New Year's Eve: a Winery, Tea, and Skytower Fireworks

New Year's Eve we intended to drive back down to Auckland to pick up more Americans (friends of my sister's), but Lorena and I had spent a bunch of time in Auckland already so we were in no hurry to get there.  We slept in as much as you can when sleeping on the ground, and found a cute cafe for breakfast.  Huevos rancheros were on the menu - we found this entry particularly amusing.

We also saw crumpets on the menu.  Lorena and I both thought crumpets were an English Tea myth since neither of us remembered ever seeing crumpets after spending time in London.  Apparently they do exist and they're yummy!  My eggs benedict came on crumpets and Lorena just ordered tea and crumpets.  We felt as though we should be in Jane Austen novel or something...

Lorena with her tea and crumpets

Our waitress was from Canada.  We noticed the lack of accent and chatted with her for a minute.  She and her husband and kids sailed down from Canada.  Holy adventure, batman!
 
On our way south, we stopped in Matakana to visit some wineries.  We ended up at Hyperion, the oldest winery in Matakana.  We entered the wine tasting hut (it was just a tiny room with a staircase down to the cellar - sadly, we didn't get to visit that) and met the older woman who did the tastings.  She was very nice, but she talked really quickly and quietly so Lorena and I did a fair amount of smiling and nodding.  My favorite was a chardonnay (surprisingly) that was pretty sweet.  Weird for a chard, but I bought a bottle cuz it was yum!

We then stopped at the tea room just down the road, but it was closed for the holiday :( so we pulled out the Lonely Planet and looked for another tea room.  There is one in Puhoi, just north of Auckland, so we got back on the road with a new mission.

Lorena and me and the line of Hyperion wines

A little way down the road to Auckland, we got completely sidetracked by pink sheep.  Yes, pink.

Sheep World has a flock of pink sheep that draw in tourists, like us.  Honestly, could you really keep driving?  So we went into the gift shop and I found sheep shaped stamps.  Amazing. 

Back on the road, we followed signs to Puhoi and found the cutest little tea house ever.  We walked in and this older gentleman welcomed us to the oldest tea house in New Zealand.  He then asked if we wanted to have a true Devonshire tea with scones and cream.  We nodded vigorously so he disappeared to make it and we sat down under an umbrella in the garden.  He brought out a tray of tea and scones.  It was the cutest thing ever and the day was perfect for it!  We were the only ones in this lovely secluded garden in this quiet tiny town tucked into the woods.  We began drinking our tea and eating our (amazing!) scones, and the man started playing his guitar in the house and suddenly we were surrounded by mellow music that made the scene quite perfect.  It was an amazing afternoon.
We left the tea house and drove back into Auckland where we met up with Laura, Todd, Graham and Vanessa and the newest Americans, Katie, Jim and Mijin.  After a picnic pasta dinner and pan-fried strawberries over ice cream for dessert, we checked into our hostel and met up with David - our friend from our last stay in Auckland!
We went to the Skytower where they had dancers and a drum band playing outside.  The drum band reminded me a lot of the Venice Beach drum circle - great beats!  However we went inside the Skytower to one of the clubs.  Despite the sign saying that there was a strict formal dress code, they let us all in in jeans and flip flops.  I love low standards!  We danced until the music turned techno and then we tried a different club in the atrium area.  A couple of the songs the cover band was playing were perfectly acceptable for dancing hustle, so Lorena led :)

Outside again, we danced to the drum band and then tried to find a good spot to watch the fireworks.  They were set off from the top of the Skytower, so we figured we'd be able to see them pretty well from the base.  Aside from the crink in our necks, it wasn't a bad idea!  Altogether a very memorable New Years :)

Tutukaka, Whangarei, and my new tent

The next morning, Lorena and I got up uber early so we could drive to Tutukaka (yes, I know that's funny...I still giggle when I say it) so she could go scuba diving at Poor Knight's Island.  We packed up and left at 6:30am (!!!) and had another wee road trip to get to the boat by 8:15.  We passed cows on parade, but they didn't cross the road in front of us so we reached Tutukaka without incident.  I dropped her off and went on a wee exploration myself.  I backtracked to Matapouri to explore the Mermaid Pool that Lonely Planet mentioned.  It's supposed to be a gorgeous clear saltwater pool hidden away at the north end of a beach that you reach by following a track in the grass through an "unlikely looking hole in the rock".  So, I put on my swimsuit, got out the camera, and walked along the beach to the north where I could expect a little adventure to a small piece of private, aquatic heaven.  The beach was lovely

the picture on the right shows the path to the mermaid pool

But the "unlikely looking hole in the rock" was blocked.  A couple locals were right behind me and I asked them about the Mermaid Pool.  They said that the caved in area we were staring at was the entrance, but an earthquake had blocked the way back in January.  You can still reach it, but you have to climb up a really steep hill and then climb the steep way back down to get there.  He highly recommended I do it with another person, so instead of hiking to the pool alone, I decided to not be a stupid tourist and took a wee path in the grass to a deserted black rock beach.  It was really stunning and so nice to find my own private beach!

After my brief, and slightly disappointing, foray into the local bush, I drove down to Whangarei to visit the waterfalls and set up the campsite.  I stopped at a lookout point on my way down the coast

And finally arrived at Whangarei Falls.

There were a few trails around the area, so I started on a wee tramp down the river, over a bridge, through a field and stopped to stick my feet in the river

Further along the track in the bush, I found a boardwalk around some old Kauri trees and over an offshoot of the river.  It was a lovely tramp through the bush.

On my way back to the falls, I walked past a couple cows.  I tried to make friends with the one closest to me.  Despite my efforts to be friendly and try to feed him what he was already eating, he got scared and ran away.  Spineless, but cute.

Back at the campsite, I set up my new tent for the first time!

I realize one is supposed to try setting up a tent before they use it... but I'm not exactly a role model for pre-planning :)  Regardless, the tent went up and I think it's cute!

I picked Lorena up from her trip, which was amazing I'm told, and after a lazy dinner at a bar we had a thrilling evening doing laundry at the campsite.  It rained really hard that night and despite a scare in the wee hours of the morning that the car window was open (it wasn't, phew!) we stayed pretty dry.  A few drops got into the tent from the rain fly from getting in and out, but no harm done.  So, hooray for my new tent!  I'm excited to try it out on a true backpacking trip.  Stay tuned for future tenting adventures...

Kerikeri, Cape Reinga, Sand Dunes, 90 Mile Beach and Kiwis!

Our first day in Kerikeri, we decided to do a beach tour.  The weather wasn't completely on our side as it started to rain shortly after we arrived at our first beach, but the views from our wee tour were truly fantastic!

After we drove up the coast and visited a few beaches, we stopped at the Mangonui World Famous Fish Shop that was on a pier sitting in the ocean.  The site was fitting and the food was excellent!  Although... they didn't have any donuts :( 

We got back to the campsite in the early afternoon and decided to do a little food shopping and site seeing in the town before dinner.  The town is about 5 minutes long - yes, that's how long it takes to drive down the main street going slowly.  New Zealand towns tend to be rather small.  You could blink and miss one if you're not careful.  Regardless, we found a cool pottery/art shop that we browsed in for a while.  But the smaller towns tend to close down about 4 or 5pm so we returned to the campsite, had dinner, played some games and hit the sack.

The next day we were up bright and early (read 8:30am) and on the road.  We drove all the way up to the tippy top of the north island: Cape Reinga.  The weather wasn't rainy, but it was a bit foggy/cloudy so our view at the northern tip was limited yet stunning.  We took pictures at the lighthouse and the directions sign.  Lorena was quite happy to see Los Angeles listed there.  I just want to know why NYC isn't listed?!
We walked up the hill and took pictures on the edge...
Then we hiked down to another hill that was a bit closer to the beach.  We tried to get pictures of us on the hill.  Even though it was cloudy, the sun was rather bright and some people (ahemtoddgraham) had problems looking up and opening their eyes...

it was also hard trying to get everyone in the picture...

Back in the car, we started driving south again and pulled over at the giant sand dunes.  So. Cool.

People were sledding down the dunes on beach boogie boards and it looked like a blast.  It also looks a lot steeper when you're at the top getting ready to sled down, head first of course.  We sat at the top and watched several people sled down.  Here's one video from the top...

And here's another video of Graham, Vanessa and I.  We borrowed some boogie boards from some other very nice tourists and climbed back up the big sand dune so we could sled down it.  SO MUCH FUN!!!

  Back in the car again, we kept driving south, and stopped again at 90 Mile Beach.

i love that you can rent a Wicked camper...vanessa does too :)

The sun had come out and it was a lovely day so Graham, Lorena and I got to go swimming!  I tried to teach Lorena how to body surf, but it's been a really long time for me too!  So, we just floundered in the waves a bit with Lorena's waterproof camera.

Vanessa and Laura and I tried to be synchronized cartwheelers...

we weren't exactly successful at the synchronized part...

 Lorena and I tried to relive one of our college ballroom team trips to San Diego...

Back in the car once more, we continued our drive south and back to our campsite, but we had one more stop to make.  Vanessa and Laura's co-worker, Tanya, camps with her family just north of Kerikeri on the ocean, and wild Kiwi birds run rampant around their campsite.  We wanted to see these birds in the wild so we went to go visit them.  Despite the fact that we thought we were already in BFE, we kept driving further and further into nowhere.  We passed paddock after paddock with fewer and fewer houses in between and, naturally, got a little lost.  When we finally met up with Tanya and her sister, they split up into our two cars and directed us into sheep paddocks where we drove up and down and across slightly treacherous looking hills and rough sheep trodden land... in the dark where we couldn't quite see where we were going.  Vanessa's car couldn't quite make it all the way, so we abandoned our cars in the middle of a paddock and walked the rest of the way, trying very hard to avoid the multitude of sheep/cow poo piles.  Their campsite was right on the ocean, at the bottom of a hill and surrounded by the hill so it was nice and sheltered.  We all sat at the picnic table and talked and periodically scanned the hill with a crazy intense flashlight...and we saw kiwis!!  The were running along the ridges of the hill and we followed them with the light.  They're rather funny looking in real life, and rather large!  They look all cute and tiny in all the tourist souvenir depictions, but they're about chicken size.  Still cute though.  On our way back up the hill, we stopped here and there to scan again and we actually saw one about 20 feet away from us!  Here's my iPhone pic... you can kinda see it!

he's facing right - you can barely see his beak

After all that excitement, we made it safely out of the sheep paddocks in the dark without hitting any sheep, busting any tires, or scraping the undercarriages of the cars too badly.  Good times, but a long day!!