This year was the first time since Josh started fight school (a million years ago) that we got his holiday leave dates in advance and were able to book a big trip. Of course we picked New Zealand.
I’m not totally sure to explain why I love New Zealand so much. There is something about it that reminds me of California where I grew up. Not only is it beautiful but there are amazing restaurants, great shopping, outdoor activities and really good weather. It also still feels small and laid back which I love.
We flew in and out of Auckland and ended up staying about 6 days there in total. We stayed at two different Airbnb’s and both were pretty great. The first one was in Ponsonby – it was such an amazing location right on Ponsonby Road so we could walk to coffee, meals and shopping. The second place we stayed was in New Market and was pretty awesome too. January was a perfect time to visit because it was summer there. The weather was really nice (and mild) and out of the 12 days we were there, it only rained once. Here are some of our favorite things we did while staying in Auckland:
1. Mt Eden
Mt. Eden is a volcanic cone with a huge crater in the middle. It’s the highest natural point in Auckland so it provides a really beautiful view of the city. There are a handful of trails around it so you can spend a lot of time walking around or just go straight up to the top for the view. I really loved how calm and peaceful it was. It’s a really pretty area with lots of trees and amazing views of the city.
2. Shopping
Ponsonby Road is a great street to explore for shopping whether you want to look for clothes or home goods. We also found this building called BLOC that had a ton of cute home goods stores all in one cool building with multiple levels. Britomart downtown is another good area along with Parnell. We did a ton of shopping and there are so many cool stores with really cute ceramics, linens, furniture and clothes.
3. Waiheke Island
Waiheke Island is one of the best parts about Auckland. It’s a small island that you can reach in about 40 minutes by ferry and it’s absolutely beautiful. There are wineries, olive groves, beaches and some of the most beautiful scenery ever. We bought the hop on/off bus tour from Fuller’s which was $65NZD for the ferry and the bus. The bus does a loop around the island with a ton of different stop and you can get on and off as many times as you want. They also tell you random facts about the island which is fun to hear. One of the things they talked about was how sustainably they have to live on the island. They have to send all their trash back to Auckland so they have a great system set up to donate old things so other people can reuse them which keeps their trash to a minimum.
We went to Kennedy Point Vineyards first. They are the only (official) organic winery there so we knew we wanted to check it out. The bus doesn’t stop in front of it so you have to walk about 20 minutes from the stop but it’s worth it. We got lucky on our way there because a taxi driver saw us walking and stopped and gave us a free ride. You can also hitchhike in New Zealand! Kennedy Point is gorgeous, they have a beautiful patio you can sit at and you can see the water and the boats while you’re tasting wine. The wine was also excellent.
Waiheke is mostly known for it’s red wine so we picked Tantalus for our next stop because we knew they were one of the few places with whites to try. This was by far our favorite winery, we loved every wine we tried and ended up buying 3 out of the 4 that we tried. Their Pinot Gris was our favorite and the Rosé was a close second. I should also note that you can try beer and cider at Tantalus as well.
Our next stop was Rangihoua Estate which is an award-winning olive oil producer. It was amazing!! Definitely the best olive oil I have ever had. We tried a handful of different olive oils and bought a bunch to take back home. They also have wine you can taste here and we ended up trying a great chardonnay that we bought as well. I think we were at that point in wine tasting when every wine is delicious. You know what I’m talking about.
Our last stop was Goldie Estate and this was our least favorite. The wine was good but the service was so bad. We kept having to ask multiple times to try the next wine and finally Josh just ended up going in and pouring the last two wines himself because nobody was around lol. I probably wouldn’t go back here but maybe it was just an off day for them. It is a beautiful location!
4. Piha
Ahh Piha, this was such an amazing day. The west coast of New Zealand is only about a 45 minute drive away. We picked Karekare Beach to visit first because it looked so beautiful and it did not disappoint. After you park in the lot, it’s a 10 minute walk out but the whole walk is stunning. We went right after sunrise and it was absolutely gorgeous here.
After the beach we drove to the Muriwai Gannet Colony. The colony nests from August through March every year. It smells pretty bad but it was cool to see. There are about 1200 pairs of Gannets nesting and we saw eggs in some of the nests and baby Gannets in others. You can get pretty close to them too and they don’t seem to mind.
After Auckland we flew down to the South Island which you can read about here!
