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Today was the first day that we didn’t drive anywhere. While we have stayed at places for a couple nights, we would at least go for a drive somewhere, but not today. We had to do some repacking and laundry so that took some time. For lunch we went down to the river.
Kilian took a long nap in the afternoon, so Ashleigh and I got to relax on the deck. We had a good chat with our host Guy until dinner time. He was out fishing yesterday and brought back some snapper for us to try. We cooked up the fish, made a salad and enjoyed the delicious meal. At night we had the place to ourselves again, so we took a long walk around the yard chasing away the ducks that were eating the acorns and walnuts. This will be our shortest post yet as there isn’t anything else to write about today. Tomorrow we are heading back to the airport for our flight to Fiji so stay tuned for updates on that! We got up pretty early today and after breakfast and a short walk around the property we had no other reason to stay and hit the road just after 9am. The drive towards Auckland was uneventful and traffic got worse around Hamilton with all of the construction. It also took Ashleigh a while to get over losing Kilian’s spoon, only our second item to have been left behind. We already lost Kilian’s toy giraffe in Taiwan and now his favourite spoon will have a new home as well. This was just on the road. While we usually pack well, Ashleigh managed to leave her glasses at home and I am fairly certain my razor didn’t make it on either. Easy replacement for me, not so simple for Ashleigh, so she is stuck with contacts for now. Luckily Kilian isn’t attached to any of his toys so his bedtime giraffe got replaced by a sea turtle and I am pretty sure he won’t notice his spoon missing, plus he has two more anyways.
We stopped at a store to get some drinks and checked into our place just in time for lunch. Nobody was there so we enjoyed the deck and had our food. The place is just outside of Hamilton on the Waikato River and has a massive yard including a mini zip line. We went down to the river and I cooled off a bit while Kilian still did not like going in the water at all. Ashleigh had a quick nap and we watched the ducks. At night our host came by to say hello and introduced us to the kids. The teenage kids were having some friends over and were racing their mini bikes around the property while Ash and I sat on the deck. After dinner everyone left so it was just us at the property. We went for a nice walk around the yard and I tested out the zip line. While it was fun and fast I did bottom out unexpectedly at a bump leaving a big bruise behind as a memory. The place also has a trampoline which we tested out but didn’t last long as our heart rate was going up quickly an indicator we may have had a few too many drinks already or are in terrible shape (or maybe both). We ended the day by playing some cards and then called it a night. While we were hoping to stay another night in Napier, the Bnb was booked up and we couldn’t find anything nice up the coast towards Gisborne. This meant we changed our plans of doing a loop and would backtrack to Taupo. We didn’t mind the drive at all as it was scenic and the area around Taupo is beautiful. In the morning we went for some walks around the property, said goodbye to the alpacas and then left around noon. Since our fuel tank was near empty we had to fill up, which was hard on the wallet at nearly a hundred bucks for the fill. Kilian was super tired and slept the entire two hour drive back until we pulled over near Taupo for lunch in the forest. We hiked in a couple minutes and found a shady spot in the trees. Rather than staying in town, we decided to stay in the countryside again, which seems to suit us well. Our host wasn’t back until 3pm and as we arrived early we took a stroll around the area giving Kilian a chance to meet some sheep and cows. Our place is attached to the main house which is surrounded by a beautiful backyard. Since we still had the afternoon free we made further plans and can now announce that our next country will officially be Fiji, unless anything else comes up between now and the weekend or Fiji decides to enforce entry requirements like Samoa. This still gives us a few days to make our way back towards Auckland which we also planned out. Kilian didn’t feel like taking another nap and instead we sat down by the chicken coop to observe the birds. Our dinner was pretty sad as we didn’t feel like driving into town and our small studio doesn’t have a stove so all we had was some instant noodles and chips. However, once Kilian was down we took advantage of the perk this place did have and that was the jacuzzi overlooking the valley west, an excellent spot to view the sunset. It was the warmest night so far and even out of the tub it was warm enough to sit outside in shorts for once.
While it was a short drive today and mostly uneventful, we are excited for our next destination to get some proper vacation time in! The last few days have been fun and this short road trip is a great start to our trip. A few more days on the road before we change things up! It was time to move on and we decided to keep going across the North Island towards the coast. Before leaving Taupo, we drove down to our beach and found a small hole that we dug out to find a mini hot spring as suggested by our hosts. The water was quite hot, but without a shovel our hole was only big enough to dip our toes in. Once Taupo was behind us, the landscape changed immediately. This area was hardly populated and the logging trucks and new growth indicated that this was all that was here. 45 minutes later that changed as well as the road became windy and the turns sharper. We found a viewpoint overlooking a spectacular waterfall and while Kilian was sleeping in the back we did enjoy the views very much. The drive to Napier was exciting with tons of turns and rolling hills. We stopped for lunch half an hour before the city. Once we descended into Napier, which reminded us very much of Kelowna, we drove to a lookout behind the city. This road was even crazier, super narrow with hairpin turns. The view from the lookout was excellent over the Hawke’s Bay, with the port and town below. On the way down we found another supermarket as we were running low on food and drinks. This time I was prepared, or so I thought. As we were getting some more beers (and hopefully less hoppy ones), I made sure to bring my passport with me. When the cashier asked for it, I proudly presented this invaluable document. To my surprise she was not pleased though and while I had certainly proved my age to her, she now demanded to see Ashleigh’s passport as well. Well, I did not bring Ashleigh’s passport of course, and rather than denying that Ashleigh did not belong to me I ran back out to the parking lot to get hers while she waited at the checkout. Maybe we will get this right eventually. I returned out of breath finally presenting not just Ashleigh’s and my passport but also just to be safe brought Kilians in case there was any confusion about his age.
Our place was ten minutes from town in a remote area with acreages. The building is an old barn that is spacious and has killer views of the hills, not to mention two alpacas as our neighbours. The hosts were super friendly and once settled in we drove back out in search of the oldest New Zealand winery, Mission Estate. The building definitely looked a few hundred years old and the tasting was one of the best. The connoisseur was knowledgeable and presented interesting facts as we were cruising through our different wines from Riesling to Pinot Noir, all of which were tasty. After the tasting we sat outside and enjoyed the view over the vineyard sobering up a bit before heading back to our place for dinner. At night we walked around the property, spotting some of our hosts pigs and chickens until it got dark. It was nice not having to pack up first thing when we got up! In the morning we took a drive back to Huka Falls, as we didn’t really get to enjoy them yesterday. This time we parked by the falls and went for a walk to the viewpoints near the falls. While these waterfalls aren’t very tall or big, the sheer volume of water crushing down still made for an awesome sight. We stood by the falls for some time before heading back to the parking lot. Even though it was early, the place was already busy with tourists. After the falls, we drove back around to the other side of the river with a quick stop at a viewpoint over the lake with Mt. Ngauruhoe aka Mt. Doom in the distant lands of “Mordor”. After the
stop we went in search of the natural hot springs. They were easy to find and while small, I did enjoy the temperature of the water as it wasn’t too hot nor too cold. Kilian woke up from his nap and we sat by the river and had some snacks until more travellers arrived, carrying a full size beatbox ready to party. We didn’t mind the tunes so stayed for a couple songs until the pools were getting more crowded. At this point it was lunch time so we went back to our place to eat and relax. Ashleigh and I enjoyed a cold one, while Kilian took a nap. In the afternoon, we drove to Acacia Bay ten minutes away in search of a nice beach by the lake. The beach was mostly grass, green at least, which seems hard to get these days. We had ducks as our friends eyeing up Kilian’s cookies, but it was otherwise pretty quiet, exactly what we wanted. The water was pretty cold, so we didn’t go in all the way and Kilian definitely didn’t like the cold water. For dinner we stopped in Taupo and walked the few streets by the waterfront until we found a burger place we liked. Burger and fries for us and chicken tenders for Kilian. To cool us off we stopped at the coolest McDonald’s (not based on our rating, but based on the plaque next to the small airplane that belonged to the restaurant) for some ice cream. This was Kilian’s first ice cream experience and while hesitant at first, he went after it quickly. At night we chilled at our place, finished up some of our wine and discussed next stops. We are still a bit undecided but will figure it out tomorrow. Today was a full day of sightseeing and some driving. While it was less than 2 hours of driving time we did stop a lot. We enjoyed the morning at our place, before heading to Rotorua, 45 minutes away. Our first stop was to check out some geothermal activity in this active town. We strolled past mud pools and steam vents before we moved on to the shoreline to check out the government gardens and some of the baths. We did not go into any baths as we were keen on getting to a nearby forest, the Redwood named after the tall Californian redwood trees of course. Here we went on a nice family friendly hike (not very stroller friendly though as Kilian had a bumpy ride at times). We found a shady spot under some big trees and had lunch before heading back to the car. After Rotorua, we drove towards Taupo, our destination for the night. While we did have enough time to check out a small dam and gorge, Kilian did not last for the popular Huka Falls as he wanted his dinner right away. We did pull up to a viewpoint so at least saw it from a distance. We will likely return in the next few days as we are parking it in Taupo for a few nights. Our place near the beach is nice and Ashleigh and I enjoyed some sloppy Joes, which to be honest was a nice change from airplane, airport lounge and hotel food.
We all slept until 830am this morning and woke up refreshed. For once we didn’t have a flight to catch, so could enjoy the morning breakfast and relax by the pool. After checkout we hung around until the afternoon at which point our car was ready for pickup. Reserving a car on short notice doesn’t always work out well, but we lucked out. The going rate for a day was close to $140 with most major rental places, but we snagged an SUV last minute for a third of the price (still more than one should pay). Another lesson to always book in advance!
We got picked up by the rental place and shortly after we were on the road to get some groceries and to pick up a car seat lock for Kilian, since the seatbelts don’t have the auto lock here apparently. At the grocery store the cashier asked for ID since we were buying some alcohol and when I showed her my drivers license she insisted that only passports are an acceptable form of ID in New Zealand for non-locals. I offered her a copy of my passport after explaining to her that this type of document isn’t usually carried around freely when buying beers late at night for example. Besides a club denial in Germany many years ago, this is the only other time that a drivers license or a copy of a passport weren’t sufficient to prove my age on any of our travels. She was not convinced, I had to run to the car and get my passport, which she carefully examined. If this is going to be the case in the rest of New Zealand, we will be having some fun conversations that’s for sure. Around 530pm we finally left Auckland behind and we were on our way south to our first stop near Matamata, best known for Hobbiton. We won’t be seeing it, as Ashleigh does not care for Lord of the Rings and while I would be down to check it out, going alone doesn’t sound much fun. Instead we found an Airbnb nearby that would fit well into a scene from The Shire, and the beautiful surrounding landscape will have to satisfy my imagination. Additionally, New Zealand hasn’t seen rain in over a month until yesterday, so it’s not green at all, but rather burned up, like the vision of burned down Hobbiton from Frodo’s failure to save Middle Earth. We settled in nicely in this remote Airbnb, made a healthy dinner and watched the sunset as a rainbow across over the hills said goodnight to Kilian. After dinner, Ashleigh and I sat in the jacuzzi and waited for the stars to appear. It actually cooled down quite a bit and light rain started until finally some stars came out. We went to bed later than usual, but can now finally adjust to a time zone we will remain in for a while. The night was way too short and we arrived at Auckland airport exhausted, knowing we would now have to find a place to stay and make a bunch of calls to get our Samoa situation figured out. The lines were slow and when we got to customs, we declared our food items and proceeded to the X-ray. The customs agent searched our bags and when finding our half eaten calzone, which a friendly Aussie gave us for free yesterday when we bought pizza at the mall, we knew we were in trouble. She checked our declaration form and while we did declare food, a less friendly agent now stepped up asking us to move to the side. He came back with a infringement notice stating we unintentionally did not declare our calzone, which would now cost us $400. Having been denied our flight to Samoa wasn’t enough, we now had to battle the custom agent in New Zealand! We went back and forth, us explaining to him that we did declare our food and were not aware we had to mention each of the food items we had packed (and there were many!) him sternly telling us it was up to us to mention each food item to the customs agent. The agent that questioned us initially came over and we reiterated that we were doing the right thing by declaring food since we had so much baby food and that the silly calzone was a food item to us. This guy didn’t seem to care too much, but the less friendly agent did not budge. After going around in circles for a while he went into the office and we were beaten. For whatever reason however he then came back out and told us that he would give us a warning instead! What changed his mind was unknown to us, but we were glad nonetheless to not start our New Zealand trip with $400 less in our pockets because of a free half eaten ham and pineapple calzone. When we finally got out, Ashleigh found us a place nearby, we ordered an Uber and made it to the hotel. Kilian was passed out and we were hungry! We had the hotel breakfast and waited for our room to be ready.
After breakfast I called Aeroplan and after only an hour on hold got an agent to refund us the taxes paid for our Samoa segment, a very small win. Ashleigh managed to get most of our hotel refund as well, a much bigger win. When the room was finally ready, we all clonked out as soon as our heads hit the pillow and slept until 5pm. Somewhat refreshed we went in search of food, but had no luck in the area as it was mostly hotels and car rental places. So we stayed at our hotel, for a beer at the bar and had a burger. 6 countries later, and after traveling for 5 days, flying 4 different airlines through 3 continents, the 2 of us were exhausted, but our 1 little guy was happier than ever. Kilian is the best Traveller, always curious to see what’s going on and patient during our many airport experiences. While we didn’t make it to our first real stop, we now are done flying for a bit and will start exploring New Zealand! Here is to less fails and more wins! t was the best nights sleep any of us have had so far, including Kilian and we for once didn’t get up before 6am. Our hosts made us a big breakfast with lots of fresh fruit. We started our morning by the pool, while Kilian napped for a few hours. It wasn’t as hot in the morning and we both got some reading time in. Our hosts left for a five day trip, but let us stay as long as we wanted for the day.
Once Kilian was up, we walked back to the mall to get some lunch and wifi. In the afternoon we continued to relax and pack up for our next move. While Perth was our final stop, we did book a separate flight onwards to Samoa via New Zealand for this evening on points. We will be back in Australia in a few months, and it made sense to check out some other places while we have the time. We preordered an Uber at the mall, and it luckily arrived on time. When we arrived at the airport things became interesting. During our past travels we have had enough mishaps some by our own doing, others just due to bad luck, or unfortunate circumstances. While we always try to stay in the know on the latest entry requirements for our next destination, we missed the latest one for Samoa. As soon as the New Zealand agent heard our final destination, he moved us aside, got out a big binder and started going through it. The next few questions were obviously leading to a situation that would cause frustration. “Have you been cleared by a doctor in the last three days while in Australia?”, well no, we have only been in Australia for a day. “Alright, have you been to mainland China in the last 14 days?”. No we haven’t, and this question had come up enough times at most airports in the last four days, so wasn’t a surprise. “Have you been to any of the following countries in the last 14 days: Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea or Singapore?” Well crap, the answer to that question will almost always have to be a yes! For those that know the airport hubs that serve Perth using Star Alliance carriers will know that the only way in and out when coming from Asia is through Thailand, Singapore or Japan. Unless one wants to go on unnecessary multi city layovers those are the options. We of course told the agent we spent a day in Singapore and knew where this was going next. Samoa has a strict entry requirement list:
Now that we were at least allowed to leave for New Zealand, we still have to deal with Aeroplan to hopefully get back portions of our flights to Samoa. This will be a task for tomorrow, knowing the wait times are ridiculous these days. Ashleigh quickly emailed our hotel in Samoa and cancelled that reservation, hopefully getting a full refund in time. These things happen from time to time and while it was frustrating at first, it will ultimately work out the way it’s supposed to. At immigration, I kindly asked the officer whether Australia had stopped stamping passports, since we didn’t get an entry stamp, which he confirmed was the case saving the officers from having to stamp thousands of passports among other benefits all of which he listed for us. At the end he collected our passports, took them to a different desk and stamped them one last time for us so we would have the evidence of visiting Australia in our new passports one more time. A nice final gesture before leaving. We ended up boarding right away and since we upgraded our seats to the bulkhead row for a few extra bucks, we ended up with a ton of legroom and a bassinet for Kilian. At this point Kilian was tired, munched down some dinner and passed out. Ashleigh and I meanwhile drank some wine and played poker. We also managed to get a few hours of sleep before arriving, but with another six hour time change it ended up being a very short night. We got up around 5am, packed up which now takes us 45 minutes and took the taxi back to the airport. We gave ourselves plenty of time so we could check out the airport, as we haven’t been there before. We started our lounge hopping at a disappointing small lounge, ate some food and went to the next. As this was the only leg where Ashleigh wasn’t able to get a business class seat, we didn’t have a chance to check out the Singapore airlines business lounge. The second lounge wasn’t much better, but the third one was pretty good. Kilian and I did go for a wander and found a butterfly garden, which Kilian was mesmerized by as well as the movie theatre which was playing The Lion King. We sat in for a while, before going back to the lounge so Ashleigh wouldn’t report us as missing. We took a walk down to Terminal 1 and then back to our gate. We let Kilian crawl around for a while before boarding. We had no luck on getting Ashleigh her seat upgrade, even though the cabin was mostly empty. I did snag a seat right at the bulkhead and gave Ashleigh my seat for this flight so she could enjoy the comfort of business plus my steak dinner.
Perth was as welcoming as last time around. Friendly people, laid back vibe, but a lot hotter! Our AirBnB was only ten minutes from the airport and our hosts welcomed us with the typical Aussie hospitality. The place thankfully has a pool, which we immediately jumped into. After a quick dip, we finally gave Kilian a proper bath and put him down to sleep in a crib for once. Our friendly hosts watched him, while Ashleigh and I went for a walk to the nearby mall to stock up on a few missing things and to get dinner. We enjoyed our meal with a bottle of wine on the outside patio (not a hotel bathroom) and chatted for a while before calling it a night. |
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