It's been a while, but finally here's what we did during our summer family holiday travels. Similar to last year, the focus was initially on the girls' athletics competition (this year in Wellington) before then exploring the local area.
5 January
We took it slow driving from Auckland to Wellington, with an overnight stop halfway🚗. As usual when driving south, we stopped off in Huntly for a property inspection of our investment property there.
(The Huntly Power Station across the Waikato River. Not our investment property.)
We discovered a secondhand book fair in progress on the main street of Tirau, one of the small towns on the road south. We had to stop and browse. Nothing jumped out at us in the pay section, but Mulan picked up a couple of books in the free box, which she finished in a day or so📚.
At Waiouru we stopped to stretch our legs outside the National Army Museum🚛.
Our overnight bnb stop at an old farmhouse in Rangiwahia produced mixed feelings. On arrival, Miya was not impressed by the dozens of flies that had discovered the open windows, and she worked hard to evict/eliminate them all. On the other hand, apparently its rustically inspirational feel means it's also sometimes used as an artists' retreat.
6 January
An easy few hours of driving and then we were in Wellington, where we stayed for six nights. Our flat was up a hill in Karori. Everything in Wellington is up a hill.
7-9 January
For the next three days we were busy with the girls' athletics competition. I wrote about it here.
10 January
Then it was onto the sightseeing part of our holiday.
First up, we occupied Parliament grounds with some freedoms-lovin' disruptions. Mama is such a rebel with her other hand up.
We ate our lunch and enjoyed the playground.
It was a really weird feeling, just a few weeks later, to see the anti-Covid-mandate protestors occupying and damaging this same area we'd so recently enjoyed. And it was sad to see the barbaric vandals set fire to the playground, then cheer about it. For too many people at the protest it was not about the issues; those who trashed the area and abused others clearly weren't interested in genuine freedoms. (And those who were peacefully well-intentioned in their beliefs got their thinking wrong.)
Next, we walked to the old Wellington Cable Car, and took a pleasant (overpriced) ride up to the Botanic Garden, where we had a view over the city.
While walking through the garden, Henry Moore's opinion on art got more minutes of attention from me than his art itself.
His writing is as unclear as his sculpture, but he seems to be suggesting that for all art it's better to be intentionally unclear, to make the viewer have to work harder to try to understand the artist's meaning. Artists shouldn't give away any hints in the title of what they're trying to show in their artwork. This forces the viewer to stay longer in front of the artwork, and forces the viewer to struggle with trying to figure out the artist's meaning for longer.
Personally, I'd rather he at least gave a bit of a hint of what he was on about with his abstract shapes. Entice me with a bit of context so I bother to stay to look at his Bronze Form.
We then drove to Mt Victoria to get a different view of the city from above,
before taking a scenic tour of Island Bay and the coast.
11 January
This was our museum day. It was also a public transport day, as we decided to leave the car at the flat and try out the local (overpriced) buses.
Alighting at Parliament grounds (again) we walked to Katherine Mansfield's house.
Mansfield is amongst my all-time favourite authors. I read many of her stories several years ago while living in China, and we especially enjoyed Prelude during our move to New Zealand. It was fascinating to wander around where she was born and get a glimpse into her life and times.
We then walked to Te Papa, where we spent most of the rest of the day. As much as I'd like to like Te Papa, I didn't find it to be an especially comfortable or relaxing place. My personal feeling (at least on this, my second, visit) was that the designers tried to be a bit too clever with their style, and that created the wrong atmosphere and frame of mind to appreciate the works.
We visited the World War 1 Gallipoli exhibit, and while it was technically impressive, I wondered whether it was more war-porn than worthy. Yes, we should remember our history, and yes, we should understand the horrors of war to the point where it is only ever a genuinely last-resort action. But there is a fine line between understanding and gratuitous detail. Walking through the exhibit I wondered if Te Papa had crossed that line and got too caught up in the graphic details.
I still think, in any discussion of World War 1, more emphasis should be placed on telling the stories of the true heroes, the conscientious objectors who were abused and tortured by their own governments for refusing to participate in killing other people for no good reason. (I wrote about this on Anzac Day a few years ago.)
12 January
It was time to move on, and after a final morning sightseeing at Wrights Hill Fortress,
we headed off to Napier where we stayed for two nights.
13 January
The main reason for stopping at Napier was to see the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers. But this did mean a painfully early start to catch the low tide for the beach walk to the colony.
The tide of the day meant we were advised to start the walk by 6:39am, which we almost managed to do (after a 40 minute drive from our accommodation). This gave us a window in the tides to do what the guidebooks told us was a five-hour there-and-back walk.
Our plan was that we'd walk continuously there at a relaxed but decent pace, and on the way back we'd go a bit slower and stop occasionally to take photos with the better lighting.
It didn't go to plan. Here we are at 7am, soon after starting out:
The walk was pleasant, and the cliffs were awe-inspiring (a bit like our home beaches on Auckland's North Shore, only way huger!).
The advice is to walk along the water's edge, as far from the cliffs as possible, and don't stop. Rarely, but occasionally, a chunk of cliff crashes down onto the beach. It's mostly safe, though as I write this the walk is closed because about a month ago there was a "large rockfall event". In 2019 two tourists were seriously injured.
After two hours walking we arrived at the smaller of the two main gannet colonies, Black Reef:
Soon after the colony we came to a section of the beach where we had to take off our boots and roll up our pants to wade around three sections of rock, even at low tide.
For those who prefer not to walk five-ish hours, there's another way to get to the birds -- by guided tour vehicle. On the return journey we followed a group around the wet sections.
Finally, about two and a half hours after we started, we got to the end of the beach walk. But that wasn't the main bird colony. From the Department of Conservation rest area it was still another 30ish minutes up the hill to the lookout.
This is where we had a small disagreement. Should we push hard and risk it, to see what we had walked all the way to see? Or should we play it safe and turn around without seeing the main gannet colony. Mama reluctantly followed my opinion, and we paused for a quick bite to eat before heading back the way we'd come.
Despite it still being 30 minutes before the advised last departure time (10:39am), we didn't want to risk anything as we'd already walked slower than expected going out (and we didn't know the beach/tides). So, it was a fast return walk with few stops for photos.
But we still got a few more photos of the small-colony gannets:
In the end, the return (fast) walk took around two hours from the DOC rest area, and we returned to the start around midday, about five hours after setting out. The hardest bit was the wading sections, which were slightly deeper on the return because of the incoming tide. I wouldn't have wanted to go through that much later, but once past it we probably didn't need to walk as fast as we did.
Next time, we know to start slightly earlier and walk fast on the outward journey. Mama said next time she'll go by guided tour vehicle.
14 January
We spent the morning checking out the town centre of Napier, before heading off to our final stop, Waimangu. We'd booked our final two nights at a farmhouse bnb not far from Rotorua,
where we could visit some of the thermal areas.
In the evening, we took a local walk to the Rainbow Mountain (Maunga Kakaramea) crater lake.
15 January
For our final big activity we booked in at Waimangu Volcanic Valley.
We enjoyed a very pleasant walk through the thermal park, followed by a boat ride on Lake Rotomahana, the location of the Pink and White Terraces.
We took far too many photos of steaming lakes,
boiling pools,
spurting geysers,
and various other geothermal scenes:
That evening, Mama and I abandoned the girls at the farmhouse while we went for a walk together to the Rainbow Mountain summit.
16 January
Then it was time to drive home, where the girls were immediately onto their next activity, music band camp.
