Holland Photo Arts — Charlottesville Wedding Photographers

Twenty-three hundred images and a bit of jet lag are just two of the things we came home with after our recent trip to the gorgeous islands of New Zealand. It was such an amazing trip and we are so thankful we were able to go. Such wonderful memories, not all of them awesome, but many that will definitely rank as highlights in our lives.

As you know from the post yesterday, we arrived early in the morning and after clearing customs, met up with Angela for breakfast while Webster was at work. It was, as you can imagine, a little odd to drive on the left side of the road from the airport toward their house, especially after feeling a bit jet lagged with only an hour’s sleep. The unfamiliar traffic patterns will wake you right up! Especially when they don’t seem to believe in street signs and we didn’t spring for GPS!

Over breakfast at Cafe Kohi, the next different thing we noticed was that, when ordering coffee while in the U.S. one might order a regular coffee, a latte, etc., in NZ you’ll order something like a “short black”, “long black”, or “flat white”.  While English is in widespread use, the words all seem to have different definitions. Thanks to Angela for deciphering as we went. Another b’fast oddity was their version of  bacon. If it’s bacon there, you can expect it to be sliced similar to ham (as I discovered when my “French toast with bacon” came with the bacon slipped in between the slices of bread). A place offering “streaky bacon” will serve it American style, so if you’re a fan of bacon, as we are, know this going in.

We had heard from so many the country was a bounty of beauty, and one can get a little overwhelmed with all of it. While we spent a good bit of the overall trip traveling from one locale to another, the first few days were largely spent with Angela and Webster around Auckland and within a 2-3 hour drive of it. After our hearty breakfast and unpacking a bit, the three of us drove downtown to explore and of course take the elevator to the top of the Sky Tower, the country’s tallest building. There, we had a flat white and watched bungee jumpers take off from the tower’s observation deck just above us.

<< Click on the horizontal photos to see them larger. >>

View from the tower’s observation deck.

Just after a tasty lunch at Burger Fuel (with bottles of L&P, the de facto national soda drink, which stands for Lemon & Paeroa and is oh so yummy), we drove west and north from the city out to Murawai Beach, home of a large Gannet bird population. Judging from our twisted olfactory responses to approaching their perch from above, they liked hanging close to one another. Ew. Be glad they haven’t invented scratch n’ sniff blogs yet!

This pair was the first of seemingly millions of sheep in the island nation. Wool for everyone!

We were able to meet up with Webster just afterwards and drove over to Piha Beach, site of a surfing championship. While the surfers had put away their boards and camped out for the rest of the afternoon, we took in the sites along the beach as the sun set. It left us with an obvious choice for dinner that evening, at Belgian Cafe to devour some of NZ’s famous green-lipped mussels (they are huge!) and down a few pints of Hoegaarden and Chimay Blue. Yum, and a great way to finish off our first day there. We then gratefully hit the sack after being awake for a mere 36 hours!

Anne loved how the cloud on the left made the mountain look like a volcano. Thankfully it was not at this point in time!

Parts of the beach were filled with black sand, which felt so cool on our toes.

The light and clouds there are just other worldly at times.

During our stay in Auckland, we set our alarm clock to catch first light one morning (one must sacrifice, I suppose) to capture a few early sunrise photos from the beach around Angela and Webster’s lovely waterside home. Just driving through their driveway (second photo below) was like a jungle adventure!

And the stunning view from their living room.

Later in our stay during one of Webster’s rare days off from the hospital, we all took a ferry over to nearby Waiheke Island for a little wine tasting. (We also did a fun little portrait session with our gracious hosts and will share those pics in another post.) Now that’s an adventure we can get into. Here are a couple of shots made from the ferry during the crossing. Yes, it was that cloudy (and cold, what Summer?!) heading over to the island, and miraculously cleared up prior to our return to the downtown mooring. While our target winery, Kennedy Point, had sadly already closed by the time we got to the island, we spent a good bit of time at Cable Bay winery, enjoying the scenery, their excellent wine, and each others’ company.

We have so many more photos and stories to share, but for now, thanks for reading…stay tuned for more Kiwi adventures!