We’re now in our 21st month here in Aotearoa/New Zealand and still absolutely loving our time in this amazing country. Although we stopped posting a weekly journal when COVID hit, we continue to live in a state of constant wonder at the beauty of both the land and the people embracing us here.
So why did we stop weekly journal posts?
Initially because my journal during our strict lockdown was so boring that it put me to sleep. (That might have also been due to the insomnia I was suffering at the time?)
Then with the rest of the world suffering from the pandemic, it has just not felt right to be posting about our daily carefree adventures. (I have been thinking about putting together a different view of our travels here in order to help others follow in our footsteps of long-term travel in New Zealand.)
We’re currently celebrating Matariki here, which is the Maori New Year, so it seemed a fitting time for an update. We have thoroughly enjoyed the past year of very slow travel. It’s been an amazing opportunity to settle into communities, live like locals, do more learning, writing and volunteering and learn new sports.
Highlights of our last 12 months (July 2020-June 2021):
- “The winterless North” really exists here
- Spending May, June, and July in Whangarei Heads and the Far North was so enjoyable in 2020 that we are back up here now in our favorite spot in Taurikura Bay under the watchful eye of Mt Manaia. White and pink sand beaches stretching further than the eye can see, blue oceans crowned by white surf, the greenest hills you can envision, and quiet villages scattered along the coast – it really is paradise up here, especially while the rest of the country is chilly.
- The Coromandel Peninsula is worthy of the hype
- We thought this would be overbuilt and full of Aucklanders’ baches (and parts of it are – have no fear) but we found so many unspoiled and delightful places that we are headed back soon. Our favorite “town” is Matarangi, at the end of a peninsula about as far north as you can find anywhere to stay. We spent five weeks there last August/September relaxing and day tripping to gorgeous walks in the area. The ultimate jewel of the Coro is the coastal walk right across the top – not to be missed.
- West coast NI towns, the coast of volcanic black sands
- We had fun playing in Raglan for two weeks, surfing, kitesurfing, hiking nearby trails and kayaking in the estuary. It’s definitely a surf town with a vacation vibe.
- And we were very happy to return to Oakura, near New Plymouth, for the fabulous Lemonwood Café, the surf beach, the redwood groves and most of all, Mt Taranaki where we tramped on favorites plus tried new (to us) trails and realized just how long it would take to really see all sides of this perfect mountain.
- But most of all, I surprisingly fell in complete love with Piha! Only 45 minutes from Auckland and with a reputation as a hard core surf town, I thought it wouldn’t be my cup of tea. But in winter, only sunny weekends bring the Auckland crowds and the rest of the time it is a very quiet settlement tucked into a valley, backed by the wild Waitakere Ranges and fronted by gorgeous beaches and cliff walks. The Council is re-opening tracks as quickly as possible after they were closed for years to prevent Kauri dieback. And no surprise, we’re headed back there next month for more immersion in the perfect mix of rainforest and beach town.
- Exploring the empty East Cape
- We took three weeks to drive from Wairoa around the cape to Ohope, stopping for a few days here and there to see this much-touted but rarely visited part of Aotearoa. The rainforests of Te Urewera National Park were incredibly dense, the coastal scenery all around the Cape intense and the feeling of an older New Zealand was very predominant. Not something a short visit can include, but we’re very glad that our extended time afforded us the privilege.
- Tongariro National Park
- I tasted it on my first trip here in 1999, we did a few walks in 2019 and then the famed crossing in March 2020, but we really got to know it with a full week of hiking the tracks in the spring of 2020. We just day walked, but managed to do a great deal of the Round the Mountain track and loved every bit, despite the misty, soggy and chilly weather.
- Always, always Wellington: Our favorite city in the world (so far)
- We can’t get enough of this little capital city even though we’ve now been there 4 times. This year we spent another week in convenient Island Bay and two weeks in wonderful coastal Seatoun kitesurfing and doing endless walks around the city ridgelines and coastlines, plus hitting up the wonderful Te Papa museum and ubiquitous coffee shops.
- We also danced around the Welly region perimeter with two weeks on the Kapiti Coast just north of the city and two weeks in the Wairarapa, which we used as a base to explore the SE part of the NI.
- The quiet nature of the South Island’s SE coast
- Somehow the stretch of coast between Oamaru and Dunedin seems to be illuminated by magical light that makes even the most mundane river walk into a photographer’s paradise. We spent five weeks in the area, with a special love of our time just north of Kakanui and in Moeraki, enjoying great seafood in addition to the landscapes, penguins, seals and shags. And it’s delightfully cool there when the heat of summer gets to be too much for me in the high desert.
- The Stunning Lakes District: Quintessential NZ
- What an unbelievable gift to be able to spend 12 weeks in Queenstown, Wanaka and Tekapo, first during summer and then for autumn. And to do so during a year with very few international tourists. We climbed every mountain, crossed lots of streams, got involved in the community and had our first season of red and golden foliage in two years. And yes, we’re headed back there as well.
So what’s next? With the clues dropped above, you have probably figured it out. We plan to be here for the foreseeable future as COVID keeps surging around the world.
