We've just returned from a spectacular holiday in New Zealand. I have to say, it's the most beautiful country I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. I loved it! Our friend, a Kiwi (native to New Zealand), said that 100% of people that visit New Zealand want to move there, and 10% do. We definitely fall into the 100% of visitors!
When planning our trip, we decided to only visit the North Island. There were some things we didn't want to miss on the North Island and with our kids small, we didn't want to spend all of our time driving. Most people say the South Island is more beautiful than the North. I'd love to visit there too! I think it's an adventure better suited to older children. The South Island is host to spectacular hiking and white water rafting, skiing, ect. I can't wait to return to NZ when my kids are teens!!
But, let's return to our North Island visit. We flew into Auckland. NZ is quite remote, on the edge of the world it seems. From Singapore, it's an 11 hour flight. We flew overnight, direct from Singapore to Auckland. The kids were champions! They've become wonderful travelers. They slept, Scott and I didn't. We arrived in the morning, hired our rental car and headed off to find our hotel. It was Scott's first time to drive on the left side of the road. Tricky. I learned how to use the GPS system in the car and that helped us find our way.
On our first day, we napped and then found a park to play in and dinner near the viaduct. It was cold!! Well, not actually, but to me I thought it was very cold! I think living in the tropics has made my blood thin. We bundled up in layers and gloves and headed out to explore the city.
We found a park with a skater park in it. The kids loved playing on the 1/2 pipe, using it as a slide. We enjoyed watching the bigger kids on skateboards and scooters. They were amazing! I loved this picture of the kids playing with the Auckland tower pictured in the back.
Auckland Harbor. Beautiful!
We visited the Auckland Underwater World. They had penguins! We saw a very large sting ray, at least 3 feet across. The kids held star fish and we saw sea horses! Fun!
After, we found a beautiful park and played outside.
I loved this table! The design is so simple and beautiful!
We visited Cromwell Park in Auckland and found sheep! Someone told me that NZ has more sheep than people, I think it's true.
Scott and the kids quietly crept up behind this one to try to get close. I managed this (blurry) picture before the sheep ran off.
A view from Cromwell Park looking out to Auckland. Gorgeous!
We drove up to the top of One Tree Hill. The view was stunning. A bit windy, but worth it.
We left Auckland and headed out to the country side to a little town called Matamata. We stayed in a little farm cottage on a dairy farm. From the back of the cottage, we had a view of this beautiful waterfall. So peaceful!
Madeline loved the flowers in bloom all around the farm cottage. It's springtime now in New Zealand.
The kids were so excited to watch the cows! The pen near our cottage was the nursery pen. All of the cows expected to calf were kept here to be close and under watch. The calves we saw had just been born the night before!
This mother cow was helping her newborn baby up! So sweet!
We took a hike towards the waterfall that we could see from our cottage. We didn't make it all the way to the summit, but we hiked in to this nice bridge and had a beautiful view of the stream.
Lily found her way to the water. She took her shoes and socks off and tested the water with her toe. It was cold!!
We saw this cute little table on our hike back. Happy family spending time together outside and enjoying the fresh air and beautiful forest.
Just a sample of the beautiful roads we were so fortunate to travel on.
The only heat in our little farm cottage was this wood burning stove. Scott kept the fire going and the kids played legos. Peace.
Our host, Farmer Steve brought a new born calf over for the kids to pet. His mother, Beatrice was a little suspicious, but in the end decided we were okay.
Up next Hobbiton!
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