Karekare beach.
We arrive at about 2pm, and I figure we'll be pretty wiped out from the flights, so we don't *have* to do anything. If we have the energy, we could drive out to Karekare beach for the sunset (about an hour drive, sunset is about 7:20).
Karekare beach.
After we get back (or if we don't go) I might go to the top of One Tree Hill to see a view of the city at night.
One Tree Hill
In the morning, we can either knock around Auckland some or go to Karekare beach if we didn't the day before. At some point we hit the road to go to the North peninsula. Things to do in Auckland include:
View from Auckland ferry
Maori stuff in from Auckland museum,
also see https://trekinti.me/2013/09/26/auckland-museum-mostly-maori/
Our goal for the day is to get to Waipoua Forest by about 5 or 5:30, meaning we'll need to head north by 12:30ish. We won't have all that much time for stops on the way up (unless we leave earlier), but we'll be passing back through a couple days later. The forest is home to these giant cool Kauri trees, and it's at least possible, though unlikely we will see Kiwi birds. My thought is that we could walk around in the forest a bit, head to a nearby beach to watch the sun set over the Tasman Sea, and then come back through the forest for some after-dark exploration (when we'd be more likely to find Kiwis)
We'll end the day at Camp Waipu Cove, about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the forest, plus time for any stops. With nighttime driving I'd expect the only stops to be food, bathroom, and smoke, but it's not like we can't stop for other stuff.
A Kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest
Camp Waipu Cove, where we'll share a two-bedroom cabin
I'll be waking up early for the sunrise; I've never seen the sun *rise* over the Pacific Ocean before. This heading out for the beach at 7AM, but that's 10AM Seattle time (we should try to stay on Seattle time if we can, becasue the sun sets kind of early for sightseeing). Sunrise is entirely optional for you and Jalen, though. Our hotel is basically right on the beach.
Our goal is to get to Kaitaia about Noon, a three hour drive plus time for stops, so we'll have to leave pretty early and not stop much. In Kaitaia we'll rent a four-wheel drive to go south-to-north up 90-mile beach, driving on the actual beach. If we are too late getting to Kaitaia we'd probably have to skip this, as the drive can't be done at high tide. You won't be *officially* allowed to do so, but I figure you can do a lot of the actual beach driving if you want. At the end we'll go to Cape Reinga where the Tasman Sea meets the main body of the Pacific. It's the farthest north point of New Zealand. We'll end the day back in Kaitaia, an hour and a half south of Cape Reinga. For this part of the trip, it's a very narrow peninsula, whether we wait for the sunset up at Cape Reinga or drive around the eastern coastline is something we can decide when we're there. An hour south of the cape is Rarawa beach, which is known for having very white sand. It would likely have few people at it. The only time constraint is the tide time for the beach drive. A walk through Trounson Kauri Park after dark gives us another chance to see Kiwi birds; a daytime walk there would also be cool.
Two views of 90-mile beach, which is actually only 55 miles long (but that's still a crazy long beach).
Cape Reinga
Trounson Kauri Park
Rarawa Beach
On the fourth day of the trip we need to end the day a bit south of Auckland, due to our plans for days 5 and 6. We'll be retracing some of our drive north. On the way south we'll go to the Kawiti glowworm caves (much smaller than the ones we'll be doing later, but they still look cool and won't take long. Another stop we can make is Whangarei Falls. Near it is Mount Mainaia which we could see from up close or across the bay, or both. The hike up it isn't all that long -- 2.3 miles round trip, but it's pretty steep. I doubt I'd be up to it. There are also another couple of forests we could walk around in. We'll be passing through Auckland after dark. I'd like to stop and take a ferry ride, to look at the lights of the city after dark. We'll end the night in Hamilton, about an hour and a half south of Auckland.
Entrance to Kawiti caves
Whangarei Falls
Mount Mainaia
Mount Mainaia
The main part of this day will be the Waitomo glow worms caves tours. There are three caves. The tours are 45 minutes, two hours, and one hour. I'm going to schedule it so we do the best one first (45 minutes) and the least interesting one last (the 1-hour). I'm also going to try to set it up so we have breaks between them. Tours start at 9am and we'd probably want to take the last tour at 3:30, ending at 4:30. There's no requirement that you two take all three tours, but you would need to be willing to wait for me while I do. Maybe we skip the third one, but I definitely want to do the first two.
After the tours I want to drive back up to Auckland for a planetarium show and looking through telescopes at the Auckland observatory. They have a number of telescopes set up that are like really-high-end hobbyist telescopes, but we'll also have a chance to look thrrough their biggest telescope that has a half-meter diameter lens. Not as big as world-class research observatory telescopes, but way more powerful than anything I've ever looked through before. The planetarium show will help us know what we're looking at in the skies -- we'll be seeing a totally different set of stars down there. This trip is optional for you two.
Waitomo glow work cave tour
There are several geothermal areas all pretty close to one another. I definitely want to go to the one with Pohutu geyser, which is Maori owned and has a little Maori village to see. For the rest we can decide later. If we leave the main area early enough, we could go to a hot spring called Kerosene Creek that is a hot waterfall going into a hot pool in the forest. We need to end the night in Wellington, at the southern tip of the north island, most or all of the drive will be after dark. Even if we don't go to Kerosene Creek in the daylight, it's probably worth it to me to go there on our way to Wellington even if that means being a bit short on sleep that night. The drive from Kerosene Creek to Wellington is about 5 1/2 plus time for stops, so we'll get in pretty late.
Pohutu Geyser -- a must
Champagne pool -- possible
Orakei Korako -- possible
Kerosene Creek -- probable
The beaches on the eastern peninsula are known for golden sands and being pretty. Cathedral Cove beach looks the prettiest to me, but there is also a beach that has a hot water spring where people go at low tide and dig a pit in the sand so they can soak in hot water at the beach. Sounds kind of neat but mucky and had work. New Chum beach is also really pretty.
Cathedral Cove
Also Cathedral Cove
New Chum beach
[Quoting from the New Zealand Official Tourist Website: "The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is often described as New Zealand's best day walk. The 12-mile hike traverses ancient volcanic terrain, winding its way past emerald lakes, old lava flows and even an active crater. Views of Lake Taupo and the Ruapehu region are magnificent, and make the hike well worth the effort!" Dunno if I could do 12 miles, and it would take a whole day.
Tongariro Alpine Crossing
Coromandel Coast drive and walkway trail. The walkway trail looks preety snazzy, but doing the full trail would be a serious workout. smaller versions are available. The drive up the Coromandel Coast is said to be very pretty. The Coromandel Coast Walkway also looks really pretty. The full trail is 12 miles round-trip but we wouldn't need to do all of it.
Coromandel Coast drive
Coromandel Coast drive
Coromandel Coast Walkway
Coromandel Coast Walkway
Titirangi hill, and Lottin Point: I haven't scheduled anything for NE New Zealand, but these are two pretty things there. The city of Gisbourne's claim to fame is it's the first city in the world to see the sunrise of the new day. Some people think this area (the East Cape) is actually the prettiest in New Zealand, and it does have the advantage of few people around. The roads are slow-traveling ones.
Titirangi hill
Lottin Point
East Cape
Lake Taupo. New Zealand's biggest lake, maybe 10 miles in diameter. Has a thundering, but not super-high waterfall. I think you can drive up to it, but you can also kayak through a pretty (but not spectacular) Waikato river gorge to get to it. There is a really big Maori rock carving that can also be kayaked to. It was done in the late 70s and took the artist 4 years.
Lake Taupu
Huku Falls
Waikato river kayaking
Big Maori rock carving
The Wellington-Picton ferry that will take us to the South Island leaves at 1:30PM, and we need to show up 45 minutes before it sails. So we'll have a little time to look around Wellington. My plan is to wake up early to go to the botanical gardens -- you guys can either join me or sleep in a bit. I'd also like to go to their museum which has both cool Maori stuff and fossils and other New Zealandy natural history stuff -- hopefully they will have a skeleton of a giant moa bird, but if not we can see one later in Christchurch. I'll also want to take a quick spin through a pretty-looking wood church. The ferry gets to Picton about 5PM -- 2 1/2 hours before sunset, and from there it's 4 hours to where we'll spend the night in Westport on the west coast. Starting just past the Picton metro area and for a lot of the rest of the NZ trip I'm willing to break the rules and let you (Cleo) drive a lot of the time, except near cities or ot night.
New Zealand museum
Wooden church
Our first day on the South Island will be a drive down the west coast. The coastal scenery is supposed to be preety amazing. Along the way I expect stops at Pancake Rocks, Hokitika Gorge, and Lake Matheson. My goal for the day is to get just past Lake Matheson to where we can watch the sun set over the water and then drive the rest of the way to Haast in the twilight and dark. This means a day where I'll want you two to wake up pretty early. It will help a little that New Zealand goes off Daylight Savings time during the night, so you'll get an extra hour of sleep from that. The down side is the sun will be setting around 6:30. If we get on the road by 8:20 we'll have 10 hours to make it to sunset over the water. It's five hours of straight driving time, so we have five hours for stops. I figure one hour for general gas/food/smoking/bathroom stops, 1 1/2 hours for Hokitika Gorge, half an hour at Pancake rocks, one hour at Lake Matheson, and one hour of stopping for views.
Pancake Rocks
Hokitika Gorge
Lake Matheson -- as with a lot of the photos I'm showing, the mountains likely won't be as snowy as this.
This will be a long driving day, but the last 3 hours can be done after dark without missing too much. We'll start by driving through some mountainy bits to the Blue Pools walking track, then drive along or by three prety lakes: Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawea, and Lake Wakatipi. After that we'll head south to the very southern tip of the island for the sunset. On our way back north and west to our hotel we'll probably stop for a nice dinner in Invercargill. If you guys don't want to do the southern tip of the island I could drop you off in Te Anau and do it solo. That would add about an hour driving time, but that wouldn't bother me. The scenery won't be as spectacular for that part, but outside of Chile and Argentina it's probably the farthest south I'll ever go. And the scenery will be a nice change of pace from the mountains and lakes. Remember that you can do a fair amount of the driving.
Blue Pools walking track
Lake Wanaka
Lake Wakitipi
Slope Point
Milford Sound
Milford Sound
Milford Sound
This day will be taken up by driving around Tekapo and Pukaki Lakes and doing the Hooker Valley hike, which looks pretty spectacular. It's 6 miles round trip and pretty flat -- 100 ft up per mile on the way out. We'll be After that we'll drive to Christchurch, but it's okay if we do that in the dark.
Lake Tekapo
Lake Pukaki
Hooker Valley hike
Hooker Valley hike
Here's a day where you two can sleep in. Our flight to Australia is around dinner time. I wouldn't have scheduled a full day in Christchurch, but this is Cleo's chance to get a tattoo. Other than going to the museum with Moa skeletons I haven't decided what I'll do
On the East coast we'll miss Cape Campbell. That would also take us by Lake Grassmere, which might be weird, cool colors because it's a salt lake with an evaporative salt-making area. It probably won't be as pink as the photo below due to the time of year we're visiting, but maybe. Another place near there is Kaikoura's Peninsula Walkway, with a place nearby we may be able to see seals. South of Christchurch is the Moeraki Boulders (weird round rocks on a beach) and Lanarch Castle and Gardens (some New Zealand guy wanted a castle. The gardens look nice), and a steampunk museum, which does look kind of cool but to me not cool enough to change the itinerary. Another museum we'll probably skip is the National Transport and Toy museum. If we are ahead of schedule on the Haast to Slope point day I might want to stop for a quick spin through. Old, old cars, weird cars, a plane that was a flying brothel, thousands of old toys.
Moeraki Boulders
Lanarch Castle
Staempunk HQ
National Transport and Toy Museum