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All of a sudden the days started to go by a lot quicker and even though we stayed at the same place, time seemed to fly by. We had one rainy and windy day that I can barely remember, but it has otherwise been very nice weather. On Sunday our host invited us over for a bbq dinner, which was our highlight. This whole trip, social distancing aside, has actually been fairly unsocial for us due to the fact that we are often staying in private Airbnb’s or in remote locations that have few visitors or people around. One of the few times we did get to meet other travellers or have somewhat of a social night, it has most often resulted in conversations about the ongoing pandemic, which is both boring and discouraging and not a topic we enjoy talking about, let alone obsess over. All that being said, our Sunday night dinner did not touch this topic and instead was full of genuine conversations and common interests. We got to meet the entire family, our hosts parents, his brother with their two little kids and everyone was interested in getting to know each other. Kilian even made friends and exchanged sounds with the cute little 4 month old girl, but he ultimately wanted all the attention and potato salad by the end of the night. These kind of chats reminded us of why we enjoy meeting people on the road, to talk about our home country and learn about theirs. We exchanged some travel stories while we ate dinner. The farm house sits on a hill with expansive views over the sea and surrounding hills. The house is simple, yet inviting and the family welcomed us, which made us feel right at home. Since it is now our last night here, we are sad to leave this beautiful place behind, but it was the perfect short term home we had while traveling around New Zealand.
We also discovered a small lake nearby, a quick drive away that has a nice little beach. Nobody was there and this is where Kilian finally got used to the sand. He is now digging his feet and hands in after so many funny moments in the islands. We found him a bunch of sticks and stones to play with while Ashleigh and I relaxed. There is a small path that follows the shoreline through the forest which we explored as well. When returning back to the car, I noticed one of our tires was looking pretty low. I would have noticed it deflate if it happened suddenly so am hopeful that it’s just a slow leak. Back at the farm I filled it up to keep an eye on over the next few days to ensure the air is holding. We also finally managed to walk to the very end of the pasture trails, which has become part of our daily walk now. While Ashleigh and I have been enjoying the jacuzzi at nights, we also added in a morning soak so Kilian could splash around. We turn down the temperature at night so it’s not as hot in the morning, and back up after our morning family splash session. For Ashleigh’s birthday we had the warmest day yet. It was not windy and mostly clear, a perfect day to go back down to the beach. We tried driving a different way, but got turned back at a dead end. Instead we had to take the terrible gravel road down again, but this time I went a lot slower to test out our tire. The beach was a little busier, but since it’s so wide and long it isn’t hard finding a spot away from everyone. A couple guys were surfing and we dug ourselves into the sand near the dunes. Kilian played in the sand before we tested out the water which was too cold for a proper swim. In the afternoon we walked down to the cows again and then relaxed at our place. For dinner I cooked up some steaks, provided by our host of course, which turned out to be excellent, even though we had no proper spices. After dinner our host came by with a pack of cold beers and joined us on our deck. We exchanged travel stories until the sun set and the stars came out. We ended our night with a final hot tub and then got ready for bed. While tomorrow is our day to head to the airport, we are leaving here with happy memories and will miss this peaceful place and being away from everything as we return to the city. The last two days have been fairly uneventful, with New Zealand being in lockdown there aren’t many things to do. Luckily our farm is pretty big and has many trails, so we have been exploring those. We found the bulls which were not happy to see us, but Kilian still waved at them. There are still enough other small trails around here to keep us busy exploring on foot. We had a no driving day which we will have more of over the next week. Otherwise we are keeping busy with Kilian and he is now crawling around everywhere. We found him a nice rock as motivation to learn crawling forward which worked really well as he now lunges himself forward before crawling. He also wants to stand up by himself so we we give him lots of practice and encouragement. The other activity that keeps me busy is killing all the flies. While we are happy that there aren’t any mosquitoes around, the flies are terrible. I will attempt to save as many as possible of course and divert them outside, but with this many flies a killing frenzy still ensues as I swat at them by jumping around the house. This whole ordeal seems hilarious to Kilian so he just laughs the entire time. Even Kilian managed to crush one fly by pinching it with his fingers. This should give you an idea of our current excitement while in lockdown. We otherwise spend time outside reading and eating good meals. Our host has graciously provided us with a bunch of meat, sausages and steaks so we aren’t going hungry. We also went for a small drive down to the beach a few minutes away. The entire beach was deserted, but since it’s in a remote location anyways it’s likely always this quiet here. We sat in the sand for a while watching the tide come in while Kilian kept pointing at the birds. There are some small dunes here as well that we walked over before driving back up the terrible gravel road to our place. The other nice part about being away from any cities is that the night sky, when clear, is the most beautiful sight. Last night was especially crisp and so we stood outside for a while starring at the Milky Way.
Today the cows moved up into the pasture right in front of our house to Kilians delight. He can now watch them from our deck or out the window which keeps us all very entertained. It rained a bit in the morning so our walk was cut short, but I still hopped into the jacuzzi to warm up a bit. Thankful our host thought of us again and brought Kilian a bunch of toys over that kept him busy. He also brought freshly baked bread as we were running low on bread. We feel taken care of that’s for sure. We are in for some nice days according to the forecast so we will be doing much of the same over the next few days. Ashleigh and I have been doing quite a bit to sort things out such as canceling bookings that are no longer possible and changing flights. As one can imagine the wait times on calls is ridiculous so it has taken away from some of our time traveling. One of the easier things was to refund our flight from Australia to Europe, but the challenging part has been to find a replacement flight. Now that New Zealand is going into lockdown for a month effective tonight, we want to also play our part by not moving around unnecessarily. We therefore already canceled our South Island portion and also extended our stay here on the farm in Te Arai. Our Airbnb host has been the most amazing guy, not only is he letting us stay as long as we want, but he also offered to get us groceries and gave us an amazing deal on our stay. The place is perfect and we feel like it is the right thing to do to stay put here for a bit.
The other thing we have been working on is finding a way to our next destination. Since Australia isn’t letting non nationals in anymore, that plan won’t work. The pacific islands have almost all introduced a self isolation requirement making it less than ideal to return, and in general domestic travel in New Zealand is restricted. Additionally Air New Zealand has limited its international routes, and Air Canada will stop flying to Auckland at the end of the month. Since Auckland isn’t really a major hub, flight options are limited. We attempted to secure a seat on an Air Canada flight and while we had a reservation booked, the ticket never got issued. After hours on the phone and no help from the embassy other than confirming Air Canada flights, while reserved for Canadians only, are pretty much booked up, they only directed us to Air New Zealand and with the help of Aeroplan we were able to get two seats on the same flight home! While it is still over a week out, and knowing routes are constantly getting canceled by airlines we are working on getting back to Canada as we are out of international travel options otherwise for the time being. We are obviously always up to date on route changes and cancelations with airlines so we will post any updates as they unfold if relevant. We may yet get stuck in New Zealand for a few months, which wouldn’t be terrible either, but are likely not moving around too much, which traveling is all about for us of course. This made our decision to get a flight back an easy one, as we need some flexibility for our constant movement to explore the world. With all of these restrictions, entry requirements and self isolation best practices, traveling has become difficult and not enjoyable. Wish us luck and our around the world journey may end very soon, resulting in an around the pacific trip instead. All of that being said, today we drove into the small town of Mangharai to get some food for the next week. We took a detour on the way back using terrible gravel roads, which was a bit of adventure with our small car. Kilian fell asleep of course as we were bouncing around. It was a windy and rainy day today, so we stayed indoors for the most part. We managed to walk down and find the cows, which Kilian loved. He points at them and seemed to have found a friendly cow that responded to his command and then followed us for a while along the fence line. Our host went into the bigger city to get more supplies and brought back the few things we couldn’t find in the small shop nearby. We are super thankful to him and are enjoying his kiwi hospitality. The night ended with us sitting in the hot tub again and relaxing at our small place. On a different note, those that remember when we wrote about the missing items from home, as I was looking for my hair clippers to get ready for my monthly haircut, I came across the rest of our missing items including my razor, nail clippers and tweezers! We have been without these for a while which resulted in some bushy eyebrows and long finger nails. While we have improvised as much as we could (at least for our finger nails using small scissors) we can now finally clean ourselves up a bit so we don’t turn into cavemen. Ashleigh’s glasses were unfortunately not among our treasured find. We woke up to rain and since no body else was checking in, we got to stay a bit later. We enjoyed our morning at the treehouse and since it was a two level house, it took us a while to pack up as we pretty much exploded with our stuff, and once I saw the pile of laundry stacked high I wondered how it all fits into four small packing cubes. It is pretty impressive how compact clothes can be when compressed like this. Kilian had a long nap, while we took care of some more planning. We left the place after lunch and drove to Whangarei to get more groceries. The store was a bit busier than usual especially for a Monday, but still civil and not chaotic. This was no surprise as the announcement of a lockdown was made today effective Wednesday for a month. With the announcement, people are stocking up as only essential services will be available. Ashleigh and I had made plans to move to the South Island on Wednesday, with a confirmed flight and car drop off and pick up again. This will not happen, so we cancelled our car in the south and extended our rental here with no problems. We will deal with the flight later as there are more urgent scenarios for locals that are trying to get home before the lockdown. The drive was otherwise uneventful since we had seen most of this stretch before on the way up. We finally got our Subway fix as well, which is great since it won’t be open after Wednesday and finally filled up with cheaper gas. Our Airbnb is fairly remote on a farm away from the cities about an hour and a half from Auckland. We have a separate guest house that has the best view we have seen yet. Rolling hills overlooking farmland and an ocean view with distant islands on the horizon. We have everything in our small house, even a stocked pantry and a jacuzzi out front to unwind. The host is super friendly and showed us some paths we can explore around the farm. We unpacked and went for a short walk until the rain started. Once Kilian was out, we soaked in the jacuzzi watching the sunset. There are always gems out there for accommodations, and we think we may have found one here. We are looking forward to relaxing a bit tomorrow.
Our plan today was to check out the bay of islands with one of the many cruises that are offered, or so we thought. It took us a while to leave the house as we had to do some much needed laundry after having done none in the islands. When we finally got down to the harbour, we walked through the small shops and checked out the cruise operators. One didn’t run at all, due to the current situation and when we asked the info centre we were advised that the frequency had been reduced to one per day leaving at 1030am. It was now 1130am so we missed that one already. The only other excursion we could make was to take the frequent ferry across to Russell a small town across from Paihia. While it doesn’t really cruise out far enough to see the many islands or spot dolphins, it was better than going back. We timed the ferry well and it left as soon as we boarded. The twenty minute ride across gave us a bit of an overview and we arrived to a small and quaint little town. As it was lunch time already we parked the stroller on the beach and all had our lunch. Afterwards we went in search for some ice cream, which Kilian also got a little bit of. Many restaurants ask guests to register their personal info before dinning and the info centre only let in limited people at a time. It’s a proactive effort to reduce social interactions, especially important since New Zealand apparently struggles with visitors actually self isolating when arriving from abroad. After our break we walked up and down the small streets and Kilian fell asleep in his stroller. This was the first time he slept in the stroller without the car seat attachment so that was great allowing us to walk a bit longer and then park it near the beach again. I laid out our beach towels and closed my eyes for a few minutes also. Clouds were rolling in so we took the 2pm ferry back to Paihia just before the rain shower started. Kilian was still really tired so we tried putting him back to sleep without any success. We sat on the deck after the rain until it got too cool. Our night was uneventful and chill.
Today we packed up to drive to the other side of the island. We will miss these killer views and ocean sounds, but luckily we are staying near the water, just on the other side. Our first stop was half an hour away at the local Pak’nSave, a common grocery store. We bought some more food for the next few days and stocked up on baby food as well, since Kilian was running out of snacks. I was pushing Kilian in the stroller while Ashleigh had the cart. As I was pulling into the Toiletries isle, thinking Ashleigh was behind me I yelled out in my best kiwi accent “look at the heaps of toilet paper!” While I thought Ashleigh was right behind me, when I turned around with a big smile, a local kiwi lady just laughed at me and shook her head. Even though the isles were fully stocked, a clear sign read “limit 2 per customer”.
We had an hour drive before we detoured off the main highway, to take a scenic route around the coast, a tip from a local host. The road was super narrow and curvy as usual, but the first stop at Tauranga Bay did not disappoint! The sand was peachy in colour almost pink and the beach deserted as usual. We walked it for a while and also found a playground nearby. Kilian loves the swing but did not show any excitement when we pushed him down the slide. Our next stop was half an hour away and we were awed the entire drive with scenic views over the bay with the islands dotting the ocean. The next bay was just as nice, but since Kilian was out cold, I only checked it out while Ash stayed behind. From here the detour eventually reached the highway again. When we were getting close to the bay of island, Ashleigh yelled out to pull over! She spotted a winery and was thirsty. We had a great tasting at this small winery where the connoisseur gave us the option to try any wines or ports rather than forcing us to sample a list of them. We ended up buying a couple bottles for the night to support the business. On the drive into town we stopped at a small waterfall. This time it was Ashleigh’s turn to check it out while I stayed behind with Kilian. We arrived in Paihai at the Bay of Islands at our tree house apartment. The place is very neat, a small two storey apartment attached to the main house in the middle of a forested area. Our hosts are in Auckland so the place is empty. We settled in and then sat on our patio enjoying a bubbly. Kilian found some toys and entertained himself for a good hour until our bottle was almost empty. We put him down for dinner and then barbecued up some chicken and enjoyed the peacefulness on our deck. P.S. Fiji, Tonga and more New Zealand photos have been uploaded The town we are staying in is very small with a population of 1000 people. It’s also very spread out, so it feels like no people are ever around. After breakfast we walked down to the beach using the shortcut mapped out by our host. It’s only a couple minute walk down hill. The beach was deserted and we were the only ones walking the wide sandy shores. We walked until we got to a bunch of rocks and then turned around until we found a hideout spot for us to sit in. Kilian played with our granola bar wrapper, and figured out that if he throws it into the wind it goes flying. So Ashleigh and I took turns fetching it for him. At one point a big gust sent the wrapper flying hundreds of meters down the beach so we didn’t see Ashleigh for a while, but she returned eventually. The weather here changes quickly and we could see a wall of rain approaching, so we trekked back up the hill in time for a little bit of rain. Our afternoon was pretty quiet, and once Kilian was up we walked up the hill as far as we could, to get an even better ocean view. Our night was equally chill, as we sat on our patio watching the sun slowly set reading our books. At night Ashleigh and I stepped outside again to check out the night sky which was impressive as more and more stars came out the longer we stayed.
Today was a driving day with many stops. We took our time getting out of our nice guesthouse and then only drove half an hour to Whangarei. Our first stop was the Kauri Forest where we did a canopy hike. The trail was very nice, and the canopy walk gave an interesting view over the lush forest below. We hiked up a lot of stairs to a waterfall, but due to New Zealand having such a drought there was barely any water, or maybe it is always this sad looking. All of the place names, be it towns, waterfalls or anything else seem to always start with the same letters. It’s often starting with a W, K, P or R and if it doesn’t start with that letter it will definitely include it in its name. This makes remembering names of towns, waterfalls and attractions difficult as they all seem to sound the same. After our hike we drove down the road to another trailhead to some caves. The path was great and even went through a cow pasture which Kilian loved of course. He got pretty close to the cows who were a bit skittish. The cave entrance was pretty cool, but it was no place for a baby. Ashleigh stayed back with Kilian while I took a peek inside. I put my headlamp on, and scrambled down the slick rock into the cave. It was a fairly high ceiling cave that seemed to go on forever. I didn’t venture in too far as the floor was covered by water some of if too high for my hiking shoes. I was hoping to spot some glow worms, but did not see any. At this point we were all hungry so we quickly drove back around to the Whangarei Falls. The place was popular, as it should be, since the waterfall is spectacular. We had lunch by the water, and the ducks patiently waited for us to drop any food. Once we left our picnic table they swarmed it to get any crumbs. We made the half hour walk around the falls to take in all the different views, some from above, some right from below. After lunch, we had a two hour drive towards the other side of the island. It was a scenic drive until we turned off the road to the bay of islands. Here it became less busy and as we approached Ahipara, we had to weave our way up over a hill at 383m. The road was very narrow and super curvy. I just pretended I was a rally driver as I went into turns, which just ended up getting us a little car sick. The fun didn’t last long, and shortly after we pulled into a town starting with the letter “K” and sounding just like the last three towns where we spotted a kebab place. This was our dinner for tonight and Kilian finally woke up two hours later also starving. We drove the last fifteen minutes to Ahipara and arrived at our amazing Airbnb overlooking the ocean at the end of the ninety mile beach that stretches from near the top of the north island to here. Surrounding the town, we can see massive sand dunes and as we settle for the night, a wall of rain moves in. Ashleigh and I have a movie night, something we haven’t done yet and then sneak back into our room listening to the waves crashing down below.
We arrived in Auckland around midnight and since we arrived from the pacific islands, health officials did not give us a hard time when entering. We were however surprised that there wasn’t a temperature check station set up as in most other places. This time we made a list of food items for customs which we proudly presented to the agent. He seemed pleased, but asked whether the jam contained any honey! I did not know and was now second guessing it. He stated we have to be sure or else we will get fined. The customs are by far the most stringent we have ever experienced. To be safe we asked to be searched before the X-ray machine. Another agent looked through our food bag and noted there was no honey in our jam. When we finally got out of the airport we were welcomed by a cool night temperature and the yellow bus. We haven’t taken any buses yet surprisingly so this was a first. It was only five minutes away to the airport hotel so it was fine with all of our luggage. By the time we checked in it was past 1am. We were all tired and tried to sleep, but Ashleigh and I couldn’t fall asleep surprisingly. It was a short night, but we slept in a bit. After a typical hotel breakfast, we strapped on our packs, loaded up Kilians stroller and for the first time also, walked for ten minutes with all of our stuff. The car rental place was only a few hundred meters away so we wanted to try it out and it was fine, now that we have a good packing system with our little mule aka the stroller. We got a small car this time and as soon as we pulled out I wasn’t happy. It makes funny noises, seems to shift up and down at the worst times when on a hill or going down and overall has no power. It will have to do for the next week though as we are exploring the Northlands. Our first mission was to get out of Auckland which took some time and then find a grocery store. We made a small detour via a scenic coastal road and a hour outside the city the landscape became beautiful again as the traffic lessened. I enjoy driving in New Zealand, especially once outside the bigger cities on smaller roads. We prefer small detours with windy roads and no traffic so we can look around a bit. The grocery store was not chaotic and supplies were still well stocked. Ashleigh took a photo of the toilet paper isle which still had enough rolls left. We bought food and drinks for the whole family and Kilian got his lunch right away. The cashier gave him a free apple and banana, how nice of her! We were planning on detouring again, but the shopping spree took longer than expected and we wanted to arrive at our place soon, so we went straight there with only one stop at a viewpoint. If we have time we may do the detour on the way back. The town we are staying in is small and right near the beach. Our host was welcoming as all kiwis are and proudly showed us his balcony ocean view. He gave us tips on places to check out as well. We had some food and then drove down to the desolate beach. It is very wide with fine sand and clear water. The waves were rolling in steadily and overall the temperature was great. Kilian wanted to chase the seagulls so Ashleigh ran after them with him. At night Ashleigh and I started a list of things to cancel or change and picked at it for a while. It will take some time to figure everything out so we will do a little bit at a time. Our guest house is a separate unit and the crickets will hopefully provide enough white noise for us this time, as it was way too quiet for us last night. We are so used to the beach sounds, crashing waves, wind and oscillating fans that we had a hard time with no noise at all. The road is nearby as well so that may be soothing also.
Today was our last day in Tonga and since our flight didn’t leave until late at night, we got to enjoy the entire day at this amazing resort. It was a beautiful day, blue skies, warm temperatures and plenty of time to go swimming. Kilian slept all night and didn’t wake up until almost 7am. We had a quiet breakfast and then relaxed in front of our beach hut. Once Kilian was up again, we all went for a long swim in the turquoise water. We found a shady spot for our loungers underneath a tree and put Kilian in the sand until he couldn’t take it anymore. It’s the funniest thing to watch him hold his position for a long time, just picture one leg in the air and hands up, anything to not touch the sand. Ashleigh put a bunch of sand on him, but that didn’t make him feel any more confident and just resulted in us needing to go into the water again to clean him of all the sand. I finally got to go snorkelling, but as it was still windy the waves over the reef were too big and the water too rough on the other side so I stuck to the part between the beach and inner reef. There were still enough fish hiding in the rocks for me to enjoy it. I went out for a bit and then swam back in parallel to the shore, at least satisfied with one more snorkel session here in Tonga.
We didn’t do too much in the afternoon. Relaxed, played some games and then started packing up. We can finally say that we reduced our bags down to only five not including Kilians stroller and bed of course. This is mostly due to all of the diapers which are now down to a dozen. Our host drove us to the airport after we said our goodbyes, 45 minutes away. We got to see most of the island one last time, passing by the many fruit stands and churches, kids playing rugby and chickens crossing the road. Tonga was a great island destination, so laidback and quiet. It was time to leave the simple life behind, to wave goodbye to the locals tending to their plantations and return to New Zealand. While we have not written much about the impacts of the Coronavirus on Tonga, this has obviously been a hot topic here as well, especially with fellow travellers as they are working out their next destinations and routes. This requires a lot of effort on the travellers part, as entry requirements are frequently changing and are constantly getting updated. Then there is the inconvenience of medical certificates and self isolation. I will admit that trying to stay on top of all requirements can be frustrating at times since updates are so frequent, but we are in the know on what is happening to the places we are planning on visiting. While we usually travel with maximum flexibility, this trip has been much more planned out, which unfortunately is working against us at this time. Over the next few weeks, Ashleigh and I have a bit of work to do as we need to cancel quite a few accommodations, car reservations and flights. Our plan after New Zealand was to return to Australia and meet up with Ashleigh’s parents. Based on current self isolation requirements, that both New Zealand and Australia have imposed, meeting Ashleigh’s parent will not work out very well since these requirements are in place until at least mid April for now, and it overlaps exactly with their arrival date. While New Zealand does impose self isolation for international travellers for two weeks upon arrival as well, there is one exception that worked in our favour. Any international travellers entering from any of the pacific islands are exempt from the quarantine, so we will be able to get out of Auckland right away to explore the country. While there is plenty of other information we can post on this topic, we just wanted to let everyone know that Ashleigh and I are continuously following any of the news on the virus at home and especially in the South Pacific where we are currently traveling in. This includes researching which upcoming bookings are cancellable, which airlines currently allow changes and any other relevant information a traveller in our position should know. Additionally we are following where cases are appearing and how many to ensure we are not entering any high risk areas. A lot of airlines are allowing more flexibility and similar to entry requirements most are only effective for travel until mid April and will get reviewed closer to as the situation changes. Route planning has always been our strength and we always keep an eye on easy ways out to get home on our radar. While we have been fortunate to travel to countries such as Tonga, that have had no confirmed cases of the virus, we have also seen that other countries aren’t as fortunate. Tonga had plenty of toilet paper left in stores, we can assure everyone of that and will report on the public vibe of places in New Zealand once we arrive. For now New Zealand has a dozen confirmed cases, which gives us some ease of mind, especially knowing we will be traveling outside of major cities and we know that things back home are not looking as good as here. We are thinking of everyone back in Canada as well as in Europe and will follow up on recent events with family to get the latest. This ended up being a lengthy post, but we wanted to provide the update. |
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