New Zealand 2019

In March of 2019 we visited New Zealand. The visit actually came about because of a conversation with a friend who lived in Auckland. He and his wife were visiting the US west coast and Canada for a couple of weeks over the New Years holiday in 2017 turning over to 2018; we met for dinner at The Stihl Whiskey Bar (Apparently they have a website issue so that goes to FB page), one night when they were passing through Bend. Conversation turned to traveling and they invited us to come see them; offered up their spare bedroom in their harbor front condo. We discussed best months to visit based on weather and the America’s Cup schedule which led to me and the two fine whiskeys I’d consumed saying “Cool, let’s do it in March of 2019”

Afterwards I realized I’d made quite a significant commitment because airfare to Auckland is a decent chunk of cash. We ended up creating a budget of $7,000 for a 10 day trip because we wanted to spend some time away from Auckland so we needed hotel money and I knew there would be a lot of restaurant meals.

At the time I had about $1,000 tucked into a slush fund account which meant putting away another $6,000 over 14 months. That led to just a little cost-cutting and scrimping but I had a decent job at the time so it wasn’t painful, I just had to be mindful of frivolity. I also knew that if I didn’t hit the savings goal it wasn’t going to be that huge a deal (as long as we got close) because we’d be using a credit card for big expenses and if it took an extra month or so to pay it to zero after we returned it wouldn’t be horrifying. We just didn’t want to ‘deficit finance’ a vacation so the budgeting was set up to allow us to pay off the card when we got home but I wasn’t going to call off the trip based on having $6,000 banked rather than $7,000, ya know?

In the end, airfare was $3,400 for the two of us in sort of ‘economy plus’ seats. Room to stretch out and sleep but still relatively cramped – bearing in mind I’m 6’2” so I need some legroom and it’s a long flight from LAX to AUK. We bought the tickets in November; I had stashed away just over $5,000 at that point and buying the tickets was the final commitment to making the trip

I had been to Auckland on business a few years prior so I had some sense of what the city was like as well as a desire to visit the War Museum; I’d seen it from the grounds and it looked fascinating. Of course, as a Lord of the RIngs fan I knew we were going to visit Hobbitton and see the Shire

Auckland is HUGE. I mean, I’m not a big city guy anyway but it could take all day or more to just explore a singular neighborhood. We were staying right at the harbor so Skycity was a short – totally uphill – walk and there were Soooo many cool little restaurants within easy walking distance we didn’t stray too far. Our big adventure was to the Auckland War Memorial Museum which is a great museum. Easy half day to explore it all; we actually did half then had a lunch in the lobby cafe then finished up. That day turned into more of an adventure than we initially expected, we went downstairs in the morning to get a taxi because the museum is far from where we were staying (well, okay, it’s like 2 miles but a lot of elevation gain). While wandering around the parking lot we met a guy (Tony) who had a V8 powered trike and it turns out that he did Auckland tours. We didn’t want one of the standard tours – because I really wanted to see the museum – but after negotiation and conversation of about 15 minutes he said “Tell you what; $60 and I’ll take you over the harbor bridge so you can see that view and then run you over to the museum and drop you there” Done. 

It was more expensive but for sure better a better experience than a taxi. 

After we finished the museum tour we walked back down Parnell Road because we’d seen a bunch of artsy-fartsy looking shops on the way in. The plan was to check out the shops and grab a  taxi but then we decide to go another few blocks to see what’s there and then another few and then we wound up in a grocery store buying some lamb chops and fixin’s for dinner and it was only another ½ mile to the waterfront so we finished on foot…..and tired…..

Leonie was gracious enough to allow us to borrow her car for a couple days jaunt up to the north end of the island. The weather wasn’t awesome but we were able to get on the beaches on both sides – Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean which was kind of cool.

We stayed at a cute B&B in Warkworth and the next day had our ‘small world moment’ at the Sculptureum near Matakana. Very cool place, by the way, if you ever find yourself in Auckland it’s well worth a day trip to visit. When we first went in there were a couple ladies chatting with the hostess/receptionist and the subject of where they were visiting from came up. Oregon. We had to jump in; seriously? What part of Oregon? Turns out that one of them used to live in central Oregon near where we were visiting from. Crazy.

After we returned to Auckland the four of us went down to Rotarua, which is the jumping off point to tour the Shire.  I’d made a deal with my friend David that if he drove us all down to Rotarua, I’d pay for their tour tickets. This is a pretty cool town, good for wandering. We didn’t take advantage of the mineral mud baths but we did have a very nice soak in the hot springs pool at the hotel. 

As a long-time Tolkein fan (I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy back in the 1970’s and have the ‘Extended Directors Cut Blu-Ray’ editions of all the movies, which I’ve watched multiple times) that was SUPER cool to see. My travel companions weren’t AS excited but since David and Leoni live in New Zealand I think they were mostly curious about this major tourist attraction a few hours from home and my wife didn’t not enjoy the movies….. LOL.

We also took advantage of the proximity to visit the Maori village at Whakarewarewa which was an interesting experience. I had virtually no knowledge of Maori history and customs aside from some bits we’d seen at the War Memorial Museum.

We also visited the glowworm caves at Waitamo and were kind of underwhelmed. I mean, it’s a cool tour but I didn’t feel like it was great value, ya know? It was $60 a person for 45 minutes of standing around waiting and then a 45-ish minute boat tour of the caves; David and Leonie passed because they had done it before and it really is a one and done experience

After another couple days in Auckland we jumped a flight to the southern end of the island

Wellington is a super cool town and very walkable as well. We visited Stone Street Studios/WETA Workshop (Peter Jackson studio for the casual observer) on a guided tour (bus from downtown – what they call the ‘guided transfer’ option)  That wasn’t planned in advance, I saw an ad for a tour and even though it seemed kind of pricey at the time (NZ$89 per person for a half day)  I knew I’d regret NOT doing it and it would be WAY more expensive to come back and do it later. I totally dug it and Sandra, who is a casual LotR fan at best, said that it was actually really cool and she was glad we did it. 

Seeing behind the scenes into the prop-making world was fun and we also got to sit on the ‘bridge’ set from The New Thunderbirds

The funicular was a fun excursion as well; the botanical gardens are quite impressive and make a good half-day experience

Lots of cool exhibits at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

We had a pretty good meal at the butt of the world (el Culo del Mundo according to the sign)

which was just a few blocks from our hotel before heading back to reality. And Oregon.