NZ Part 11 - The Last Stage

With almost a thousand miles of driving plus a ferry ride to get back up to Auckland we had some long days ahead of us in the van. I sensed a general waning of enthusiasm from some members of our clan but I was not deterred. We still managed to see and experience all the beautiful things we could while holding to our schedule.

One of our family travel traditions is called the goals list. It's not a checklist of requirements but more of a chance for everyone to voice their opinion on where we want to spend our time. Everyone gets to contribute two goals to the list. It's something my dad started and something my kids love. At this point we had completed the majority of our goals other than Katie's impossibly unattainable goals. She had said she wanted to have a wedding and have her First Communion. When we told her those were more life goals and not vacation goals she changed them to ride a fairy (we thought she meant ferry until we heard the next one) and ride a unicorn. Sorry Katie, not happening. The only other goals left were to see two elusive creatures: glow worms and the national bird and symbol of New Zealand, the Kiwi.

I'm still not entirely sure what glow worms are or if they're even real but we found a stop right off the road called the Glow Worm Dell. We entered a dark forest and walked until we saw some lights. The luminous glow of these strange creatures was like thousands of tiny stars. Not too bad for a quick stop. Finding our favorite flightless bird proved a little more difficult. They are nocturnal birds that live in the jungle. With no time left to search through the forest at night, we settled for the Kiwi exhibit at the Auckland Zoo. With pitch black conditions, no flash photography, and a fast moving animal my photos look like blurry bigfoot evidence but I can assure we did in fact see a Kiwi and the kids loved it.

Looking back at our time in New Zealand, I can say it was a lot—almost 4000 miles of driving and countless hours in the van trekking across both islands. But it was worth every mile. We saw and experienced so many amazing things and are leaving with so many incredible memories. Our favorite was undoubtedly the small town of Tairua—the beach, the food, our favorite grocery store, Four Square, and most of all the people who made us feel so welcome and at home. This was my dream trip for so long and now it's over but it will be one of my most cherished memories forever.

A famous tree growing in the lake at Wanaka.

Cooling off in the creek during lunch.

Finding shade under this tree was not working so well.

Charlie at Charlie Brown crepes. It was the longest we've ever waited for a crepe. But they were worth the wait.

Beach at Lake Hawea

The water at Lake Hawea was unbelievably blue.

The path to the glow worms was right off the main road.

Glow worms in the forest. Sorry for the bad photo. It was much more impressive in person.

The Pōhutukawa tree is called the New Zealand Christmas Tree because of the color and the fact that it only blooms during the Christmas season.

Punakaiki rocks

Pancake rocks

It started raining pretty hard but was still sunny.

Nelson Lakes National Park

Relaxing for just a bit. We have a ferry to catch.

Wētā Workshop in Wellington.

Power Ranger

A giant busy board with all kinds of switches to flip and levers to pull.

Apparently the tree from the movie was fake.

Do you hear the wood elves?

We just had a big lunch but we're never too full for waffles.

Katie wanted to make a sidewalk angel. The sidewalk was incredibly gross but didn't want to stand in the way of joy.

This was our second attempt at seeing Mount Doom. Last time was too overcast and we couldn't see the peak at all. This was much better.

It was too windy for Katie.

A halfling headed to Mordor.

Auckland Zoo

A Kiwi butt. Some how this is my best picture of the Kiwi.

Galapagos tortoise

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Auckland