Days 6 to 9 - Its NOT grim up North

We commenced our first full day on Waiheke with our lovely continental breakfast in the company of our host overlooking Rocky Bay. Ideal preparation for the task of revving the Sunny up the steep narrow driveway! Waiheke is very hilly and so many junctions require a lot of gas. Although on our approach to Garden Party Pottery, one particularly strong rev of the engine produced a rather disconcerting burning smell! We acquired some delightful souvenirs, which we hope will survive the remainder of our travels.

An example of the wares at the Garden Party Pottery

Our next stop was a winery called “Wild on Waiheke”. On this occasion we were more interested in sampling some real ale, cider and ginger beer that they also produce on site – we were suitably impressed to make a purchase for consumption later in our trip.  

Then came our first experience of unmade roads as we sought out the Stony Batter Reserve on the more isolated eastern side of the island. The rear of the Sunny and its tyres became coated in red dust as we bumped along! Stony Batter is home to three WWII gun emplacements, which were never fired in anger. The guns have gone, but the tunnels and some of the other equipment remains and so we were able to explore both the eerie underground, courtesy of flashlight, and steep overground to enjoy more scenic coastal views. Sarah wasn’t too keen on the former and was glad to get back out into the daylight after stumbling around in the all-encompassing darkness.

Demonstrating the small World that we live in, the lady at the ‘checkpoint’ had a family connection with North Leigh in Oxfordshire. There were sheep roaming around, usually keeping their distance, however, an unexpected pleasure for Sarah was the opportunity to feed a young lamb that had been orphaned and taken in by the family – the quickest we had ever seen a bottle of milk emptied!

Some more dirt track took us to the Man O’ War winery in a lovely discreet setting overlooking a small bay. This time Sarah sampled a rose wine, whereas Paul opted for more of that ginger beer! Another local connection emerged with the barmaid being familiar with the Hook Norton Brewery in North Oxfordshire. 

We backtracked to reconnect with civilisation and a stroll along Onetangi beach after some warming refreshment in the form of scones and hot chocolate.

In the evening we travelled to the far west of the island to the Mudbrick winery. Their restaurant is the biggest crowd-puller on the island, with an estimated 25,000 visitors a year. We chose the taster menu, which meant having to munch our way through no fewer than seven courses! Our previous experiences of posh food is that whilst well-presented there is not enough of it, however, this is not a criticism that could be leveled here – by the end we were both extremely bloated! Our highlight was the sweet passionfruit soup that formed course 6.

Te Matukuk Bay Oysters

Atlantic King Scallops, Katafi Prawns

Refresher

Alpine Merino Lamp Rump, Peanuts, Golden Kumara, Grape & Shallot Vinaigrette

Chilled Passionfruit soup

'Black Forest' dessert - Cherries, Valrhona Chocolate, Eau d'vie

We were fortunate to enjoy a relaxed start to Wednesday, smoking hairdryer excepted! After another tasty breakfast, this time outside, we made our way down to the rocky shore next to beach hut to take in some sea air. There was also time for a final dip in the spa, before sadly we had to leave our island paradise to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

The hustle and bustle of Auckland suburbia gradually dissolved into scarcely populated countryside as we progressed along one of the few state motorways. After a flat plain and a dead straight road, we encountered the imposing landscape of the Coromandel range of hills. This ‘direct’ route to Cook’s Beach was transformed into a seemingly never-ending series of hairpin bends, with some delightful scenery that alas only the non-driver was able to enjoy. It appears that the NZ approach to preventing vehicles from disappearing down sheer drops is to display an intermittent bollard or two. This also seems to act as a green light for some inexcusably reckless driving from roger, thus resulting in the appointed cameraperson for this stage of our trip clinging on for dear life instead of taking any photographs!

We arrived at our next destination, Mussel Bed B&B, in the early evening. There were three surprises in store for us. A pleasant bottle of champagne from our host and a less pleasant experience of a bird flying into our apartment and finally a warning of what to do in the (unlikely) event of a tsunami alarm being sounded! 

With stomachs rumbling, there was no time to dwell on this and we headed to the highly recommended Eggsentric café/restaurant, mercifully less than 5 minutes’ drive.  The food was again of very high quality and with a normal number of courses we avoided any repeat bloatedness. We both chose the ‘Ocean Lovers’ dish for our main – snapper with scallops, prawns and calamari served with a green Thai curry broth on a lemon risotto cake and accompanied with a fresh garden salad – yummy! A ‘doppelganger’ moment ensued when another tourist appeared wearing exactly the same fleece as Paul!

The next morning we ventured down the road for a walk around the Shakespeare Cliff reserve. We did the loop route, taking in Flaxmill Bay, Lonely Bay and finally heading back to the B&B via Cooks Beach. A vantage point at the top of the cliff provided an excellent panorama of the headland and Lonely Bay in particular was extremely picturesque – although we are discovering that is not uncommon in these parts! We ventured down to Lonely Bay for a brief paddle and to watch the gannets ‘dive bombing’ for fish in the ocean. On the home straight back in Cook’s Beach we discovered a couple of walkways, which doubled up as “Tsunami escape routes” to the higher ground to the West!

Flaxmill Bay

Shakespeares Cliff

Looking down onto Lonely Bay and Cooks Beach

Pathway to Lonely Bay

Cooks Stream

However, our afternoon excursion was to be back down at sea level in the form of Sea Kayaking at Hahei, a few kilometres along the coast. This would be our first guided tour and it was one that we found really rewarding. After a brief introduction and hearing aid safely stowed away in the dry bag, we were off on a loop of the bay through Te Whanganui a Hei marine reserve, avoiding the rocky outcrops along the way. Cliffs weathered by waves and salt crystals loomed overhead. The kayaks proved very stable even with the waves crashing over us, although there were some navigational difficulties leading to a close encounter with the rock face when emerging from one particular sea cave!  The navigator claims he couldn’t see where he was going due to continually being splashed in the face – hmmm! Some more sterling paddling later, we stopped halfway through for a reviving hot chocolate at Cathedral Cove, one of NZ’s most photographed landmarks and so-called because of the huge naturally formed archway that links the two beaches. Duly refreshed and with the camera battery on its last legs, we headed back into the reserve to paddle homeward to Hahei against the wind.

Cathedral Cove

Our trusty vessels!

The afternoon’s exertions had worked up quite an appetite. What better way to satisfy this than with fish ‘n’ chips, which we enjoyed in the early evening sunshine sat on a log on an almost deserted Cook’s Beach, save for a pair of Dottrels and a lone Oystercatcher. Our fish of choice was a Hoki, similar in taste and texture to Cod. 

In spite of the approaching dusk, we then travelled to a more heavily populated beach – the famous Hot Water Beach. By the time we arrived, excavations had commenced to form man-made sand-pools to capture the hot water emerging from the springs at low tide. It seems that the knack is to also supply the pool with some cold sea water otherwise you get scalded!

Paul hard at work!

For Friday, rather than drive straight to our next destination, Rotorua, we decided to take the scenic route out of the Coromandel peninsula along the Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped briefly at Whitianga to refuel both the car (about £1/litre over here) and ourselves and then headed in search of New Chums Beach, pausing at other isolated bays along the way.

Whangapoua beach - New Chums is over the hill but we were running out of time!

After an encounter with a logging lorry on another of those very twisty roads, we arrived at Coromandel Town on the Western side of the peninsula. This gave us the chance to stretch our legs, buy some souvenirs and eat a pie under the envious gaze of a black-backed gull!

Following the logging lorry

Sarah's nickname is La La, so a picture was necessary!

We detoured along the unmade 309 road in search of a Kauri (one of NZ's native trees) plantation, which we later discovered we missed by 0.7 of a kilometre - however, instead we discovered the beautiful Waiau Falls. 

Back on the main highway, we found that the western stretch genuinely hugged the coastline, affording us views back across the Hauraki Gulf with the silhouette of Waiheke in the distance. 

The route then turned inland and generally straighter, at which point we realised we had to get a move on in order to make it to Rotorua before dark. Barrelling down State Highway 5 on our approach in, there was a strange smell in the car - but for once it wasn’t anything to do with Paul! 

Days 1 to 5 - And they're off!

It’s 5.45am in the morning as I sit here in bed in our little cabin on Waiheke trying to remember the whirlwind last few days. In front of me I can see the sun rising over the Hauraki Gulf, which is proving very distracting!

Our trip got off to a lovely start before we even left.  Lucky girl that I am, my folks and my sister had arranged a surprise pre-honeymoon pampering session with my make-up artist from the wedding (Claire) - so I spent my last evening at home for a whole month having my nails done etc and generally chilling out and catching up with Claire! It was a fantastic treat, so thank you very much to Dad, Jenny and Kim for organising that.

Kim also organised some fab special honeymoon t-shirts which we wore to the airport the following evening:

Sadly we didn’t manage to wrangle any upgrades with these, though they did generate a few comments from our fellow passengers!

We flew to Singapore with Singapore Airlines on the airbus A380, which is a huge double decker monster of a plane. You wouldn’t believe it actually manages to fly, let alone take off as gracefully as it did. The landing was rather bumpier though! I have just asked husband what he liked best about the flight and apparently it’s the fact it didn’t crash!! I on the other hand was impressed by the English subtitles on the movies and they mix up a mean Singapore sling on board too.

We landed in Singapore a little late, as we didn’t take off until nearly an hour after we were supposed to. In the short distance between leaving the air conditioned arrivals hall and walking over to the air conditioned taxi, you could feel how humid it was and the temperature hovered around 30 degrees celsius the entire time we were there – whether it was first thing in the morning or late at night, pouring with rain or the sun shining. Hence the need for all that air conditioning!

At our hotel, the Mandarin Oriental, we got given a room high up on the 18^th floor with fantastic views of the Marina Bay area:

The room itself wasn’t too shabby either!

They provided pretty much everything imaginable, complimentary fruit and bottles of water, Elemis toiletries and all the usual stuff such as shower caps and shoe horns etc. We were tickled by a box labelled ‘Hairbrush’ which we opened to find a razor and shaving cream inside – well I suppose that’s one way of negating the need to brush your hair!!

We got off to a Flyer – the Singapore Flyer to be exact. Similar to the London Eye, we could see it rotating away from our hotel window, so we decided to head over there for an impressive panorama of Singapore by night.

Top to bottom: The Singapore Flyer, Gardens by the Bay,
Marina Bay Sands, us on the Flyer, the Helix Bridge.

After this, it was fast approaching midnight local time so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel where we slept in the blissfully comfy HUGE bed until a tardy 11am the next morning (that would be the lack of sleep from the flight over then…)

Next day dawned cloudy and damp but once the rain had stopped we wandered over to Raffles and had some brunch at Ah Teng’s bakery before heading upstairs to the Long Bar for our Slings! 

The Long Bar was lovely, a little slice of colonialism with the sleek dark wood bar, wicker chairs and banana leaf (?) fans on the ceiling. It was a bit smaller and darker than I expected and busy even mid-afternoon but a pleasant atmosphere inside and true to form, groundnut shells crunching underfoot where you walked!  We sat at the bar and ordered traditional Slings which were nice, if a little weaker than the ones we had on the plane. Several handfuls of nuts later, we ventured back outside into the humidity to explore the Raffles courtyard and arcades and take some pictures of the skyscrapers about that dwarf this old hotel.

From Raffles we caught a taxi over to the Botanic Gardens and enjoyed a stroll past Swan Lake where we saw terrapins, catfish and koi – people were feeding these like we do the ducks in the park back home! 

We paid a small fee to enter the National Orchard garden which was well worth it, and we enjoyed discovering the many hundreds of orchid varieties there are. My favourite was the small yellow ‘Golden Shower’ which can be seen decorating the archways here:

The gardens are thoughtfully and imaginatively designed and we could have spent a lot longer there but unfortunately a wet weather attraction they are not and with the onset of yet another rain shower (this was monsoon season after all) we decided to cut our losses and head onwards to the Night Safari, our planned excursion for the evening.

Once at the Night Safari we got some respite from the rain whilst we ate (Bongo Burgers – you can take the boy out of Abingdon but….). It was still raining when we started the walking trails but due to the dense vegetation above and the many shelters along the way it wasn’t too bad. We walked all 4 of the trails and were pleasantly surprised by how many of the animals we were able to spot – fishing cats, pangolins, crocodiles, hyenas, bongos to name but a few. There were a couple of walk throughs which we did: the first being a Mangrove swamp full of bats including the largest in the world, the Malaysian Flying Fox. Our nephew Thomas would have loved it but Auntie Sarah wasn’t so keen! I much preferred the Wallabys!

We then caught a tram, which follows a different route and allows you to see some of the larger animals – elephants, hippos, rhinos etc. By 9.30pm we were straight on the tram. When the park opened two hours previously, so many people wasted time queuing for the tram, so our plan to complete the trail first had paid off.  An added bonus was that whenever the tram picked up a bit of speed, the breeze sweeping the humidity away was most welcoming.

When we returned from the Night Safari we were very excited to find wine and chocolates in the room, plus rose petals in the bath! It was rude not to polish off the food and drink, so we ended up going to bed in the wee hours, which maybe was not the best preparation for being up bright and early for our flight to Auckland the next morning. Finally, the sun decided to grace us with its presence and we observed a spectacular sunrise over the bay before heading to the airport.

Sunday was spent on the second stage of our plane journey, arriving in Auckland shortly before midnight. The transfer to our hotel a couple of miles away was easy to arrange – one free call and a shuttle bus collected us from arrivals. Unlike our previous destination, a fleece jumper was needed upon stepping outside!

Next morning, after a continental breakfast, another shuttle bus whisked us off to the nearby car hire premises. A Sunny saloon is to be our steed for the duration of our stay. However, we’re still at the getting to know each other stage – we've still not found rear windscreen wiper function yet! (EDIT: We have since discovered this is because there is no rear windscreen wiper!!) After a bit of a struggle with the gears, we successfully ploughed our way through the city suburbs to Half Moon Bay, where we were due to catch a ferry over to the island of Waiheke. Being in a different hemisphere takes a little getting used to and unusually for us, we arrived early, so actually had time to check-in, grab a bite to eat and configure our NZ sim card!

Looking back towards Auckland on the ferry over to Waiheke.

The ferry trip was bracing, but quick. Waiheke is a small island, so it didn’t take long to navigate round a couple of bays to find our accommodation – early again! The Heartsong Retreat is a relaxing environment, and you feel chilled as soon as you arrive here. We are staying in a lovely little cabin, which originally began life as a garage to the main house. We explored the grounds and wandered down to check out a boatshed where the property meets the sea at the base of the sloping site.

As it was still only mid-afternoon, we went off on a walk, which took us through the nearby Glenbrook Reserve. This was harder going than expected, with the path not being particularly apparent in some places. Our efforts were made worthwhile, when we emerged into a meadow area at the crest of a hill and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the bay. Following some more blundering about amongst the trees, we completed the second part of the circular route on tarmac. 

There was time for a quick dip in the spa pool – gloriously heated to 39 degrees and where we met other guests in the form of a Scottish/Kiwi couple who come to NZ every year. Sarah is now getting carried away making plans to do the same thing! This was followed was a wonderfully relaxing massage, which we had pre-booked through the proprietors.

Understandably, we were now both exhausted so rather than venture out in the Sunny, we opted for a pizza delivery for tea, which was scrumptious and nicely complimented by an excellent bottle of white from Marlborough. The day ended with us observing the fireworks, albeit at some distance, over the bay in Auckland.