On our final full day in New Zealand, we headed up to the Coromandel Peninsula. We would have loved to have more time to explore the Coromandel Peninsula (it will be added to our next trip to New Zealand if we are lucky enough to visit again). On the way, we stopped at Karangahake an…

We spent our last few days in New Zealand in the Oceanside town of Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty. We stayed in a fantastic Airbnb on site of a family home. We were thrilled to learn the family had three boys aged, 11 to 6, Aiden, Daniel, Elijah who were eager to play with…

We arrived in Rotorua at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland in time to see Lady Knox, the local geyser goes off. She is triggered to go off every day by the addition of natural soap by a staff member, another Māori staff member sings a beautiful ballad like song during her eruption. The story goes that…

Turangi. We stayed in a red roofed cabin that was up a hillside, it felt like it was surrounded by a jungle and had amazing bird watching from the windows and decks. It had beautiful views of the lake from, and we saw some amazing sunsets, sunrises, a blood worm moon, and amazing starry night…

From Auckland, we travelled to Matamata close to Hobbiton Studios. We enjoyed our tour of these studios, with Sophie giving us an excellent refresher course on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. We all agreed the Hobbit holes were very cute. The gardens were lovely with beautiful fresh flowers and birds. The…

We started our time in New Zealand, arriving in Auckland mid-afternoon. It was wonderful to get to our Airbnb, which was incredibly well equipped with some special snacks that reminded us of Home. That evening we all enjoyed a trip to the local grocery store; this was very exciting for everyone after almost two months…