April 24 – April 26 2016
Wellington, New Zealand
I arrived in Wellington in the late afternoon and was welcomed to the airbnb by a very kind Dutch couple that had established themselves in NZ a while ago. When I arrived, I was offered tea and cake and invited to a family dinner! It was so nice of them. They live in a gorgeous house on the side of a hill, right next to the ocean. They’ve built a beautiful garden in the back that goes up the side of the hill to a nice porch/gazebo (not sure what you would call it). It was cloudy the day I arrived but on a sunshiney day I bet the views are amazing. In fact the couple told me that in the summer you can see some of the South Island.
Dinner that night was absolutely amazing. The husband’s brother and his son were visiting from Auckland, the couple’s kids were there, as well a current and former airbnb guest. The food was amazing, wine was mellowing, and the conversation was hilarious. I’m so grateful to the couple and especially their kids for inviting me in to their home. Oh and I’m also really grateful to the husband for enlightening me on the history of NZ and Wellington. I also had a very interesting conversation about the tourism industry with the former airbnb guest. I’m kinda disappointed now that I didn’t get a picture with the group…wah wah.
The couple provided me lots of ideas of what I could explore in Wellington but I had read about the Aorangi National Park and the Putangirua Pinnacles and had my mind set on visiting this park. Especially since I knew I was nearing the end of my time in NZ and I had yet to visit a Lord of the Rings site. Putangirua Pinnacles were featured in the LOTR: The Return of the King movie. Yeah, I don’t remember it either but that’s what the internet says and they were pretty cool. The ride there was pretty scary/ beautiful because you go up and down a giant mountain with tiny winding roads.
After returning from Aorangi National Park I visited the Te Papa museum in Wellington, as recommended by my hosts. I forgot to mention that I was there during ANZAC day – which is meant to commemorate Australian and NZ veterans. “It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.” So there were a lot of activities going on downtown. I participated in none but it was fun to see all the people wandering around.
The next day I just walked around the beach in front of the BnB before I started my journey back towards Auckland. I was going to stay the night in Turangi to break up the drive. On the way there, I decided to stop in Palmerston North to have lunch with one of the dinner guests I met at the airbnb. He is a very nice German guy that is working on his PhD in NZ. We had nice conversation and lunch in this delightfully small town. It was Nigel quality conversation even…oh well, off to Turangi.
April 27 – April 29, 2016
Turangi and Orewa, New Zealand
It got dark as I was diving to Turangi and the roads were, of course, really curvy. It was a beautiful night and in one of the towns on the way, I picked up two hitch hikers. Two girls from Poland I think. They were very grateful because it was getting late and I felt really badass picking up hitch hikers in one of the safest countries in the world! On the way to Turangi, I stopped the car and made them admire the stars with me. I think for a moment they thought I was a serial killer but then they listened to my dorkiness about the stars and just admired the stars with me. It was wonderful. The only sad part was that I wouldn’t be there long enough to visit Tongariro National Park. Next trip.
I saved the best part of the trip for last. The next day I headed to Orewa, which is a beach town just outside Auckland. This was the best part of the trip because I was meeting up with a really close friend of a really close friend of mine from Atlanta. I really didn’t have any expectations but she was kind enough to invite me to stay with her. I unfortunately only had two nights with A and her family but they were two awesome nights. As soon as I arrived, she had a ton of snacks for me and that night she made me a delicious dinner. After dinner she told me all about our friend M’s awkward youth. I told her about our friend’s awkward adulthood…good times. We both concluded that we love M…lucky her right! We also talked about how her and M have a slight crush on Eddie Vedder :-).
The next morning I met A’s adorable daughter, H and we skyped with M to assure her that I was not being an ass to A and that A was not being an ass to me. H and I bonded over Nutella and then we went for a nice hike. On the way A got me a NZ beef pie to try. I hadn’t had one yet. It was delicious! During our awesome hike I showed H how to use the camera. The kid is a natural! I was going through the pictures we took and I honestly can’t tell which ones she took and which I took. She’s 6! Amazing!
After our hike we picked up H’s little brother (also H) and we headed home. That night we ended up having an impromptu sing off and dance off. The kids love that Katy Perry. A and I danced off to…okay maybe no one needs to know what we danced off to. Another home cooked meal was the perfect end to the evening. It was so sad to say goodnight to the kiddos knowing I was leaving early the next morning. They wanted to get up at 4AM to say bye but we knew that wasn’t going to happen so I got extra snuggles that evening. It was such a wonderful way to end the trip. This alone will make NZ one of my favorite destinations…and the sheep…can’t forget the sheep! Some pictures below (photo credit on some of these goes to H).
Bye bye NZ! I’ll be back to visit South Island one day soon…I might bring some peeps with me so we can kidnap A, rent a caravan and take a road trip. On to Asia!
nomadshak 
Taco city!
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Don’t we all love M?! 🙂
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Do we? Haha!
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