New Zealand

Luke booked us a wonderful trip to New Zealand to accompany his parents on part of their holiday out there. We landed at Auckland in the afternoon on Thursday 7th Feb and made a bee-line straight to the hire car they had arranged for exploring the North island.
I heave heard a lot about New Zealand's beauty from many people but nothing I have been told gave it anywhere near the justice it deserves.

View from The Duke of Wellington, Russell

The first stop was Bay of Islands, which we drove to via a beautiful scenic route along the winding coast and through stunning countryside. There's lush grass and tiny winding creeks down rolling hills in all directions. The roads are small but perfectly maintained - definite motorbike territory which I think Luke has every intention on following up at a later date.
I can see why they picked New Zealand countryside to film the Lord of the Rings, you can imagine people living in the hills as they are.

Long beach, Russell

We arrived in Russell, a small town in the Bay of Islands, at 9pm and ordered dinner straight away from the hotel restaurant. We stayed the night at The Duke of Marlborough (NZ's first licensed hotel). Luke and I sampled Kumara bread for dinner (Kumara is Maori for sweet potato) and followed it up with yummy locally caught fish accompanied by some lovely wine. It was such a novelty to stay in a hotel bed when we're so used to sleeping in Autumn - we definitely took advantage of the shower and certainly the complimentary tea bags over our short stay...

The next morning we explored Russell which was the first non-Maori town of New Zealand. There's probably only about a dozen shops on the high street and a handful of restaurants and cafes. We ventured to the end of the jetty and up to a look out point and then to the other side of the headland to Long Beach, which had the great view of all the islands.

We took the car ferry from Russell to cut out a good portion of the drive from the day before. Our next destination was Kumeu river, where Luke's parents had kindly booked us on a tour of the Kumeu River Wines. We met the son of the original founder and he walked us around the buildings. It was interesting to see a press for the first time and to learn about the wine making process a little more in-depth. Luke and I have got better at tasting (consuming) since our travels in Aus, so seeing how the wine is picked, pressed, barreled and bottled was very interesting.

Yum raspberry pavlova

A few glasses later we set off on our merry way back to Auckland where we stayed with Luke's godparents and very close family friends. They welcomed us with the most amazing food and wines and we stayed in their lovely house in Remuera, just outside Auckland centre.
The next morning Luke and I walked up part way to the local high-street. We were rescued part-way up the hill by Luke's godfather who drove us the rest of the way to pick up bread for breakfast. Remuera is a beautiful boutiquey suburb with lovely bakeries and organic food shops, cafes and clothes shops. It has beautiful views of the sea too. For lunch we hit the harbour and ate at Soul bar - we had an amazing lunch complete with New Zealand's signature pud, pavlova. A big thank you to Luke's godparents for their kind and generous hospitality. We may have to take them up on their invite back very soon indeed!

Luke's skydive

The next stop on our tour was Taupo. We arrived around 7.20pm at the Hilton (the Hilton!!?!), which was just enough time for me to run down and take pictures of the beautiful sunset over the lake.

My skydive

The next day we got a lift into Taupo with Luke's parents then walked back to the hotel in time to get picked up and taken to Skydive Taupo... Yep, we jumped. From 15,000 feet. And survived! Obviously.
We free fell for a whole minute with the most fantastic views of the lake and surrounding landscape and parachuted down in awe. Forget coffee... skydiving is where the morning buzz is!

After our skydive we all met up again and went out for an hour and a half on a chartered boat. The men (Luke and his father) reeled in 8 trout, three of which we kept for dinner. We went to a local restaurant with our trout and licenses and had them cooked up and accompanied with veggies, chips and wine. A perfect last supper, without a doubt.

Saying good bye at the airport the next day was hard. We're missing our families back home lots, despite all our frolicking. Lots of stories to tell when we see everyone! A big thank you again to Luke's parents for having us along on a wonderful holiday with them in Northern New Zealand. We will repay the favor as soon as we live in something a little larger than an airing cupboard!