This post is about the towns on the mainland that we visited around the Bay of Islands. Check out our post about the islands in the Bay of Islands that we visited! Kerikeri After leaving Moturua Island, we followed Kyle and Shelley on Blowin Bubbles (or did they follow us?) over to Kerikeri. The wind was…
In addition to cruising the Bay of Islands and visiting some of these awesome anchorages, we also toured some of the nearby towns, including Kerikeri, Russell, and Opua, as well as visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Motuarohia Island When we first arrived in the Bay of Islands, after motoring up from Whangarei, we arrived at…
We landed in Auckland on January 11th and arrived back home February 15th, spending 35 days on our New Zealand Road Trip. Here are some tips for planning your own New Zealand road trip adventure! We traveled about 4,000km in our little Fornaxia, a Ford Mondeo. Do we feel like we spent enough time exploring?…
While David and I aren’t HUGE Lord of the Rings fans, it’s hard to visit New Zealand without stopping for at least one iconic LOTR tour. And we are so glad we did – both the Weta Studios and Hobbiton were amazing! Weta Studios After taking the ferry from the South Island, we stayed a…
In the North Island of New Zealand we stopped for a few nights in Blenheim in the heart of New Zealand’s wine country. We were there to attend the Marlborough Wine Festival, but enjoyed so much more! Omaka Aviation Heritage Center With an extra day in Blenheim, we had two goals: I was craving a…
We got a very brief window in Christchurch after our Waitangi Day celebration at Okains Bay; we had 24 hours! Four Quick Stops to Make We met Viki and her son Seth from Astrolabe Sailing, who had offered to show us around Christchurch and talk cruising. We are so glad we took Viki up on…
We were excited to get to spend Waitangi Day in New Zealand and see a celebration while traveling around. We attended the largest celebration in the South Island, held outside of Christchurch in Okains Bay at the Maori and Colonial Museum. Unfortunately, we were pretty underwhelmed with the events. There were so many people for…
The ferry was fantastic! It’s basically a cruise ship – there are several restaurants, wifi and a movie theatre. The weather wasn’t too great, so we didn’t miss out too much by not having a view, but we scoped out the different areas so that in the way back up we can get a good…