I love a good coupon, so it’s no surprise that I spend a lot of time on Auckland’s version of Groupon–GrabOne. They’ve got all kinds of crazy touristy things listed on the cheap! One such deal that I couldn’t resist was a whale watching tour.
The harbours and gulfs of NZ are full of wildlife, most notably dolphins and killer whales! And Auckland Whale and Dolphin Safari does daily cruises into the Hauraki Gulf to try and spot whales. My flatmate, another friend, and I signed up for an afternoon cruise one weekend with high hopes of spotting some Orcas! The cool thing about this company (besides the fact that it leaves directly from the Viaduct in the CBD) is that they guarantee sightings of at least enough sealife to justify the cost of the ticket. My flatmate’s friend had been on a cruise the previous weekend with her parents and hadn’t seen anything, so she joined us for free!
The cruise out of Auckland was stunning, and we were lucky to have a gorgeous day with gorgeous weather. We sailed for about an hour and a half, just enjoying the scenery and the sunshine.
Brown’s Island, on the way out of Auckland Harbour
We started to see some action once we were away from the ferry channel and the other boat traffic. We saw TONS of dolphins throughout the 5 hour cruise–they were so playful, swimming alongside the boat and jumping in the air. Everyone on the cruise was smiling from ear to ear! At one point we even saw some penguins swimming through the water!
Feeding frenzy!Playful dolphinsSo many dolphins!
Unfortunately we weren’t lucky enough to see any Orca on this trip–it was pretty late in the season. But the four of us had an amazing time on the water watching all the dolphins and birds and penguins!
I arrived in NZ just as winter was starting. Thankfully the winters in Auckland are fairly mild (think 40-50F most days). And as an added bonus, there’s a ski field only about 4 hours drive away! Mount Ruapehu is the tallest peak on the North Island of NZ, and is also an active volcano. Yep, you read that right, there is enough snow on an active volcano to make a ski field!
My two girl friends and I set off after work on Friday to head down to Ohakune, where we’d snagged a room with a couple of bunk beds and a hot tub–what else do you need! We had planned to leave at 4p to try and beat traffic, but the fourth friend who was scheduled to come with us had some sort of drama which put us off schedule. Her cat had run away several months prior, and suddenly on this Friday she got a message from several people claiming that a teenage youtuber had been featuring her cat in her videos. This sparked a lot of heated messages, threats of lawsuits, and even cat DNA tests. This sounds like a completely wacky and made-up story, and I wouldn’t believe it myself except that I was there for the action over the several months that it played out!
Anyhoo, the rest of us put some tunes on and hit the road! We decided to stop for burgers at a local pub in a really small town. Now, everyone outside of Auckland calls all Aucklanders “JAFAs”–short for “Just Another F-ing Aucklander”. They can see us city folk coming from a million miles away, and are rarely pleased to see us. But after some unfriendly service and mediocre food, we were back on the road! We arrived in Ohakune exhausted and ready for an early day of skiing. But the weather is so fickle, and the roads so dangerous, that the ski fields are closed almost more often than they’re open. By the time we hit the sack around midnight, the ski fields were forecasted to be closed–what a bummer!
We woke up bright and early, as ski passes are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. We frantically checked the status of the Whakapapa Ski Resort (pronounced “Fa-ka-papa”) all morning, and it was reporting CLOSED all morning due to weather. We were so disappointed, until finally it magically updated to being open! So we headed into downtown to rent some warm clothes and ski gear from SLR and buy our passes.
We were one of the first people to the ski field, and what a spectacular day it turned out to be! Nothing but blue skies, sunshine, and a lot of powder!
Blue bird day on the mountain!Nothing but clear skies on the way up the lift
I had a fantastic time skiing all the blues! But that beautiful weather soon turned to icy rain, and then to snow. It was SO cold! But still super fun and exhausting! Knowing that you’re skiing on a lava field is pretty cool, and you can see a lot of the lava rocks and boulders jutting out of the snow as you ski.
Bundled up against the sudden cold and snow!You can’t forget your skiing on an active volcano when the ski field is full of lava rocks
After our day of skiing, we headed back to the hotel to relax in the hot tub. You had to reserve the hot tub, and it was posted everywhere that were absolutely NO food or drinks allowed. But there was also a lock on the door to the hot tub, so we had a nice soak while snacking on cheese and crackers and drinking champagne. Classy!
We headed into downtown Ohakune to find some dinner. There were approximately 3 places open–a pub, a disco, and a bar. And I’m proud (ashamed?) to say we hit all three! We met some locals at dinner, and spent the night drinking Lion Red beer and dancing on tables to 90s rap. There will be no pictures of that night posted here!
Sign of a good night.. a bin full of champagne
We decided to take the scenic route on the way back to Auckland, and we stopped at the famous Hell’s Gate Geothermal Spa in Rotorua to relax our sore muscles. Most of Rotorua is geothermic, and you can see steam rising from volcanic vents almost everywhere. We took a stroll through the geothermic fields before heading to the spa.
Lots of geothermal activity
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a place that rents swimsuits. It seems kind of….unsanitary? But hey, when in NZ. We donned our rented suits, and hopped in the geothermic heated pool. And boy was it HOT! We chilled out and relaxed our muscles while it rained cold rain on us. Hell’s Gate is known for their mud baths, so we definitely had to give it a try! They tell you not to get the mud near your face, but did we listen?
Mud bath in Rotorua!
As you can see, we most definitely did NOT listen, and we paid the price for it. My eyes were stinging so bad that I couldn’t open them for an hour!! Good thing I wasn’t driving home!
After the mudbaths, we decided to stop in Matamata (otherwise known as the town where Hobbiton is) for lunch. We were just cruising through a traffic circle to get into town, and our car broke down! Thankfully we were able to coast into a parking lot. We had a nice Thai lunch and prayed the car would start again–and it did! So we headed back to Auckland and back to another work week. I’ve never lived close enough to a ski resort to be able to drive there for a weekend of skiing!
Well…it turns out that I didn’t keep up with this blog AT ALL. Oopsie. Here it is 5 years later, and current me is really wishing that past me had written about things as they happened. I mean, I’ve practically lived a lifetime since then! And old age (and having a smartphone) has done nothing for my memory. So it’s now the end of 2020 (and that’s a whole thing in itself), and I want to try and record some of the awesome things I’ve done over the years. Don’t let me down again, 2020 me!
