Exploring the North

While I still have a number of places I want to go on the South Island, Cam and I spent the last two weekends exploring the North Island. Cam's from the North Island so not too much was new for him, but aside from a short trip to Auckland last year, these trips were all uncharted territory for me.

Wellington

For New Zealand's four-day Easter Weekend, Cam and I headed up to Wellington. Wellington is known for its craft-beer-and-cafe culture (two things I love), so I was excited to see it for myself.

We spent our first morning walking by the water front and exploring the national Te Papa museum. The museum has everything from a giant squid to the Treaty of Waitangi, so we kept ourselves entertained for a pretty long time.

Signing the guestbook at the Te Papa museum

The next part of the trip was a little treat from Cam. After watching some cricket while New Zealand was hosting the Cricket World Cup,  I decided I wanted to learn a bit about rugby. I had told Cam this, and two days before the trip, I got a text from an unknown number saying "Click here to download your tickets for the Hurricanes match on April 3rd." Followed quickly by, "Surprise! :)" from Cam. Cam had purchased tickets to go with two of his friends to a Wellington Hurricanes rugby game! So after a bit more exploring of Wellington and grabbing a beer with our friends, we went to the game.

Win for the Hurricanes!

Saturday morning, we went to Zealandia. Zealandia is a nature reserve on the hills around Wellington, surrounded by a fence that prevents all predators from coming in to the area. This way the animals who are native to New Zealand can live the way they did before the British settlers and other groups brought over predators. As a result, you can see many animals that are extinct on the mainland just by walking along the pathways here.

Casual pukeko spotting - endangered except at Zealandia!

We had a really fun time walking around and seeing all the animals. To list a few highlights:
- I saw a lizard dating back to the age of the dinosaurs
- I got really scared of a "monster chicken" - more commonly known as a Pukeko
- I learned what the song of the Tui sounds like

Sunday was Easter - the day devoted to eating chocolate and other sweet things. Cam had the idea to go to Sweet Mama's kitchen, where they make chicken waffles and DELICIOUS milkshakes - so that's exactly what we got.

We also went to the grocery store to buy eachother Kiwi easter treats. I made sure we got Reeses pieces :D

We were feeling good and full with just enough time to go to church. After church and a call to the US to wish my parents a happy Easter we took the cable car to the top of the hills over Wellington.

We got so lucky with warm and low wind weather so we walked around the botanical gardens and basked in the sunlight.

After heading down the hill, we had time to relax by the water for a bit - and then it was time to fly home.

Not a bad place to end the weekend.

Hamilton and Auckland

This last weekend wasn't a three day weekend, but to celebrate Cam's birthday we decided to make it one. We decided to go to Hamilton for Saturday and Sunday to see Cam's dad and then spend Monday in Auckland to celebrate his birthday.

Cam and his step mom's pup

Hamilton is the 4th biggest city in the country after Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. It also happens to be very close to Matamata, the home of Hobbiton and the wee little town where my favorite kiwi grew up.

We flew to Hamilton on Sautrday and we were so lucky because the weather was BEAUTIFUL. We spent the afternoon eating lunch in the backyard, walking the path along the Waikato river, and exploring the Hamilton Botanical Gardens, voted the 2014 Garden of the Year (an international award!). The gardens were centered around a circular area with openings in to each garden. It's impossible to see through the opening to the garden ahead until you're directly in front of the ideal view, which makes each garden surprising and wonderful. They had a Japanese garden, Indian garden, Italian Renaissance garden, and even an Alice in Wonderland garden.

Italian Renaissance Garden

Alice in Wonderland?

We finished the day with a delicious dinner with Cam's parents and a few cocktails on our own. As Cam told me, contrary to popular opinion, Hamilton is a real city and it had a good selection is really interesting bars - almost on par with Wellington ;)

On Monday we hopped on an early bus to Auckland and started our next adventure.

Pretty Pretty Auckland

I think I must be getting used to New Zealand because my reaction to Auckland last time was extremely different to the one I had this weekend. This weekend, Auckland was a bustling city and Cam and I were both commenting on how many things there were to look at in the big city --- lord help me when I land in New York City in two weeks. We really enjoyed the food in Auckland and between sudden downpours, we really enjoyed the waterfront.

Obviously I loved the bridges

Since Cam's birthday was Tuesday and we wouldn't be together past 7 am, we celebrated Monday night. Unfortunately the restaurant he wanted to go to recently had a fire and was closed.. so we wandered to the  Sky Tower and discovered that admission to the bar on the 53rd floor was free.

View from the bottom

We took an elevator up to the highest floor of any building in New Zealand and took in the views over a couple glasses of wine.

Cam needs to work on his selfie abilities. 

That's better. Sleepy Cam

And unfortunately Tuesday morning, it was time for me to go home.

Snow on the Southern Alps on my way home. Winter is here.

It was an amazing two weekends on the North Island and I'm so grateful my favorite Kiwi showed me the lay of the land up there. I'm heading back this weekend for a hike with my coworkers and hopefully Cam and I will be going back a few more times before I leave this beautiful country. Thank you so much and happy birthday, Cammy!