Friday, March 4, 2011

New Zealand- Part 1 {Auckland}

New Zealand!
We spent a glorious 2 weeks in New Zealand this this past January and February.

After travelling door to door for 23 hours we arrived at my sister's house in Auckland. We freshened up and went down to the Viaduct in Auckland for the Seafood Festival. It was great fun and a good introduction to the city! Ryan was able to try some of the local seafood, which he really enjoyed. The boys and Bella went for a dip in the ocean after that before we had a nice dinner and then all crashed that night.

The next morning we explored a craft fair at Mission Beach before catching the ferry over to Waiheke Island to do some wine tasting. It was a windy day but we still really enjoyed the island. It actually really reminded me of driving around Kaua'i. The houses were somewhat older but there were some nice beaches and it was very quaint and charming. We stopped for some "tip top" ice cream and got to try Billy's favorite flavor, which had honey comb/toffee pieces in it. It was very good.

Over our next few days in Auckland we took the kids to an aquarium, which was a bit underwhelming, spent some nice time at the beach, went swimming in the ocean, and had some yummy BBQs at Carrie and Billy's adorable house. We really enjoyed our mellow time in Auckland.

Next, off to Rotorua!

 The car all packed and ready for our journey

 The Auckland skyline

Enjoying the ocean after a loooong flight!

 Ryan on the ferry

 My hair going crazy in the wind

 The four of us on the ferry

 Riley and Bella in Waiheke

 Ryan, Billy and I wine tasting in Waiheke

 The kids and I at Cable Bay Vineyards

 The kids being goofy

A beautiful day in Auckland

2 comments:

Joe said...

Did the earthquake affect them at all??? Keep the pics comin'!

ourpartyof4 said...

Luckily they are on the north island and the earthquake was on the south island so they were unaffected.