New Zealand Archives - Anna S. E. Lundberg

Windy and Wonderful Wellington: The end of my northern kiwi experience

12 December, 2014 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

We had originally intended to do our road trip from Auckland at the northern end of the North Island down to Wellington at the southern end. We found, however, that it was more expensive to leave the car in a different destination than it was to fly there and, on top, the main attractions we wanted to see were clustered up in Waikato around Auckland. And so it was that we left our lovely little BMW Z4 in Auckland and took an Air New Zealand flight down to Wellington. (The best part? Watching the security briefing. Oh, and having a can of L&P.)

Although smaller than Auckland, Wellington is, in fact, the capital city (and, as I see now on Wikipedia, it’s the world’s southernmost capital city at that). It’s the country’s political centre, housing Parliament and the various government departments, as well as being a centre for art and theatre including, of course, being home to Weta and ‘Wellywood’ over in one of its suburbs, Miramar.

With only a day or two in Wellington, and with my friend Annie back at work, I was left to explore the city, spending much of that time on the Lord of the Rings trail. I did venture off that quest, though, to visit the national museum, Te Papa. (I see now on the museum’s website that if I had arrived a little later I could have continued to explore Middle Earth with an encounter with Azog the Defiler, who’ll be resident at Te Papa until March next year.) Here, I learned more about the geology and logistics of New Zealand’s volcanoes and earthquakes in ‘Awesome Forces’ (failing badly at the computer game where you had to secure different parts of the house in the event of an emergency). I found the ‘Blood Earth Fire’ exhibition particularly enlightening, with insights on the changes that have been brought to bear on the country including the introduction of different species as well as deforestation and the transfer of land ownership away from the Maori population.

I’ve been told, to my surprise, that Kiwis will claim fush and chups as their own. So I found myself having travelled across the world to sample this local delicacy – having never, I don’t think, eaten fish and chips in England. Shame on me. The popular Mt Vic Chippery now offers an online ordering system (though the times given on the site for pick-up were disregarded since they were “so busy mate”), with a bewildering array of different types of fish, and chips, to choose from.

What Wellington is most known for, perhaps, is its weather. As a result of its exposed location, Windy Wellington is a windier city than the Windy City itself, Chicago, according to my internet sources, and as my friends explained to me that wind means that the weather can change very quickly. I experienced this directly with a first day of cold and rain followed by a stormy night and a second day of blue skies and glorious sunshine. Perfect, then, for an itinerary of museums on one day and harbour walks and ice cream on the next.

Mount Victoria Lookout from below — Looking up at the Mount Victoria Lookout – it was pretty hard work to get up there! The eye, by the way, is not the eye of Sauron but that of a dinosaur – a temporary exhibition at Te Papa Museum.

Wellington from Mount Victoria — At the lookout at the top of Mount Victoria, you’re rewarded with a fabulous view of the whole city.

At the Mount Victoria Lookout — Windy Wellington is right! I almost got blown away…

View from Mount Victoria Lookout — Looking out across Wellington Harbour, from where the ferry leaves to go to the south island.

The perfect spot along the Oriental Parade to stop for a Magnum Marc de Champagne.

All in all, a worthy end to our New Zealand adventure, which I now left behind as I continued on alone to one of my favourite cities in the world: Sydney.

Road Trip in New Zealand: Waitomo Glowworm Caves – and back to Auckland

9 December, 2014 By Anna S E Lundberg 1 Comment

Waitomo entrance — Waitomo means something to the effect of “the entry of water into the cave”, and it was here that the first explorers entered the beautiful home of the glowworms.

Visiting the glowworm caves in Waitomo: another item on my bucket list, albeit a late entry.

The glowworm caves were first explored in 1887 by local Maori Chief Tane Tinorau accompanied by an English surveyor; our guide on the day happened to be that Chief’s great grandson.

Waitomo Caves — The caves are much better developed than I had imagined, with concrete steps and metal railings – a blessing, given my claustrophobia!

He first took us through the upper level of the caves, where he told us about the history and geology of the area. In The Cathedral, the largest cavern and known for its great acoustics, we were treated to a Maori song, accompanied by a traditional flute, the kōauau. Both concerts and weddings are held here. As we returned through the space, the strains of the Indian national anthem came floating towards us courtesy of the group that followed us.

The stalactites are eventually going to touch the ground while the stalagmites are reaching ever upwards (- one of the few things I remember from geography (?) at school!). Our guide pointed out the face of a dog, the profile of an elephant, a young family, and even Casper the friendly ghost. Well, you find whatever patterns you want to…

Glowworm threads — These sticky threads are put down by the worms to catch their food. The brighter the glow emitted from the end of the worm, the more hungry it is!

It’s hard to believe that the beautiful glow that we see in the caves is the result of a creepy crawly. The glowworms are worms – duh! Their lifecycle: from egg (3 weeks) to glowworm (3 months) to pupa (2 weeks) to adult fly (just 3 days! As an adult, it has no digestive system and so must survive on the energy ingested as a worm.).

Waitomo glowworm caves — The experience was – and I’m sorry but there is no better word for it – MAGICAL. Some glowed more strongly than others, appearing like constellations in the night sky.

The last part of the tour, the part we’d all been waiting for, involved getting onto a Willy Wonka boat which our guide steered around and through the glowworm grotto. We were asked to keep quiet, as the glowworms are best enjoyed in silence; the baby on board did not get the memo, however.

There are actually three sets of caves that you can visit, not just the glowworm caves, and you can also be much more active than we were with real caving, black water rafting or tubing.

After the spectacle of the glowworm caves, we passed through the town of Te Awamutu, ‘known’ (?!) for having spawned the Finn brothers of Crowded House ‘fame’ (apologies but I’ve not heard of them…).

Rose Garden, Te Awamutu — One attraction in Te Awamutu I did enjoy was the Rose Garden, where the roses had names like Big Purple, Ingrid Bergman, and Disco Dancer.

The drive back to Cambridge, where we were staying, was glorious. I realise now, however, that I didn’t take any photos. What?! Well, Annie did do quite some filming with my GoPro (we’ll see what’s come out of all the filming I’ve done on this trip when I get home); and we also parked at one point in order to pose for a Thelma and Louise photo opp. (We’ve since discovered that our photo looks nothing like the original, but it does look like our OWN original, which we took at university many moons ago..)

Thelma & Louise — Then and now: 2002-2014

The final day of our road trip saw us driving along a pretty boring road back up to Auckland. We did what we could to make it more interesting, though, squeezing in a few more attractions…

Another garden, and a fabulous one at that: Hamilton Gardens. A huge space, of which we only explored a small part. Here, it’s all about the design of the gardens, with the Paradise Garden Collection, for example, housing a Chinese Scholars Garden, a Japanese Garden of Contemplation, and an Italian Renaissance Garden, among others.

Italian Renaissance Garden — If the sun had been out, I would have felt completely transported to Lake Como. A great place for a wedding…!

Alice in Wonderland statue — The gardens had an Alice in Wonderland feel to them – and, indeed, whom should we come across…

Riff Raff statue, Hamilton — No, I didn’t have to pee. I’m putting my hands on my hips and bringing my knees in tight, obviously. On the plaque is written: “It’s astounding! Where we stand is the birthplace of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. On this site stood The Embassy Theatre, the home of Hamilton’s ‘Late Night Double Feature Picture Show’ and the barber shop where Richard O’Brien cut hair and daydreamed from 1959 to 1964.” Hamilton itself is not a place where we’d like to have spent more time…

Final stop: Raglan. “New Zealand’s best-looking town’ according to LP, in the sense of the fitties who are said to be wandering the streets. We didn’t see any but we did have a nice bagel for lunch.

Alas, then it was time to return our baby (the BMW Z4) to its owner and we were once again without wheels. Next, we took to the skies…

The practical bit:

From Hobbiton we continued on to the Cambridge Coach House, where we stayed two nights in order to explore Waitomo and the surrounding area. We had a lovely little villa with gorgeous views of the countryside. It’s a little outside of town, though, so you do need a car (but, then, you probably couldn’t get here unless you had a car!). We received, and followed, two dinner recommendations: pizza at Onyx followed by fish at The Nash at the National Hotel, the latter with a menu from a former NZ Masterchef contestant.

Waitomo: The highlight of all the caves is the Glowworm Caves; tours depart daily every half an hour – adult price $49. We had lunch at Huhu Café across the road, which had a lovely terrace and view.

*NOTE: You can’t take pictures inside the caves, and that includes photos without flash or video. The pictures in this blog post taken inside the caves came from the CD that I bought in the shop after the tour – I was assured that this gave me full rights to use the pictures however I wanted.*

Hamilton Gardens: Open every day of the year, with free entry; less than an hour from Hobbiton, just outside the town of Hamilton.

Visiting the Hobbiton Film Set and Weta Workshop: A not-so-unexpected journey into Middle Earth

2 December, 2014 By Anna S E Lundberg 1 Comment

The Hobbit was one of my favourite children’s books, The Lord of the Rings when I was a little older. My mum and I were obsessed with the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the trilogy, a 13-hour dramatisation from 1981, on cassette tapes and then CDs. It had John Le Mesurier as Bilbo and Ian Holm (who would later play Bilbo in Peter Jackson’s films) as Frodo; oh and, as I’ve just discovered, Bill Nighy as Sam Gamgee! Then the three films came out while I was at university, giving me something to look forward to each of the three years of my studies. I always love finding out about all the behind-the-scenes secrets and I immersed myself in the extra films and interviews. I watched the extended versions with audio commentary by the actors (with anecdotes from the likes of Orlando, Elijah and Billy Boyd) more times than I can remember. All this to say that of course one of the main reasons I came back to New Zealand was to visit the Shire in Middle Earth.

The location that Peter Jackson and his scouting crew selected for the land of the hobbits was the Alexander Farm near Matamata on the North Island, still a working sheep farm today. The national army worked hard to adapt the site to match Tolkien’s description, turning a swamp into a grassy field to house Bilbo’s 111^th birthday and transplanting the party tree itself into the right place. Animals were brought in, apple and pear trees turned into plum trees, and an artificial oak tree built atop what would become Bag End. As news of the location spread once the films came out, the Alexander family discovered that people were drawn to the home of Bilbo and Frodo, and they have gradually gone from taking three or four people on the back of a truck to the more official operation that is in place today.

Welcome to Hobbiton sign — The Hobbiton tour is two hours long, including a short bus ride down to the set, where a guide took us round Hobbiton. In our case, the guide was Curt with a C, freshly arrived from the UK to spend the best six months of his life in Middle Earth.

Gandalf's Cutting — We entered Hobbiton at Gandalf’s Cutting, where Frodo jumps onto Gandalf’s cart as he arrives for Bilbo’s party. Forced perspective was used to make Elijah Wood appear smaller, along with body doubles for the close-ups.

Hobbit hole — The hobbit holes were built in various scales – three-quarter size, for example – to allow Gandalf to appear tall against the smaller-sized doors and the hobbits much shorter against larger parts of the set.

Sam's house — Of course, the ‘holes’ themselves do not exist: that is, the doors open about a foot or two so that the actors could get inside, but otherwise the scenes inside Bag End were filmed in a studio. The chimneys and windows are positioned around the area to give the impression of depth to the hobbits’ homes. (This one is Sam’s home, which you see briefly as he tends to his plant at the beginning of the first film.)

The highlight, of course, was seeing Bag End, where Bilbo and Frodo lived.

The Green Dragon Inn, viewed across the lake from the party field.

'Green Dragron' and 'Hobbiton' sign — “Gandalf, which way to Mordor?”

The Old Mill was demolished by Saruman in the books but luckily for us it was not so in the films, and so there it was.

Beer at the Green Dragon — At the end of the tour, you get a complimentary beer at The Green Dragon (“It comes in pints? I’m getting one!”) where they also serve food; and you can dress up as a hobbit if you so desire. (You don’t get to keep the mug but you can buy one back in the shop.)

My tour of Middle Earth continued at the Weta Workshop in Miramar just outside Wellington. You can visit the shop and watch a film about the company and all the films the team has worked on for free – but I paid in order to also do a tour of the workshop. This gives you access to quite a small hall with tours run by employees. Our guide wasn’t great, telling not-so-hilarious anecdotes about her colleagues collecting human skulls and animal skeletons, but she did know a lot about the props and the process from concept through to use in the films. For film fans, I do think it’s worth it: the hall is filled with props from The Lord of the Rings films as well as other Weta productions like Prince Caspian and Avatar. Yes, they’ve worked on all sorts of films including also Tintin, Superman, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes… In fact, they finished work on The Lord of the Rings twelve years ago! I. Am. Old.

I particularly enjoyed the life-size Uruk Hai, Lurtz (terrifying!), Aragorn’s sword (which Viggo Mortinsen used to bring along to restaurants in order to really feel one with it, as his character would have done), Eomer’s helmet, and Bilbo’s Sting dagger, as well as the head moulds of Ian Holm, Bernard Hill, Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood (who has a beautiful head! He would look good bald…). The full-size armour of Sauron was also impressive; one set was plastic and weighed 8kg, worn by actor Sala Baker in the scenes where he was mobile; the other weighing 68kg was used by ‘Tall Paul’ in close-ups where he didn’t have to move around. Also interesting was the chainmail developed by Weta to be a quarter of the weight of the real thing to allow actors to be more comfortable (though, of course, good old Viggo wore the heavy stuff. A method actor through and through…).

Gollum — Although you’re not allowed to take photos in the workshop itself for confidentiality reasons, you can do so in the shop and museum just outside. “The rock and pool, is nice and cool, so juicy sweet! Our only wish, to catch a fish, so juicy sweet!”

Hobbit feet — 1,800 hairy hobbit feet were made for the film trilogy; these were worn by Bilbo.

Stone troll — Thank goodness this troll had been turned into stone!

I continued my private Lord of the Rings tour in Wellington city centre, where I had coffee at the Embassy Theatre, in which Peter Jackson held the world premiere of The Return of the Ring in 2003. Sitting there in the renovated art deco theatre, empty on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in November, it was hard to imagine the place buzzing with the cast and crew of the film. The only evidence that remains is in the form of photos of actors like Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan on the walls; a small echo of the huge crowds of more than 100,000 who lined the red carpet down Courtenay Place eleven years ago.

Mount Victoria path — I also made the hike up Mount Victoria (pictures from the lookout at the top to follow in a later post), where scenes were filmed including the hobbits hiding from the ringwraith (“Get off the road!” – which, yes, I shouted at various points along the path).

My final connection to the film franchise came in my friends’ tantalising declaration that their flat, where I was staying in Wellington, had been home to a hobbit – or was it an elf? or a dwarf? – during filming. Alas, the details seemed to have been forgotten, but a little Wellywood glamour brushed off on me with this (albeit incomplete) knowledge…

And with that, #16 on my bucket list is DONE!

The practical bit:

Hobbiton Movie Set Tour: An adult ticket is $75; book ahead to ensure that you don’t miss out during high season. There are umbrellas at the entrance to Hobbiton in case of rain! There is also a shop but I have to admit I was disappointed – there is a big jump from the cheap tat at the bottom end of the spectrum up to the very expensive jewellery (the one ring, of course, as well as Arwen’s necklace and the hobbits’ elven brooch). In the end I settled for a fridge magnet (‘No admittance except on party business’).

Weta Workshop: Weta is located in Miramar, a suburb that lies south-east of Wellington city centre. You can visit the shop and watch the film for free, while the 45-minute tour of the workshop is $24 for adults. I did the ‘There and Back Again’ tour for $65, which included pick-up from and drop-off in Wellington, since I didn’t have a car at this point.

Road Trip in New Zealand: Driving around the Coromandel Peninsula

25 November, 2014 By Anna S E Lundberg 5 Comments

Last time I was in New Zealand, I was 18 years old. It was my first proper trip away without my parents, and it involved two weeks on the South Island doing all those classic gap year things: my friend Kirsten and I took the Kiwi Experience bus around the whole island, swimming with dolphins, doing the A J Hackett bungy jump trilogy, and diving out of a plane. This time, on the North Island, has been a little different: Annie and I opted for a road trip in a rented convertible; we’ve been quite a bit more independent and quite a bit more comfortable this time round, staying in private accommodation rather than the hostels of 13 years ago…

Having started off in Auckland, we headed out of the city in our snazzy little car. Our first stop was not far at all: Auckland Botanic Gardens. We were pointed in the direction of the African plants and the rose garden, which were particularly good this time of year. It’s odd to have arrived in rose season, having already left summer behind and entered winter when I left the UK just last week.

Yellow flowers at Auckland Botanic Gardens — Annie at the Botanic Gardens, fortuitously coordinated with the African plants display.

We stayed two nights in Thames, a small gold mining town at the bottom left corner of the Coromandel – about an hour and a half drive from Auckland. Our accommodation was in the Old Police Station, in the cellblock to be exact.

The Old Police Station, Thames — Built in 1909, the police station was sold and became a private home in 1991. The current owners bought it in 2010.

We started the next day by driving up the western side of the peninsula, a coastal road with great views out into the ocean. This side has fishing rather than the sandy beaches and turquoise waters that you’ll see on the east side. We enjoyed our little drive up the coast with the top down and the wind through our hair.

Anna in BMW Z4 on the Coromandel coast — I don’t care what Jeremy Clarkson says, I loved our little BMW Z4. Notice in particular the strategically placed rubbish bin in front of the car. I’m expecting a travel photography award for this one…

In Coromandel Town, we stopped off for a coffee and a bagel (lots of bagels on this trip) at the Chai Tea House. We could have relaxed there for a while but we received a recommendation from the information centre to take road 309 across to the other side of the peninsula. Road 309 is a gravel road through the forest, along which there are various activities. You can hike to the Kauri Grove, where you can see some of these huge trees – they can grow to be more than 50 metres tall. If you have kids with you, then the Waterworks looks like a good stop, an interactive theme park constructed with recycled materials; or why not visit Stu’s wild pigs (we did see one pig run across the road – behind us, luckily, not in front of the car).

Waiau Waterfall, Coromandel — Our chosen stop on road 309 was at the Waiau Waterfall, where you can follow various trails or, as we did, simply walk to the waterfall, just down from where you park the car.

Since it was still early afternoon, we decided to take a little detour down to Cathedral Cove. This is on area of a marine reserve that can only be reached on foot or by boat or kayak, so we parked our car at the top of the cliff and walked down to the cove.

Cathedral Cove, Prince Caspian setting — You may recognise this other angle from the second Narnia film, where the Pevensie children return to the magical land to help Prince Caspian, having been transported from the London underground tunnel. Lucky them! The ruins of Cair Paravel sat up above, overlooking the beach.

After two nights in the cellblock, we left Thames and the Coromandel to continue our road trip. As we headed further down into the North Island, we stopped off at the town of Paeroa. Paeroa is the birthplace of Lemon and Paeroa, L&P, a soft drink a bit like lemonade. Its slogan? World famous in New Zealand. Elsewhere in the world, it’s sold only in specialist New Zealand shops. I finally tried some L&P on my Air New Zealand flight yesterday – it’s nice, a little sweet; but I tend to drink either water or wine…

Giant bottle of Paeroa — There are several giant bottles around town for posing, though we almost drove out of town without seeing any of them. Here Annie has again managed to match her outfit to the photo backdrop…

The next stop on our trip? A journey into Middle Earth…

The practical bit:

Auckland Botanic Gardens: The Gardens are open all year round and entry is free.

Old Police Station, Thames: You can stay in the main house or in the cells where you have two rooms and a kitchenette. Breakfast is included and there is space to park your car out in front; wifi signal was weak and unreliable but it’s a fun place to stay and a good place to base yourself when exploring the area. Having seen both sides, though, I would recommend staying on the east coast, although I can imagine it gets busy during peak summer season with both locals and tourists flocking to the beaches.

Cathedral Cove: You can hop on the glass-bottom boat or get in a kayak at Hahei Beach, or walk down from the car park as we did; it takes 30-45 minutes one way. Note that there are toilet huts up by the car park, but no shops or cafés; the car park was also completely full when we arrived, we were lucky to get a spot – though people are leaving all the time so with a bit of patience you should be fine.

Two Days in Auckland: Wine and volcanoes in New Zealand’s largest city

21 November, 2014 By Anna S E Lundberg 4 Comments

New Zealand is almost exactly as far away from the UK as you can possibly get: it’s almost a two-day journey with a 13-hour time difference. Somehow, though, I arrived having slept surprisingly well on the plane(s), and proceeded to sleep for 10 hours each of the first three nights in Auckland. Jet lag? What jet lag?!

The cure for jet lag, we’ve been told, is to be found in Waiheke. My friend Annie and I did not know this, however, when we decided to take the ferry across to this island – New Zealand’s third most populated island after the North and South Islands – on our first day. I had heard about Waiheke from a Kiwi traveller sitting next to me on a plane a few months ago. He was chatty about his plans in Europe and when I told him I would be going to New Zealand he gave me some tips, including this island just outside of Auckland.

The fact that Waiheke is “the ultimate cure for jet lag” (according to a 2009 article in The Sunday Times) we discovered only on the last stop of our wine-tasting tour. At Jurassic Ridge, we had a tasting of six wines from white through to red – my favourite probably being the Sauvignon Blanc, though the Cabernet Franc was lovely and Annie bought a bottle of rosé. Here, the grapes are grown, and wines produced, sustainably, and there are no chemical residues or additives like egg white or pork gelatine that is apparently used by some less reputable vineyards.

Lance Blumhardt, Jurassic Ridge vineyard — Jurassic Ridge is owned and run by Lance Blumhardt, a former neurologist who took an early retirement from working in the UK to return to his home country and run this vineyard as a “hobby”, bringing a scientific approach to the art of wine growing and making that has since won him a long list of accolades for his product.

Mudbrick Vineyard and Restaurant — Our previous stop had been Mudbrick Vineyard & Restaurant, where we had chosen the white wine sampling menu. It seems that white wines are more difficult to grow on Waiheke, so all but two of the wines we tried were from other districts such as Marlborough. Mudbrick looked like a traditional English manor house with a lush garden and views over the vineyard.

We had lunch with a glass of wine at Cable Bay Vineyards. A rather elegant establishment – as we ate, a couple arrived for lunch by helicopter – with stunning views.

Vineyard on Waiheke — All three vineyards were beautifully situated with panoramas across the open landscape of the island and the ocean beyond.

View from Waiheke Island — The skyline of Auckland, recognisable for its Sky Tower, can be glimpsed off in the distance.

Being free spirits, we did all this independently, buying just the ferry ticket and then walking around the various vineyards that lay on the west side of the island. At one point, we veered off onto a path that took us in the completely wrong direction, ending up in a field with horses (better than bulls) – but that’s part of the adventure, isn’t it! If we had had more time, and with even sunnier weather, the island would have been well worth a longer visit with an overnight stay and some time on the beach. Instead, we made our way back on the evening ferry and had dinner in Auckland.

We had dinner at the Federal Delicatessen, where I can highly recommend that you share 3-way pie combo. My favourite was the cheesecake, followed by the banoffee pie (with caramel popcorn on top!).

Sky Tower, Auckland — The city itself mainly offered the usual adventurous activities that you would expect in New Zealand – bungee jumping off the bridge as well as the SkyWalk and SkyJump at the Sky Tower, and various water sports.

We spent our second morning at Auckland Museum, a funny place in its bringing together what would usually be seen in a separate Natural History Museum, War Museum, Ethnographic Museum… So we went from Maori boats and buildings to volcanoes to sharks to dinosaurs to WWI and WWII. A lot to take in, with a hugely diverse view of New Zealand and its history, including little known facts about the part it played in the wars as well as the relationship with Samoa and its people.

We don’t learn about New Zealand at school, and so even this brief introduction to different aspects of its history was incredibly informative. Some quick facts for you: The islands were settled by Polynesians in the 13^th century; the first Europeans to have reached them were Dutch Explorer Abel Tasman and his crew in 1642; and the country was colonised by the British in 1840 via the Treaty of Waitangi. Auckland is the biggest city with a population of 1.4 million of a total of 4.5 million, followed by Wellington and Christchurch each with under 400,000. After English and Maori, Samoan is the third most spoken language. The two islands straddle the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates, which leads to volcanic activity as well as earthquakes, notably in Christchurch on the South Island in 2011 when 185 people died and the city was destroyed, now to be completely rebuilt.

The practical bits:

I flew Qantas from LHR to Dubai to Sydney to Auckland (the last leg operated by Emirates). I left at 9pm on Sunday to arrive 2pm on Tuesday – so a journey of 28 hours if you disregard the time difference.

We stayed at Harbour Oaks Residences – great location and especially good if you’re staying a bit longer, as they are actually serviced apartments with living rooms and kitchenettes. And I got to do my laundry already after my long flight!

Waiheke: We bought a return ferry ticket at $36 (you can also get one that includes a bus pass for getting around the island). Wine tasting at Mudbricks and Jurassic Ridge cost $10 per person.

Alternatively you can do the Wine on Waiheke tour for $125 if you’re particularly interested in learning more about the vineyards or the Taste of Waiheke for $135 to sample both wine and olive oil. These tours include the ferry, an organised bus ride and a tour of several vineyards and/or olive groves, as well as lunch.

Auckland Museum: $25 entry or free if you’re a New Zealand citizen (different to the $10 quoted in the Lonely Planet!)

Windy and Wonderful Wellington: The end of my northern kiwi experience

Road Trip in New Zealand: Waitomo Glowworm Caves – and back to Auckland

Visiting the Hobbiton Film Set and Weta Workshop: A not-so-unexpected journey into Middle Earth

Road Trip in New Zealand: Driving around the Coromandel Peninsula

The practical bit:

Two Days in Auckland: Wine and volcanoes in New Zealand’s largest city

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