Now on to New Zealand. After 6 nice days in Sydney, we were ready for more in NZ. We arrived in Auckland on Feb 4th and our good friend, David McBriar, was arriving from the US the next day. We've been looking forward to spending the week with him. It was good we had a day to get used to driving on the left side of the road.
David arrived on time and we headed off to Whitianga which is located about a 2+ hour drive south of Auckland on the Coromandel Peninsula. We did a lot of sightseeing, but you can't do that on an empty stomach, so we managed to have some great meals during the week.
Here we are at the Mercury Bay Estates winery for a nice lunch and wine tasting. The Cab Sauv was very good, so we bought a bottle to take back the the hotel. This place was a lovely setting, overlooking Cook's Bay with the vineyards below us. The weather was great all week.
One of the highlights to our stay in Whitianga was visiting Hot Water Beach. People come to this spot on the beach around low-tide. They dig holes and water bubbles up, sometimes its cool and sometimes its very hot. Marianne is digging our first hole. It turned out to be cold water, so we moved closer to the hot water.
After a few attempts we found warmish water and we were happy with that. Some of our neighbors had hot water so just combined them all into one big pool. We boiled our buns for about an hour before the tide started to come in, and it was almost time for lunch. So we headed out to find David who found a nice shady spot to relax.
A view from our room overlooking Whitianga Harbor.
We took a boat tour of the harbor and saw some beautiful sights.
The water was so clear and blue.
We said good bye to Whitianga after a few days and headed north to Paihia. It is another beautiful seacoast town. Our accommodations weren't as nice as Whitianga, but we toughed it out. We took a ferry ride to visit another town, Russell. Here we are having lunch at the Duke of Marborough Hotel. It opened in 1827 as the first licensed hotel serving rascals and reprobates. Also, you'll be interested to know that the oldest operating petrol station and first church are located here.
Check out the tree on the far side of the hotel. It is a grand old tree.
The town is very pretty. It has a New England feel to it.
We took one last boat tour of the Bay of Islands out of Paihia.
Our boat actually went through the hole in the rock.
Some dolphins decided to join the tour.
We had a great time in Paihia, but the vacation was coming to a close so we had to head back to Auckland.
We had a great time in New Zealand. David was heading on to Brisbane and Sydney, AUS, and we had to get back to Baoding. We are so thankful for the time we had with David. It was a gift. We cherish every moment. We are re-charged, and we are underway with our classes. Pray for us this Lent and Spring that we complete the semester successfully and healthy. Hope you liked hearing about our travels. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Ciao.
