Part 2, Week 1: January 19-27
- Katie & Webster
- Jan 26, 2019
- 7 min read
Welcome Back to our Travel Blog!
We both enjoyed a great Christmas at home with family and friends. I went to Disney World with family, it was so hot, so busy, but SO MUCH FUN. You can see my adventures with Kaitlin in the video below. I also spent a week with Gmom in St. Catharines. I even convinced her to join me at the outlet mall!
Webster enjoyed Christmas at home with family and friends. Then, he headed to Arizona for some sun, hiking, and golf!
We left Toronto on Saturday, January 19 with an entourage full of tears. We got all checked in, said our goodbyes and headed off on our very long journey. Our first flight was Toronto to LA, we ate our lunch, watched a few Netflix shows, and I got a few hours of sleep.
When we touched down in LA we could see blue skies and bright sun - it was about 22 degrees, beautiful! We picked up our luggage and got an Uber to In-N-Out right near the airport. Webster’s cousin Taylor, who just moved to LA, met us for a delicious burger. We chatted about his new adventure in LA and our upcoming adventure in NZ and Australia. We even had time to make a quick trip to Target and stock up on snacks for our long flight to New Zealand. We said some more goodbyes and headed back to the airport for our overnight flight to Auckland.
We flew 12 hours 40 minutes from LA to Auckland on Air New Zealand. We cannot say enough good things about the airline! We were lucky enough to get a preferred seat, a spacious row with two seats instead of three, for the same price as a normal seat. We also really enjoyed the food - a rare occurrence on an plane! The staff were extremely friendly and we even had free wifi the entire flight.
Once we were up in the air, we both watched a movie as they served dinner. After 2 hours, I was sound asleep and did not wake up until they served breakfast 9 hours later. Webster managed to watch part one of the Lord of the Rings series and get a few hours of sleep too. We arrived in Auckland at 7am…two days later, feeling tired, but not as tired as we assumed.
When we arrived, we immediately collected our luggage and headed to our AirBnB. We stayed with a nice couple who had an extra room after their kids left for university. We chatted with them quickly before they went to work, and then had a quick nap before getting on with our day.
We tried really hard to get over our jet lag and fill our first day in NZ. We spent the morning exploring a grocery store and buying some things to make our meals in Auckland. We found the food VERY expensive (12 eggs for $8 CAD, 2 chicken breasts for $16 CAD) but still more reasonable than eating out for every meal.
After lunch we hiked up Mount Eden, a dormant volcano with panoramic views across the city. It was nice to get an overview of all the things we wanted to do and where they were in the city.
We had a really early night, but managed to get onto this time zone (18 hours ahead) and went to bed at 8pm local time.
On our second day, we did a great Hop-On-Hop-Off tour through the city. We saw the famous Auckland Harbour Bridge, the Sky Tower, and the beautiful landscapes. After exploring the city during the day, we came back to our AirBnB to make some dinner and then headed back into the city for the evening.
We visited the Sky Tower earlier in the day, and upgraded our ticket to go back at night and see the city in the dark. It was a great view in the day and in the evening.
On our last day in Auckland we headed to the West coast to visit New Zealand’s most famous surf beach, Piha. We took a shuttle from the city with some other tourists, one who was also from Waterloo! When we arrived our driver suggested we start exploring in the Waitakere Ranges. We walked through the Kauri trees toward the Kitekite Falls. Once we got there Webster jumped right in, even though the water was FILLED with eels - he is so brave.
Afterwards, we walked back through the ranges towards the beach. Piha is really unique because it has black sand and huge rocks in the water. The water, which is in the Tasman Sea, had a very strong undertow so there were lots of lifeguards on the beach. I enjoyed an afternoon laying in the sun and Webster swam in the huge rips.
On day four, we hopped on a tour bus for a full day tour into Rotorua (pronounced rro-to-rru-ah). Our first stop was at the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves, a highlight of the trip so far! We ventured stories below the ground into these preserved caves that were found hundreds of years ago to see the special glow worms. After exploring the caves we boarded a boat, in the pitch black, without making a sound, to not disturb the worms. We floated deeper into the caves and the ceilings were covered in blue lights, the glow worms. Everyone was afraid to breathe, it was so quiet in the caves. I am not exaggerating when I say there was more than 10,000 worms on the ceiling. It was lit up like a clear night sky. Sadly, we couldn’t bring any cameras with us, because any sound or light disturbs the bugs. To compensate, we bought these funny photoshopped photos of us in the caves.
Our second stop was the Agrodome, a world famous family farm outside Rotorua. The most popular industries in NZ after tourism are dairy, forestry, and agriculture so it was neat to learn about how many people here make a living. We saw a farm show where they sheared a sheep for us, then we boarded a tractor for a tour. Webster was brave and even fed some of the animals! We also got to see how kiwis are grown.
Our last stop was to Te Puia, the Maori Village to see the geothermal geysers and learn about the aboriginal people who live here. We saw a geyser erupting, a mud pool, a kiwi bird, and enjoyed a cultural performance. It was a really neat experience that we wouldn’t have seen anywhere else.
Our tour ended in Rotorua at about 5pm. We checked into a new AirBnB, with a beautiful view over Lake Rotorua. We headed into town and enjoyed their local night market for dinner. It was bustling with people from all over the world, great food, and live music.
On Friday, we enjoyed a little sleep in and then headed to the Redwoods Treewalk. The forest is over 100 years old and the Redwoods, originally from California, were taller than we can describe. We walked over 25 suspension bridges, 20 meters above the ground throughout the trees - it was so neat. It reminded us of zip lining, but because we were walking, we could take our time and enjoy the view. Best of all? Harry and Meghan did the same track when they came to Rotorua a few months ago!
In the afternoon, we headed to the Polynesian Spa. It is 28 pools from the hot springs. The pools are made using fresh water and heated naturally. Although the views were wonderful, and the water felt amazing, the sulphur smell got the best of us and we only stayed for just under two hours.
On Saturday, we got up early and headed to the Rotorua airport on our way to Queenstown. We booked our taxi 2 hours in advance of our flight, so we could arrive at the airport 90 minutes before departure. We were only taking a domestic flight, but the airport was so small we could’ve arrived 30 minutes ahead of our flight and still been early! We boarded our first flight to Auckland, and then after a short ride, a flight to Queenstown.
We arrived in Queenstown at 2pm and picked up our rental car to head out to Wanaka, about 60km North West of Queenstown. Webster was our driver and he was really nervous to drive on the left side of the road. We never drove while we were in London so this was his first time on the other side of the road. Once we got going, he was driving like a pro, even doing roundabouts. I was really impressed.
We arrived in Wanaka and checked into the best AirBnB I have ever stayed in. So clean, beautiful views, wonderful host - we really lucked out. Afterwards we ventured into the town centre and had a kebab for dinner. We had an early Saturday night writing the blog and getting ready for our long Sunday.
On Sunday morning we woke up at 6am and headed to Roy's Peak (Google Maps link). This is the most talked about hike in New Zealand with stunning views over Lake Wanaka, mountain peaks with snow caps, and the city. We had read online that it was difficult but I cannot describe to you how difficult it really was. We climbed 7km, over 1578m straight up to the peak. It took us a while to make it to the top, about five hours. It was extremely hot, even in the early morning, which didn't help. We wanted to turn back every 10 minutes, but we were so afraid we would miss out on a spectacular view. Thank goodness we had each other, and lots and lots of water! Once we got to the top, the views were PHENOMENAL. We had a panoramic view over the mountain range and the air was clean and crisp. It was nice to take a rest, cool off in the chilly air and take some photos. On our way down we really underestimated how hard it would be. It is a very steep climb, so we had to almost run down to avoid falling. We both slipped a few times, but we were able to regain our balance. All in all, it took us about 8 hours to get up, have lunch, take photos and come back down. We would really recommend the hike, if you are willing to spend your entire day doing it. We were so tired when we came home that we ended up having a two hour nap before dinner.
After dinner we visited the famous Wanaka Tree. This internet famous tree is growing in the middle of Lake Wanaka. We enjoyed a beautiful walk along the waterway with mountains in the background. Webster even jumped in the water! It was freezing cold but refreshing after our long day.
We are going to try and link all of the activities we are doing along our trip in case anyone is interested in travelling to NZ and Australia. We have planned and done it all on our own, and you can too!
Here in NZ, we are 18 hours ahead of Toronto. When we arrive in Australia we will be 16 hours ahead. We plan to post the blog each week on Sunday mid-afternoon home time. We will cover our entire week, as usual, Monday-Sunday. Thanks for following along!
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