Trip to New Zealand from 13 Jun to 22nd Jun 2014

Took a short hoilday to Auckland, New Zealand with my wife and 2nd son.  My cousin hosted us and we would like to thank him and his roommate for hosting us in his lovely house.

We went for Mass at a small church and then went exploring the nearby areas and one of the Sunday markets.

One thing I noticed was that there seems to be a lot of Cantonese speaking chinese (from China) in Auckland.  Seems that those from Hong Kong prefers Australia.

We encountered intermittent wet weathers from the second day and temperature ranges from single digit to the teens.  I felt nice.

There were big shopping areas outside of CBD (approx 30 min drive?).  In the CBD, shopping is just at Queen Street.

Auckland downtown basically consists of Queen Street.  However we had Chinese roasted meat rice.  The portion is huge but guess it is reasonable for the price (NZ$14.80 for a plate of rice with 2 kinds of meat). Anyway, shared the meal with my wife.  There is no need to tip and you can request to pack your uneaten potion of the food.

Coming to New Zealand means that we must visit the Hobbits movie set.  That's what we did in the wet weather.  However the scenery is still great.

Below are some scenes we took in driving north from Auckland.  We visited the Waipu Cave but could not go in as we were not equipped.  You need good walking shoes and a torch light (we did not have this).  It would have been nice to explore the natural cave.

On the way up north, we came by a small town called Puhoi.  According to the librarian, the whole town has only about 1200 inhabitants.  We had fish + oyster and chips in the traditional way.

We visited a place set up by a lady named Yvonne Rust - for the love of art.

We took a drive to Cape Reinga, the north most point in the North Island.  If you plan to drive there, make sure your vehicle has enough petrol.  We got to use somebody's card to purchase petrol as the last petrol kiosk does not accept cash.

Cape Reinga offers a spectacular view of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

After Cape Reinga, we visited the Sand Dunes.  Did not play on the sand though.

Drop by the Ninety Mile Beach if it is low tide and a 4WD vehicle is preferred.

I practised some Yang Taiji (40-steps form) at the Ninety Mile Beach.  You can see a lorry sped by somewhere in the sequence.  The wind was strong and had some problem maintaining balance.

One of the advantages of driving on our own is that we got to explore places off the beaten track.  As we exited from the Ninety Mile Beach, we chanced upon an abandon fort which probably housed an artillery gun for the defense of the coast.  The view up the hill was spectacular.

On way from Cape Reinga to Dargaville, we drove after sundown.  The road can be dark and we probably killed a possum which was in the middle of the road.  We also crossed a river driving onto a boat - the GPS directed us right onto the onto the boat.

All the motels we stayed in have family rooms.  We did our meals there and purchased food from Pak and Save (discount supermarket).