. I enjoyed the themed gardens so much they get a blog post all of their own…