08.27.08: From Houhora Heads, we hit the road for several hours towards Auckland until we were back at the Westfield mall in Otewa Valley, the northern suburbs of Auckland. Going back to the same ole New World Market made it quick stop for groceries. After, we hit The Reservoir again for another pretty good dinner of oysters on the half shell, BBQ ribs and a salad. Again, we were impressed. The oysters were topped with some kind of seaweed slaw with a hint of mint, and dab of wasabi mayo. It was quite an interesting combo, subtle enough in taste to just compliment the oysters. The ribs were nothing worth merit, but the side that it came with was really good. It was a casserole made with chorizo, kumara and tomatoes. The sweet of kumara and the spicy of the chorizo in a tomato sauce rather than the usual milky/cheesy sauce was a surprising change of pace. Later that night, we found our way to a campground in North Auckland, the only non-waterfront location so far (and the second non-beach location) and crashed for the night.
While we were driving back to Auckland from the Northland, I read about a couple of places that I wanted to check out. So, when we woke up the next morning, we needed to plan how to get there. Waikete Island, aka The Wine Island, was the first place. You needed to take a ferry to get there and it was pretty cost-prohibitive to take our camper on the ferry. So, we thought about just going as passengers on the ferry for the day. But, I couldn’t find any information on public buses over there. Also, there were not guarantees that wineries would be open for tasting because it was low season and many are only open on the weekends. So, we scrapped that idea. If I’m lucky, maybe we’ll try to go there again when we’re back in Auckland to return the camper, before we fly back to The States.
But getting to the other spot, Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World and Antarctic Adventure was a piece of cake. So, we checked-out of the campground and drove further into the city to get there. This was definitely another place for Kailani. They had some of the HUGEST stingrays we’ve ever seen. And, although it’s not the first we’ve been to, Underwater World has the world’s first transparent underwater walk-through tunnel. We saw sharks, stingrays, fish and turtles swimming around and over us. And best of all, because Kailani’s been watching two movies recently, Surf’s Up and Happy Feet, both of which feature penguins as the main characters, it was fun to see their rare Fiordland penguin conservation area. To view them, you get to ride a Snowcat (that’s specially geared towards being a ride) around this loop where the penguins swimming and hanging out on the ice. Overall, it was a short but fun little trip.
Afterwards, we were hungry for lunch and seafood sounded great. We headed back towards the Auckland CBD (Central Business District) to find some food. Considering we were right there near docks, it was a bummer that we never found a seafood restaurant. Instead, we found a food court near our parking lot and ate some Thai noodles. They were worth eating and we were pretty hungry by then, but definitely not anything special.
From Auckland, we hit the road again. This time, we were headed a couple hours southeast then northeast to the Cormandel Peninsula. Again, it was easy driving, not hard to navigate with our road atlas, and we went past more rolling hills with lots of sheep, although more cattle were starting to appear as well. We also went through a scenic reserve forest that was absolutely stunning.
While we were driving back to Auckland from the Northland, I read about a couple of places that I wanted to check out. So, when we woke up the next morning, we needed to plan how to get there. Waikete Island, aka The Wine Island, was the first place. You needed to take a ferry to get there and it was pretty cost-prohibitive to take our camper on the ferry. So, we thought about just going as passengers on the ferry for the day. But, I couldn’t find any information on public buses over there. Also, there were not guarantees that wineries would be open for tasting because it was low season and many are only open on the weekends. So, we scrapped that idea. If I’m lucky, maybe we’ll try to go there again when we’re back in Auckland to return the camper, before we fly back to The States.
But getting to the other spot, Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World and Antarctic Adventure was a piece of cake. So, we checked-out of the campground and drove further into the city to get there. This was definitely another place for Kailani. They had some of the HUGEST stingrays we’ve ever seen. And, although it’s not the first we’ve been to, Underwater World has the world’s first transparent underwater walk-through tunnel. We saw sharks, stingrays, fish and turtles swimming around and over us. And best of all, because Kailani’s been watching two movies recently, Surf’s Up and Happy Feet, both of which feature penguins as the main characters, it was fun to see their rare Fiordland penguin conservation area. To view them, you get to ride a Snowcat (that’s specially geared towards being a ride) around this loop where the penguins swimming and hanging out on the ice. Overall, it was a short but fun little trip.
Afterwards, we were hungry for lunch and seafood sounded great. We headed back towards the Auckland CBD (Central Business District) to find some food. Considering we were right there near docks, it was a bummer that we never found a seafood restaurant. Instead, we found a food court near our parking lot and ate some Thai noodles. They were worth eating and we were pretty hungry by then, but definitely not anything special.
From Auckland, we hit the road again. This time, we were headed a couple hours southeast then northeast to the Cormandel Peninsula. Again, it was easy driving, not hard to navigate with our road atlas, and we went past more rolling hills with lots of sheep, although more cattle were starting to appear as well. We also went through a scenic reserve forest that was absolutely stunning.
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