Here’s to another installment on what the heck we’ve been up to on our little rock in the South Pacific. It’s been nearly a month since our last family update, and we spent the majority of that time on larger rocks in the South Pacific! We traveled to our number one bucket list destination over the winter school break, New Zealand!
New Zealand Family Holiday
Bucky and I have wanted to travel to New Zealand for years (decades!), and never in my life have I ever traveled to a place that I so desperately want to go back to at the end. Our two weeks traveling around the North Island only covered half the island! Even though we were able fit in as many sights as we could, there was still so much left we wanted to see. New Zealand is really one of the best family holiday destinations in the world, and we will be back!
If you are looking for New Zealand travel logistics, head to our New Zealand Road Trip Itinerary to the North Island.
Our time on the North Island started and ended in Auckland. We were able to find a great deal on a flight to Auckland from Apia, Samoa which is just a short jump from American Samoa. Our family vacation to New Zealand started before Christmas and we flew back home a week into the new year.
Boarding our plane to Auckland. Take a look at that water color in the background! 
Thanks Air New Zealand for the beautiful plane!
This is the first time our little family has traveled for winter holidays, and I’ll admit it is an addicting trend I hope to continue. Before we actually booked the tickets, we talked with the kids to let them know this is THE Christmas present to the entire family. If we booked, there wouldn’t be piles of presents waiting for them. Thankfully for us adults, they agreed 100%.
This was the ultimate “experiences not things” present to ourselves, and we couldn’t be happier with that decision! It was right in line with downsizing our personal possessions to move out to American Samoa, so not a far stretch for Ty and Tora. I did order new hydration backpacks as Christmas presents in the end. A fun surprise for them Christmas morning that came in handy every day on our trip!
Bucky and I both have Osprey running hydration vests that we love, but they don’t have enough pocket/storage space for full day hikes. I ended up sticking with Osprey for the kids since we’ve been really happy with the durability and fit, along with the subtle extras such as magnet holders for the mouthpiece and pockets along the front. I ordered Women’s size sm/med for the kids of their newer model, Osprey Dyna 15 Women’s Trail Running Hydration Vest. It includes way more storage space, and a great option for day hikes. Plenty of room for them to grow into, but also not too big for an 8 and 11 year old.
Auckland
Before we set out for our awesome New Zealand road tip, we took advantage of Auckland’s conveniences and provisioned for our trip. We rented a mini van along with two tents and stoves/cook wear, but we needed to buy air mattresses, a cooler, and groceries. A few Santa hats snuck into the cart too, resulting in tons of Santa hat pictures. They also doubled as warm hats when our wimpy, used to the tropics family was cold while camping!
New Zealand Road Trip Begins!
We were packed up and ready to head north to Puriri Bay the morning of Christmas Eve. Our campsite was about 4 hours away, which of course turned into a longer drive due to the pouring rain. New Zealand roads are very windy and curvy, and the locals zip right through the turns. Mini vans don’t quite handle well on the curves!
After plenty of stops for food and pictures, we made it to our first campsite at Whangaruru North Head by mid afternoon, with the rain still coming down. Upon arrival, we discovered ducks swimming in our campsite! Thankfully the campground wasn’t fully booked and we were able to move over a few spots to less standing water.
Despite being brand new, we discovered our rental tents leaked like sieves! The four of us ended up sleeping in the van that night. It was a cozy Christmas Eve! We were camping right at the ocean in the southern portion of the Bay of Islands. Thankfully the clouds cleared a bit for a fabulous Christmas Eve sunset.
We were definitely worried about the future of our New Zealand camping with leaky tents, but we lucked out with weather for the remainder of the trip.
Christmas Morning
We woke up on Christmas morning to just a few occasional sprinkles, but soggy and chilly! After breakfast we set out to explore the area for the day, and headed 45 minutes north to Russell.
We poked around the beach at Tapeka Point looking for a trail we saw mention of online, but just found a beautiful shoreline instead.
Poking around the beach at Tapeka Point 
Exploring the coastline at Tapeka Point
Just up the road was Flagstaff Hill, complete with beautiful views, a bit of Maori/European history, and a pretty hiking trail down to the shore. We were impressed with how well maintained the trails were, and this proved true for the remainder of the North Island trails. It was really incredible to see such emphasis on the outdoors throughout our trip.
After a morning of exploring, we headed back to our campsite with a road side stop for lunch at this beautiful view!
Once back at the campsite, we decided to hike the trail that left from camp. Every single campsite we stayed at during our New Zealand road trip had at least one, and often many, trails departing from the campsite. So convenient for something to do in the evenings if we got into camp early.
Beginning of our hike, with campsite below. 
The hike began and ended in livestock pastures. 
Heading into the woods, leaving the pasture. 
The woods lead to a beautiful coastline. 
Coastline led to another livestock field. 
View of our campsite at Puriri Bay as we were finishing our hike.
All in all, it was a pretty awesome and exhausting Christmas Day in New Zealand!
Driving North
The morning after Christmas we departed our first campsite with no set plans for the day other than drive further north, and stay at a free/first come, first served campsite. We drove through the cute town of Kawakawa mid morning, and stopped to grab coffee and a snack, plus fill up on the essentials of gas (petrol) and ice for the cooler (chilly bin).
We came across the Hundertwasser Toilets while exploring town, built by artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. They are free public toilets, and the last completed project by Hundertwasser. Tora was a little miffed that the actual toilet seats were not tiled as well!
There were creative signs and street art all around Kawakawa in the mosaic tiles NZ style of Hundertwasser art. Definitely a fun little town to explore!
We eventually made it our first come, first served campsite at Raetea North Side Campsite that afternoon. Thankfully we had plenty of water and essentials, as this was just a large field with a composting toilet up the hill. It was a little surprising to us (and all the other campers showing up), but we definitely got what we paid for (Free!).
Our spot at Raetea North, aka bug city. 
Looking down the field for tent sites, though about a third of the sites were mud or standing water. 
At the end of the field, you could cross the stream and head up the hill to very fragrant composting toilets.
Cape Reinga, New Zealand
We were up and out early from bug city the next morning for our long travel day to the northern most tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. The views from this area are beyond stunning, and my photography skills just do not do any justice to the beauty.
Once at the top, there is a paved trail down to the Cape Reinga lighthouse complete with a dozen interpretive signs. Cape Reinga is the place where the spirits depart and head back to their spiritual homeland (Hawaii).
First glimpses of Cape Reinga and Lighthouse 
Family Photo Fail at Cape Reinga!
We weren’t the only ones at the Cape, it was filled with tourists. Trying to get photos of all the sights without 500 other people in your picture was a little humorous.
Taking advantage of the alternate path that avoided some of the tourists.
The Lighthouse 
Directional sign at the Cape Reinga Lighthouse
Te Paki Giant Sand Dunes
Not far south from Cape Reinga are the Te Paki Giant Sand Dunes. It just takes about 30 minutes of hike in time plus $15 NZD per boogie board rental to ride down the dunes! It was a total blast, exhausting (those dunes are far steeper than they look!) and amazing to see such a huge expanse of sand dune in front of you.
Tora stuck to the shorter kid hill, while the rest of us took our turns on the giant hill. Sand was plastered to us by the end, and we were beyond thankful that our accommodations that night had a shower!
See More Details About Te Paki Sand Dunes
Baylys Beach
After a marathon New Zealand road trip day to Cape Reinga and the Te Paki dunes, we drove south that evening to a holiday park at Baylys Beach. Since we were getting in late, we booked a basic cabin for the night so we wouldn’t have to take the time to set up and break down camp. The showers and kitchen for washing up were a huge luxury!
The next morning we went out to the beach for a nice long walk before our drive for the day. Baylys Beach is part of the 112 km long Ripiro Beach, which means there is beach as far as you can see in both directions! It was a perfect morning walk on such a stunning beach. Locals even use this beach to drive in, and there were a few dozen of cars that flew by on the firm sand of mid-tide.
Tane Mahuta
After our morning walk at Baylys Beach, we added some extra driving into our day to visit the giant Kauri tree Tane Mahuta, the “Lord of the Forest”. The native Kauri’s are slow growing giants, quickly disappearing due to historical logging pressure and now Kauri dieback disease.
2000 years old! Kauri dieback disease is a serious threat to all Kauri trees, with infected footwear aiding in its spread. The Dept. of Conservation (DOC) is doing its best to control Kauri dieback, and has foot washing stations at many trail heads, and has been closing certain trails to prevent spread. The walk to Tane Mahuta started with a semi-automated foot wash station, and was a raised boardwalk to prevent the tree’s roots.
Muriwai Beach and the Gannet Colony
Ty has been into birding for a few years now, so we planned a stop at the Gannet colony at Muriwai Beach while planning our New Zealand family holiday. There is a holiday park right above the beach, so it was a convenient stopping point for a night. Turns out Muriwai Beach is pretty amazing as well, so were pretty thrilled with our time there.
Gannets are a large seabird that come to the cliffs at Muriwai Beach between August and March each year to nest. The trusting Gannets don’t seem to mind the awestruck humans watching close by on the viewing platforms.
Chicks of various sizes and feathering could be seen throughout the nests, and one Gannet close to the platform even showed off her just hatched chick, still half in the shell!
Gannet sounds and behavior could be entertainment for hours. It’s amazing to watch these large birds swoop in, and then somehow land perfectly in place next to their nest, and then perform a neck rubbing ritual with their mate. We had a blast watching these beautiful birds.
After dinner we headed back down to the beach to grab some sunset pictures.
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Hamilton, New Zealand
Coming from American Samoa where the restaurants and local food scene can practically cause tears of frustration, we strategically planned out a stop in Hamilton for lunch, craft beer, and designer ice cream.
We first stopped at Good George Brewing for fancy pizza and a nice beer selection.
A few miles down the road is Duck Island Ice cream, with some seriously creative and delicious ice cream flavors. Our favorites were buttermilk passion fruit and blackberry sage.
Glowworms
Who knew that glowing, drooling maggots could be so amazing? New Zealand is home to a fungus gnat with a bioluminescent larval phase. The larva use their glowing to attract their prey, and build vertical sticky threads to snare them.
There are lots of paid glow worm experiences in New Zealand caves, but we were able to find a free spot that fit into our travel plans.
Kakahi Glowworms
Just outside the town of Kakahi, the railroad made a cutting through the stone cliffs, but never built their railroad. The result is a narrow dead-end road (just one car wide) with stone cliffs about 100 feet tall covered in glowworms at night. The entire scene was magical, and we wandered the 200 or so feet of glowworm road for well over an hour that night. If you ever want to feel like you are in a fairy wonderland, this is the place!
Back at camp that night, we played around with a little more long exposure photography to capture the stars. Of course that evening I discovered the remote to my Nikon had run out of battery, so we had to settle for the pre-programmed 30 second shutter delay on the GoPro for glowworms and stars.
Lake Taupo Rock Carvings
After the glowworms, we scheduled a tourist splurge with a sail out to the Maori rock carvings on Lake Taupo. While the former archeologist in Bucky wished these rock carvings were historic, they are impressive none the less.
The carvings were completed in the late 1970s by a master Maori rock carver, and paint a story steeped with Maori tradition. They are only accessible by boat, about a 45-60 minute sail from Taupo.
We lucked out with perfect weather for the sail. Lake Taupo is huge, roughly the size of Lake Tahoe, so we were wishing we could have spent more time exploring. We stayed in Taupo for lunch, and then drove out to our next campsite to get set up at a decent hour.
Once at the campsite, we were able to fit in an hour hike before dinner.
Whitewater Rafting
The morning of New Years Eve in New Zealand found us driving to Turangi for white water rafting along the Tongariro River. We booked a family friendly adventure with rapids just class two and below, but we were still wondering if Tora would enjoy it. Thankfully as soon we hit the water and the first mini rapid, she LOVED it and has continued to talk about it since. Huge success for the whole family!
Pre-rafting fun at the Turangi Visitor Center 
Geared up and on the river!
Ty about to get soaked (thanks trusty GoPro for the still shots from our video!)
Rotorua
After white water rafting that morning, we drove up to Rotorua to stay for the night and celebrate New Zealand New Years Eve. Rotorua puts on a family friendly GLO Festival every NYE, and were able to book a private room hostel right in town, just a 30 minute walk away.
Once we arrived, showered, and ate our way through a fabulous Thai food dinner, the outdoor movie was over at the GLO Festival. They had an outdoor concert alongside amusement park style rides that the kids had fun on.
Rotorua attractions are known for their geothermal activity, and the entire town has a bit of a sulfur smell to it. We were tipped off to Kuirau Park in downtown Rotorua, that has a large thermal pond not far from the GLO Festival. We wandered down there before the fireworks, and were able to see a beautiful sunset over the steamy, thermal waters. We definitely wished we had more time in town as there were so many places to visit in Rotorua.
The GLO Festival schedules a round of kids fireworks at 9:30 PM, with rumor that they are even better than the midnight fireworks. We are sure the rumor is correct, as this was the best fireworks show we have ever seen. So many fireworks setting off at a time, with a huge variation of style and placement in the sky. It was definitely a New Years Eve to remember!
Hobbiton
Like every good North Island New Zealand visitor who has every seen or read The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, we were good tourists and visited Hobbiton. We knew it would be tourist central, but it’s still hard to image that many people !
The half dozen road signs directing you the last 5 km kind of set the tone to our trip. They actually say “Tourist Farm” on the directional road signs!
The attention to details in the gardens and grounds was AMAZING! There were stories behind nearly ever Hobbit hole, but it was nearly impossible to hear the tour guide with the size groups they assign.
We really just wanted to just slowly explore and take it all in, but instead we raced along with our guided tour and took a bazillion hobbit hole shots.
The tour finished with a drink at the Green Dragon. All in all an amazing experience when you look back at the pictures and forget about all the people!
725 Hike
After our Hobbiton morning, we drove north to the last region we were able to explore, the Coromandel Peninsula. We made it into camp at a reasonable hour, so set off for a short 4 km that would take us to the large Cookson Kauri Tree. The first km or so was a nice, easy walk that passed over quite a few streams.
I was just about to say “We haven’t seen any stairs yet” when we came across a flight down. Always stairs on New Zealand trails!
Then the stairs starting going up, and up, and up, and just never stopped. The stairs came in sets between 20 and 50, and if you read the heading above, you might be guessing that there was a total of 725 stairs to the Cookson Kauri!
The kids kept a (nearly) positive attitude, but when we were nearing the top, this false summit did not improve morale.
It was right above this picture that Ty’s dry 11 year old humor came out and he made a twig sign that said “Hope Dies Here” along the trail. Thankfully the tree was really right around the corner, but it came at the end of 50-ish stairs that led DOWN.
The kids refused to pose.
It was a hike to remember! I counted stairs on the hike down thinking it might be a few hundred. Nope! 725! Quite the “short” 4 km hike for the evening!
Hot Water Beach
The Coromandel Peninsula has so many spots to visit, but with our limited time we decided to visit the iconic Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove for our one full exploration day.
Hot Water Beach is on top of geothermal springs that you can dig into at low tide. We had hoped to make it to the beach a few hours before low tide, but we were a bit slow to get out of camp that morning. The result was a beach full of people and digging holes!
Not all the pools are hot, in fact we ended up adopting an abandoned hole that was cold on one side and scorching hot on the other side. We put up a nice little damn from the super hot water, and had a nice mixing of the two temps. We all guessed this was probably a fabulous winter activity, as the water is listed to be between 140-147 F!
I have tons of pictures from Hot Water Beach, but they all seem to have someone else’s beach bum front and center. Guess I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings when I was trying to photograph the steam rising from the pools :/
Cathedral Cove
Just up the road is the little beach town of Hahei, and the trail to Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove was gorgeous, but a bit overwhelming with the volume of tourists. Buses shuttle you to the trailhead, that is a 2 km paved walking trail (but don’t worry, there were still stairs). The number of beach goers walking the path with floaties, coolers, and beach gear was astounding!
The Arch 
Walking through the arch
Auckland Zoo
After a few super touristy days, we headed back to Auckland to fit in one more attraction. We had been reading about the native nocturnal Kiwi birds during our trip, but had not been fortunate enough to see one. The kids really wanted to see a Kiwi, so we headed to the Auckland Zoo for our final full day. The Auckland Zoo has an indoor dark exhibit for the Kiwis, so we were able to see the cuties poking around and learn about the conservation efforts to try and save them.
Despite our best efforts, all of our Kiwi pictures are dark, so here is an adorable Kea instead. The Auckland Zoo has quite a few bird exhibits in addition to the Kiwis, so it was a fun ending to the trip.
Right down the street from our Auckland hotel was the Strawberry Farm, with strawberries perfectly ripe around Christmas and New Years. I think we ate 4 of these trays between the beginning and end of our trip, and grabbed their fresh strawberry ice cream both times.
Thank You New Zealand!
New Zealand, you didn’t disappoint! With all that is left to see (hello South Island, we’ve seen your out of this world pictures!), we will absolutely be back for hopefully longer next time
In the end, there was only one day of our trip we didn’t walk/hike a minimum of 3 miles (some days up to 7 miles), and I don’t even want to calculate the miles driven. We camped in so many new places, brought home ridiculously itchy bug bites, and played at least 50 hands of Exploding Kittens in the evenings. What an incredible Christmas present to ourselves!
Catch Up
Curious to learn how our journey started, and other tidbits about living in American Samoa? Take a look at our Transition to American Samoa and our First Two Months in American Samoa. Follow along by reading our Living in American Samoa series.
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