4 New Zealand Whirlwind Stops!

Samantha Martin
Mar 17, 2023
4 min read

Written by Guest Contributor Andre Neyrey

New Zealand

We absolutely fell in love with New Zealand. It's beautiful, great food and the people overall were the friendliest and nicest people in the world we met so far. We had 4 stops and each one of them hit those qualities.

AUCKLAND

The first stop was Auckland. We had a shortened visit as we lost time having to avoid 2 hurricanes- and one of them (Kevin) was a Category 4.

Arriving at 5pm we only had u til 11pm. Sam was smart knowing 2000+ passengers would descend on the downtown of Auckland looking for dinner - she spent the night before searching for a reservation at somewhere on the water. No easy feat with the shitty Wifi.

Erik and Colette would be joining us and she miraculously found a reservation at a Chinese fusion restaurant for 830. Being tenacious she emailed begging for anything earlier and got us a perfect 630pm reservation. With an hour plus to kill we took a cab ride around the city and saw the rose garden, the stadium where the All Blacks play when here and of course the famous Skytower- where you can eat, bungee jumps or just look out of it. We did none of the above but Now I get laughed at by all three- Sam, Collette and Erik for getting photos of it at every angle and every light! Traffic was a nightmare so a few blocks plus a pharmacy stop where Sam found Colette and Erik Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C all took us to 630 and we were dropped off at the marina area where we had one of the best meals of the trip. Sam’s reservation was at White & Wongs. This really cool Asian place with a very hip design/modern Asian and unisex bathrooms! From the Peking duck to steamed baos and the best salt & pepper calamari we’ve all ever had it was so delicious.

Full from our great meal we managed to check out the super yachts and boats and the sunset just before the night sky.

We walked downtown but everything closes really early in this area but was still beautiful with all the buildings light up. Every building was really different on their architectural design some renovated older building to some modern new structures that were breathtaking!

TAURANGA

The next place we visited was Tauranga. We had to get a few things for the room so we headed out shopping further from downtown. We had a great meal and then came back closer to Mount Mauni? Area where the ship was docked. We walked the shopping district and picked up a few more locally crafted items and enjoyed the views of the Mount and Harbour views. The highlight of the day was scoops of ice cream just beyond the port gates watching seagulls descend on people eating at a picnic table- a reminder of Hitchcock’s The Birds!

NAPIER

We then traveled to Napier on the east coast of the North Island and entered at Hawks Bay. Napier is known as the place with the most Art Deco buildings in the world after Miami. An earthquake completely wiped out most of the town in 1931. All the buildings were rebuilt at the same time and almost all of them are in Art Deco style. The Daily Telegraph Building is a great example. It was another shuttle day and we walked from the waterfront all through downtown and along the main streets filled with plenty of restaurants and shops and the nicest people again!!! 3 adorable kids busking with pop songs certainly summed up the mood. The day ended with Sam getting locked in a bathroom, a massive dark thunderstorm that appeared from nowhere leading to a line for the shuttle bus at least 200 people long. Buses were delayed and apparently a ramp broke getting on the ship- turning a great day into a shitshow ending. ** Read Sam’s blog on Life at Sea for a PS to the end of this day!

WELLINGTON

Our last stop was in Wellington-the capital of New Zealand. We started off being dropped in downtown area and went straight to the Wellington cable car station. It is literally in the back of one of the buildings as I'm sure the area was just built around the station. The train was started in Approx 1902 to take people to different residential areas up the mountain. Once up there we took some photos from an amazing view point and watched some rugby by the college kids from Victoria University. You can walk down the hill and see beautiful rose gardens on the way or catch the return train down. Once back at the bottom we grabbed a coffee and headed over to Cuba Street. This is a must see. A fun and funky part of town that has a lot of vintage stores and is a cool and artsy

shopping district. We grabbed some cool items and a bowl of pasta. Again- great pasta and super friendly staff. All in all we loved New Zealand and will definitely be back.

Any town where you ask for directions and the locals offer to walk you there so you don’t get lost- is kindness at its best!

MILFORD SOUND

Although we only visited spots on the north island I've heard the South Island beautiful as well and has places like Queensland. We did pass through the Milford Sound which is a fjord on the southwest side of the South Island Surrounded by mountains and and 100's of waterfalls it is and amazing place to see. The waterfalls are some of the highest in the world. You can get into by boat or ship to explore and then turn around and come out.