We arrived in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, on a sunny summer afternoon at the end of January. (It still feels odd writing that January is summer!) A quick trip to the supermarket to stock up with supplies for a few days was a particular highlight of the day as they sold both cheese (good cheese is hard to find in South America) and the NZ version of Weet-a-bix inventively named ‘Weetbix’.
Each region of New Zealand has it’s own local public holiday every year in addition to the usual national ones. Fortunately for us our time in Auckland coincided with Auckland Day. There was a free festival down in the harbour involving tugboat rides, tours of a Navy ship, street entertainers and much more. We got to sit in the pilot’s seat of a helicopter, watched loads of yachts sailing in the harbour and enjoyed a free concert by ‘Auckestra’, Auckland’s Symphony Orchestra one evening. They played film theme music culminating in fireworks set to the Star Wars theme. A large area of the festival was dedicated to Maori culture and music. It was really interesting to listen to both traditional and contemporary Maori dance, music and singing. Spending a few hours there gave us a good introduction to their culture and the relationship between them and the rest of the population.
Each region of New Zealand has it’s own local public holiday every year in addition to the usual national ones. Fortunately for us our time in Auckland coincided with Auckland Day. There was a free festival down in the harbour involving tugboat rides, tours of a Navy ship, street entertainers and much more. We got to sit in the pilot’s seat of a helicopter, watched loads of yachts sailing in the harbour and enjoyed a free concert by ‘Auckestra’, Auckland’s Symphony Orchestra one evening. They played film theme music culminating in fireworks set to the Star Wars theme. A large area of the festival was dedicated to Maori culture and music. It was really interesting to listen to both traditional and contemporary Maori dance, music and singing. Spending a few hours there gave us a good introduction to their culture and the relationship between them and the rest of the population.
Yachts in Auckland Harbour
Traditional Maori songs
Auckland
is built on a volcanic plain with many extinct volcanoes sticking up as hills
throughout the area. We spent a day visiting the newest of these, Rangitoto,
which created an island in the bay about 600 years ago. The view from the top
back towards the city was impressive. Whilst in the city we took the
opportunity to meet up with Adam, who we met in South Africa a few years ago,
who now lives there. It was fun to catch up, try some local beers and find out
about life in New Zealand.
View of Auckland from Rangitoto
A long way from home
After
5 days in Auckland we took a flight down to Christchurch on the South Island
where we were due to meet up with Fiona’s parents. We decided to hire a car for a few days
to allow us to explore the area better, as public transport is pretty infrequent
outside of the main urban areas. It was the first time we had driven in over
6 months, but fortunately we hadn’t forgotten how. Our first night was spent in
a hostel in the centre of the city giving us a chance to see the damage from
the two earthquakes. There are lots of empty spaces where buildings once stood
and the whole centre is still under reconstruction. It was pretty quiet in the
evening as most businesses and people moved out to the suburbs in the aftermath
of the quakes.
We then spent several days exploring around Christchurch visiting the port of Lyttleton, walking in the Port Hills and making a trip out onto the Banks Peninsula. The whole of the peninsula is formed from a long extinct volcano, resulting in a ridge line which slopes steeply down to the sea on either side. The drive along the top was along very steep windy roads with incredible views. We drove down into secluded bays with no other people around and vivid turquoise waters. At the end of the peninsula sits the picturesque village of Akaroa where we enjoyed a walk to the lighthouse and an early tea of fish and chips. During this time we stayed with Fiona’s relatives, Ross and Carol, who live in the city. They were very welcoming (Fiona hadn’t seen them since she was a child) and were full of information about the Christchurch earthquakes, life in New Zealand and what to see and do in the rest of our time on the South Island. It was great to stay in an actual house again after months in hostels and not have to be packing and unpacking every couple of days.
An empty bay on the Banks Peninsula
Hiking in the Port Hills
After a few days of being in Christchurch, Sally and Ian (Fiona's parents) arrived, having flown in from Sydney. It was very exciting to see them again after so long! We had some early evening champagne in the garden to celebrate our engagement, before starting to finalise our plans for our road trip over the next few weeks. 48 hours later, after lots of catching up and a bit of food shopping, we were all set to pick up our campervan and head off the next part of our adventure!
Belated engagement celebrations!
