Fireworks from the beach in Paihia. Happy 2014!
The best tour of the trip so far, by a long way, was the day of sailing around the Bay of Islands on Te Kaihau. It was run by Tom, who owns the trimaran. The tour is brilliantly laid-back, stuffed with interesting things to do (snorkelling, helping set the sails, mussel fishing (collection? musselling?)) without feeling regimented in the least. Sitting/lying around on the deck was also fully acceptable, and we did a lot of that. Out in the bay we had grandstand views of the gorgeous scenery and a few interesting historical spots, including Captain Cook’s first landing point
View from our window: Paihia, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. 6:55 am, 31 December 2013.
A peaceful evening waiting for our takeaway fish and chips. Another Kiwi restaurant that squeezes the profit margins by charging for sauces. Bit cheeky, but there’s good money in $2 ketchup and 50 cent vinegar.
Dear World, Yep, Matapouri and the Mermaid pools’ll do nicely, Best, Susan & Sam
View from our window: Morningside, Whangarei, New Zealand. 9:10 am, 30 December 2013.
Dear World, More places like Tawharanui please, Thanks, Sam and Susan
Views of Auckland from Mt. Eden, one of the city’s many volcanos, including Eden Park, the home of the All Blacks.
The Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki. Beautiful building artfully (ha!) restored, and filled with a great range of stuff, including intriguing early European settler portraits of Maoris. The bottom right painting shows a face tattoo underway, where the skin is sliced open in long lines, and ink is poured into the cuts. Also available for the younger audience: Art Gallery Bingo! If we’d had more than 45 minutes before closing, I would definitely have been in on this.
The (rather imposing) exterior of the Auckland Museum. No interior shots, because the place costs $25 per person for non-New Zealandish folk, which we thought was a bit pricey. Interestingly, this isn’t because the government only provides funding for locals. Apparently there isn’t any government funding whatsoever, so the museum’s approach to cost recovery is to slap the relatively few international tourists with the full cost. Price sensitivity can be a surprising thing, but I’d reckon this is unlikely to be a successful ploy.