My parents and Ian left for Queenstown on the South Island the day we got back from Bay of Islands so we had a couple of days with Luke and Nathan before they left for their backpacking trip around Taiwan. We took them for a hike by Piha which we've posted about recently, but black sand beaches are a New Zealand specialty on the west coast so we had to take them.
I'd like to say we built the sand couch but I'd be lying. But it made for a cool photo opp.
Luke and Nathan met their friend Dirk in Tailand where they spent New Years.
Learning Chinese characters
Meanwhile, on the South Island, my parents enjoyed an overnight cruise on the Doubtful Sound. I'm very jealous because we didn't get there on our trip. But if it was anything like the Milford Sound I'm sure it was incredible. Ian also went paragliding over the city which he thoroughly enjoyed.
Sheep shearing
Cottage at the holiday park
While all this was happening we had a break for a day then headed to Wellington. Wellington is on the southern tip of the North Island and where the ferry leaves to cross the Cook Straight to the South Island. It's about a 3+ hour boat ride that is GORGEOUS. The ferry itself was like a mini cruise ship with cafes, movie theater, magician for the kids, playground, and various sitting rooms with views. Crazy beautiful.
Wellington
The Wellington waterfront is perfectly suited for tourists and locals alike. The Te Papa Museum is nationally known and Kiwis are very proud of it. It's free and you can spent a lot of time in there if you have more than a day (which we didn't). We also took the cable car up to the botanic gardens with views of the waterfront.
What would our day be without a morning flat white coffee before our drive up north to Bay of Islands?
We stopped along the way at Whangarei for the Kauri Clock Factory, which I bug Lance about seeing every time we drive by. I mean, a clock factory?! Why wouldn't you want to stop? The Kauri tree is a native New Zealand tree that is now endangered because, like all native NZ species, it can't defend itself against anything. Our earliest posts showed the shoe cleaning stations that all the hikes have at the beginning to prevent contaminated soil from damaging the root systems of the trees. Now all Kauri projects have to be from reclaimed wood or swamp Kauri that's been preserved in swamps.
Next stop was Abbey glowworm caves, which are awesome. They aren't roped off or regulated so it's a fantastic place to feel like a real adventurer. Nathan and I went off on our own at one point through a small opening in the ceiling of the cave and ended up through another series of caves and into an open field in the middle of cows. We wandered around for bit before finding the park path again. I was so proud of my mom for going through the caves since she has claustrophobia. She rocked it!
Our bach rental in Paihia
Christmas cookie making
Jespersen board games are a Christmas staple. Lance couldn't handle the competitive nature of our games (aka we moved waaaay too slowly overthinking our moves).
DAY 6
DAY 7
Sunday best
The Christmas tree I sewed to take up with us.
Nathan won the puzzle contest.
Matching Star Wars bandanas
DAY 8
My dad, three brothers and I were lucky enough to scuba dive in Bay of Islands. Ian finished his certification there. My dad and I did the deep water wreck dive on the HMNZS Canterbury at about 30 meters. It was sunk to make a reef for diving. The fish and colorful anemone were impressive. Then the White Reef dive was with all of us.
Dad
Luke and Nathan
Ian
DAY 9
The last day was at Action World Paihia which was this super random adventure park that was a combo mini golf/trapeze artist themed park.
The mini golf was incredibly difficult. We gave ourselves a max of 10 instead of the typical 6. But the descriptions of each hole written by the park owners were hilarious.
highwire
gladiator style
There were several levels of trapeze and all 4 of us kids got to the highest level, although only Luke and Nathan got the go-ahead to jump to the second rung and then flip the dismount.
