#175 Nomad Diary. 24 February- 1 March 2024. Our Final Week of 4 Months in New Zealand! Tauranga. Hobbiton. Paeroa. Karangahake Gorge. Auckland Meet Up with Friends. Car Return. Auckland Hotel and City Sights.
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| Beach Walk Near Tauranga |
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| Shells at Beach Near Tauranga |
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| Beach Near Tauranga |
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| Kaiate Falls Near Tauranga |
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| Kaiate Falls Near Tauranga |
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| Kaiate Falls Near Tauranga |
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| Singing With Quinn 3 yrs 5 mos old Saturday. 24. Today we left our luxury studio at Opotiki and drove to Tauranga. It was a shorter drive. We had lunch at a nice restaurant and then a walk on the beach. Afterward we went to Pac and Save to get groceries and then on to our airbnb apartment. We were quite tired. We rested and had a bowl of fresh fruit with cereal and yogurt. Once we rested and ate a light dinner, we were ready to go see a local waterfall. It was beautiful! Kaiate Falls was a nice 30 minute loop walk with great views of the falls. |
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| Here We Go Into Hobbiton |
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| At Hobbiton |
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| Hobbiton View |
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| Inside a Hobbit Hole |
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| At Hobbiton |
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| Selfie at the Paeroa Bottle |
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| Paeroa Old Building |
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| Our Paeroa Airbnb was an Old Railroad Building Sunday. 25. It’s a rainy day today. We enjoyed visiting with a church of Christ near the cruise port. Next Sunday we are scheduled to be on a ship that stops here for the day! We met several people and got a couple of phone numbers to hopefully get a ride next week and then again in April when we are on another ship that ports here on a Sunday! lol. When we came out of the church building it was raining so hard that we decided to go back to our apartment and cook lunch inside. We enjoyed cooking a delicious meal of salmon, mushrooms and wedge salad. While we were finishing up, Jeremy called with Andrea and Quinn. It’s Saturday night in Washington D.C. They talked about getting their items separated for their move to Brazil on March 6th. We enjoyed seeing Quinn’s ‘new’ toy, a hand-me-down scooter from a neighbor. Also hearing Quinn repeat his new Portuguese words! Wow! We are hanging out at our apartment as the heavy rain comes and goes today. Monday. 26. Checking out of our Tauranga airbnb today and driving 1 hour to Hobbiton. We have 1:30 tour tickets. Then on another hour to our 3 night stay at Paeroa at an old cottage used by the Railroad in the past. It’s a rainy day with foggy low clouds. That was okay. We haven’t had that many rainy days for being here 4 months. The tour of Hobbiton was so much fun for us. I would do it again, and try to book earlier so that we could have a meal along with the tour. After our enjoyable tour, we drove through farmland to our next rural town stay at Paeroa. We arrived to a nice redone cottage that was located a couple of streets from the main street. It turned out to be comfortable and mostly quiet. |
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| Paeroa City Walk |
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| At Karangahake Gorge |
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| Old Train Tunnel at Karangahake Gorge |
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| Karangahake Gorge |
Tuesday. 27. Today was rainy and some clear. We walked around town a little and otherwise stayed around our house, did laundry, and rested.
Wednesday. 28. Today the weather cleared up. We decided to go on a local Karangahake Gorge walk. At the gorge was a 1 km long train tunnel and also some old gold mining tunnels. Along with the beautiful river and forested pathway it was very enjoyable!
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| Lunch with Lynda and John in Auckland |
Thursday. 29. Today is busy. We check out of our 3 night stay and leave by 8:30 am. We are driving to Auckland and meeting up with the Staigers at 10:30am to visit and go to lunch. After a good visit together and leaving our picnic basket and cooler for them, we took off for our hotel downtown. We spent considerable time parking and finding our hotel and our room. It was like a scavenger hunt. I had booked through airbnb and gotten instructions with details. It started with finding an Indian grocery and in there we had to find our hotel key locker. Once we got there we put our code in to get our room keys. Next we had to find our hotel across the street and then find the second entrance on another street. We went to the car and got our luggage and then weaved our way to our 11th story room. We left our things and then went back to our car. It was about 3pm now. We have a 4pm appointment to turn in our subscription car. On our way through Auckland traffic and getting the car washed and vacuumed we finally arrived about 4:15 to turn in our car. The company Turner’s made the turn in easy. We left by 4:30 and walked to the bus stop. We took a bus to a train to town center near our hotel. We went out to dinner and chose ramen at a food court. We walked to the port and Darrell had ice cream. We walked back to our hotel room by about 6:30 pm. We went out onto our 11th floor deck and have a full view of the Auckland Needle building! We relaxed in our room and watched the quarter-finals for the NZ Bake Off on NZ TV. The room and bed is very comfortable.
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| In Auckland City |
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| In Auckland |
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| Cool Trees in Albert Park in Auckland |
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| Albert Park in Auckland |
Friday. 1. I slept all night for the first time in a long time. It was great! We did our morning exercises and decided to go out for breakfast. We went to Scratch and shared an omelet and sourdough toast. It was fabulous! Darrell’s talking to his mom for over an hour at our room after breakfast. We walked around the city and had coffee mid-morning. We saw a beautiful park called Albert Park and full of old trees. I bought a New Zealand t-shirt, some color pens and a small art paper notebook. We had lunch in our hotel room using most of the rest of our fresh food. We went for a swim and layed out in the sun at our rooftop pool. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, then took another walk to a grocery and bought some grape juice for communion together on a Sunday when we can’t get to church.
Nomad Notes.
My Spectacular NZ Highlights
I’m thinking about all the spectacular scenery we have enjoyed over 4 months living and touring through New Zealand. The drives and the scenery are spectacular here with mountains and beaches more than people to fill them. We have met wonderful people all over this country. I want to highlight my spectacular views of New Zealand.
The shells on the east coast beaches of the South Island are amazing! I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t find these easily on the North Island. I took some pictures of some of the beautiful shells I saw.
Darrell losing his car key fob in the Giant Sand Dunes and then me finding them is a funny and quirky memory for us!
Our favorite NZ pie was at Fairlie and contained a salmon filet, bacon and cheese.
Our favorite ice cream was Real Fruit Ice Cream any flavor, but partial to Passion Fruit!
Our housesits were amazing! A month in New Plymouth with a view of Mt. Taranaki and ten minutes from the beach was really wonderful! 10 days in Christchurch with day drives around was fantastic! 10 days near Wellington at Christmas was also incredible!
There are mountains and mountain passes in every direction on these islands. They descend to sea level and to unique rocky coasts all around. The sea lions and seals were plentiful on the east coast of the South Island. The variety of penguins are around the east and west South Island, but a bit trickier to see.
There are glaciers in the same place there are tropical trees!
There are well maintained walking tracks on every level all over both Islands. Interesting and unique warning signs along the way to keep everyone as safe as possible.
The colors of the waters in lakes, rivers and oceans are an astounding variety of blues, turquoise and greens.
The beaches vary with an interesting variety of shells, rocks and sand. We saw a lot of beaches and there are many more to explore!!
The history of the island predates the arrival of Captain Cook in the 1700’s, but it is this time forward that has shaped the current New Zealand. With each person having a story of family history and how they belong to this country.
We walked many mountain trails that are well-maintained. There was a sense of relaxation knowing that we won’t run into a snake, wild cat or bear while hiking in New Zealand.
We spent most of our Sundays worshiping with a local church of Christ. The people we met at churches were kind and welcoming. We were included into many invitations to spend time with members in their homes, for meals and for get-togethers. These times together allowed us to get to know each other a bit better and know how we are similar and the challenges we face with our growing faith.
Meeting a North Island retired farmer and a South Island sheep farmer and staying at their farms. These people and places impressed us with something completely different than we have seen before.
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