Travels WithJohn and Janice

Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

Showing 3 of 236 posts

Gulf Harbour Country Club, Robert Trent Jones design on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of AucklandNew Zealand
3 min read2015

Dateline January 26, 2015, Golf at Gulf Harbour

Goodbyes after breakfast at Swallow Ridge, then south back toward Auckland for our second round of New Zealand golf at Gulf Harbour, the Robert Trent Jones design that hosted the 1998 World Cup of Golf. Jones likens the course to Pebble Beach. Pete and Bunny had been with us on the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama in 2012, so we were happy to be playing another Jones course together. An early afternoon tee time, a clubhouse sandwich, a few range balls, and out we went. The front nine was a pleasant layout, challenging in spots but not punishing. The back nine climbs up to the cliffs above the Hauraki Gulf, with views back across to Auckland and the Sky Tower in the distance. We absolutely loved the back nine. Off to Panorama Heights in Western Auckland for the night, then south in the morning to our next golf course and our next B&B.

#new-zealand#gulf-harbour#gulf-harbour-country-club
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The view from the porch at Panorama Heights, looking out across the bay to downtown Auckland and the Harbour BridgeNew Zealand
4 min read2015

Dateline January 26, 2015, Panorama Heights, Western Auckland

About an hour from Gulf Harbour, up into the Waitakere Range in West Auckland, to Panorama Heights, our bed and breakfast for the night. Our hosts Allison and Paul had been running the place for sixteen years and had it set up beautifully. The B&B was the upper of two houses on the property, perched high on a steep hillside, with a porch looking straight out across the bay to downtown Auckland and the Harbour Bridge. The sun went down, the city lights came up, and we stood out there for a while. A country breakfast in the morning that we ate with Allison and Paul at the table, along with a short history of the Waitakere preserve below and the kauri trees that once covered it. Then came the small mystery: did we know what a panel beater was? We did not. With some hints, we figured out it was the Kiwi term for an auto body repair person. Then Paul took us outside to show us his cars, a brand-new red Jaguar F-Type and a fully restored 1967 E-Type, both done by the resident panel beater himself.

#new-zealand#panorama-heights#waitakere-range
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Auckland's harbor and waterfront, cleaned up for the America's Cup defense in 2000New Zealand
5 min read2015

Dateline January 24, 2015, Auckland, Welcome to New Zealand

Out of Sydney on the morning flight to Auckland. Will Owen of Playing Around New Zealand, who would be our tour operator for the whole New Zealand leg of the trip, met us at the airport and got us checked into the Stamford Hotel on the harbor. A two-hour driving tour of the city the next morning: Mount Eden (an inactive volcano with views the length of the harbor), a stop at the stadium where the World Rugby Championships had been held, a stretch along the America's Cup waterfront, and along the beach communities where one resident in five seems to own a boat. In the afternoon, the ferry across to Waiheke Island for the Hop On bus, two wineries (Stonebridge first, Cable Bay second, the second clearly better), and a long conversation at Cable Bay with Lizzie Dunkley, four years into a solo trip around the world. Back into Auckland for the city's 175th birthday weekend, with an English contortionist folded into a glass box on the waterfront. In the morning, off to the Bay of Islands and our first round of New Zealand golf at Kauri Cliffs.

#new-zealand#auckland#mount-eden
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