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 4 of 236 posts

Arriving in Taupo on the central North Island of New ZealandNew Zealand
4 min read2015

Dateline January 27, 2015, Taupo and the Ambleside B&B

Out of Auckland and south to Taupo, with a stop at Rotorua along the way for the geysers and the mud cauldrons and the rest of New Zealand's small-Yellowstone thermal show. We arrived at the Ambleside B&B in Taupo and were met by our hosts, Pat and Russell Jensen, who poured us tea and wine and sat with us for an hour while we got to know them. They had raised two sons on a deer and sheep farm near Hawke's Bay and sold the farm twenty years ago to build this place. Russell's story of getting out of the venison business after Chernobyl, the Norway lamb paradox, the hawks that pick off the lambs at birthing time. Dinner at a lakeside restaurant down the hill at sunset. The next day we played Wairakei and came back to the hot tub — heated by the geothermal water that runs under the property, so hot it takes a hose of cold water to cool it down to soak in. Pat did our laundry for a nominal fee. Two nights here. Off to Huka Falls and then on to Kinloch and the Jack Nicklaus course.

#new-zealand#taupo#rotorua
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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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Swallow Ridge Bed and Breakfast, perched above the Bay of Islands at Kerikeri, New ZealandNew Zealand
3 min read2015

Dateline January 24, 2015, Bay of Islands, Swallow Ridge

Out of Auckland early Saturday morning, heading north for our first New Zealand golf round at Kauri Cliffs. The hostess at the Whangarei information center sent us out on the first "Loop" to Tutukaka, two hours of cliffside driving that returned us to within ten kilometers of where we had started. We did it again on the second Loop. By the time we reached Russell it was too late to look around, so we caught the short ferry across to Kerikeri and our B&B at Swallow Ridge, where Mike and Chris welcomed us in. Mike and Chris had moved from London seven years before and built the place themselves in 2009. The bedroom slider opened directly to the Bay of Islands. Sunrise was something. After Kauri Cliffs the next day, Mike booked us into a local restaurant, and we came back to Swallow Ridge for one of the better nights' sleep of the whole trip.

#new-zealand#bay-of-islands#kerikeri
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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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