Retired Nomads: Auckland, New Zealand

Throughout the night, we rounded the North Island’s archipelago towards Auckland. On our final approach we left Tiritiri Mantangi Islands on the Starboard side where we set a Southwesterely course inside the harbor water where we docked for the day.

Sienna's kiddie pool up on deck 11 - Captain JP's 2 year old daughter

The last time we were in Auckland we visited the Glow Worm caves, which we enjoyed a LOT. This time we chose to see some of the countryside and see the Gannet Colony and visit a working sheep farm. http://coast2coastnz.com/auckland-sheep-farm-tours/

Description of tour:

“Our sheep farm is NOT a commercialized purpose-built attraction. We are a REAL sheep farm… and we have opened our home as part of our tour. …Stu has been a sheep farmer all of his working life, and we have REAL working dogs, and a REAL woolshed!

Our sheep farm is the ONLY private sheep farm within 40 minutes from Auckland city. Our family came to this farm in 1922.

We welcome you to look inside our Homestead, (which is a typical “kiwi” home and a Colonial-style house), and you’ll also enjoy afternoon tea at our Homestead!

We’ll show you some interesting New Zealand-lifestyle features and historic photos of the area. Enjoy interacting with our many animals, and feeding and touching pet sheep. Walk through our New Zealand Native garden on the way to our woolshed where there is a wool display.”

First, I want to say how wonderful the correspondence had been with Donna. Always prompt and informative. Donna and her husband Stu were even better in person!

arrival at the port

Stu was right on time to pick us up at the ship. He was pleasant and informative on our drive to our first stop which was Craft World where we all bought plenty of the local artist’s creations. I got my token magnets which were made of beautiful laser cut wood and one was adorned with a Kiwi bird made from Paua Shell and the other the shape of New Zealand (both islands). I also got a lovely Paua shell necklace which was a Maori symbol for the silver fern and matching earrings of Kiwi birds. Alas, we didn’t get to see any actual Kiwi birds.

from the van

arrival at Craft World

our van for the day

Our next stop was for Wine-tasting at Soljan’s Winery. We tried about 6 different kinds including some sparkling wine and some port. Greg bought a bottle of the Pinot Gris and we also got some New Zealand grown dark chocolate covered macadamia nuts. This would have also been our lunch stop but it was too early for lunch so we continued to Muriwai Beach.

the Winery

Tom & Cathy

Janie & Rick

drive to the coast to see the Gannets

Gannets

Then, it was time for lunch at a café at the beach. We had fish & chips and a Feta & Mushroom Pie. Yum!

After lunch, we went back to the Muriwai Beach area which is one of the few places in the world to see the Takapu (Gannet) nests on the mainland. Gannets are also a type of Booby. About 1,200 pairs of Gannets nest here from August to March each year. They have a wingspan of 2 meters. Each pair lays one egg and they take turns sitting on the nest. The chicks hatch naked, but within a week they are covered in fluffy white down. As they mature they grow juvenile feathers and begin to exercise their wings in preparation for the one-shot jump off the cliff. Once airborne, the young Gannets leave the colony and cross the Tasman Sea to Australia. A few years later, surviving birds return to secure a nest site at the colony.

We watched one pair doing their mating ritual. We also saw a mother with a chick that we thought was dead. She was grooming it and it was not moving and its’ eye looked weird. It must have been sleeping and it got up and was interacting with Its’ parent.

After observing them for quite a while we walked down another path down the beach and Stu was waiting for us at the bottom with the van.

Stu then drove us to their historic sheep farm. They welcomed us inside their home after Donna who is half Maori and half Dutch greeted us in the native language and we responded back the word for thank you to here (after Stu coached us in the van) We saw the Native Pohutukawa, also known as the NZ Christmas tree) which was planted by Stu’s mother when she first came to thier farm in 1922, so *almost* a century old. She says it flowers religiously Christmas week and the flowers stay for about 4 weeks. She sent me photos of it at Christmas since it wouldn’t be blooming when we got there.

arrival at their farm

Donna welcomes us

blooming tree was their Christmas card

We met their family dog Manu and she showed us around their home explaining the history behind everything inside and showed us family photos of all the generations that had lived there.

Then we had some honey-tasting before going outside to meet the sheep and feed them some bread. Their sheep dog demonstrated how to herd them. We walked around the gardens and saw apple trees, grape vines, Kiwi fruit and Macadamia nuts. Then, we met the barking sheep dog. We visited their wool shed and they explained the process of sheering and how all of the wool is used for one thing or another so nothing goes to waste. Donna also takes in birds that need rehabilitation and we saw those.

honey tasting

group photo

Stevie passed a few days after we visited

Then, we came back inside their home for afternoon tea. We chose our tea flavors and Donna brought us all Pavlova which was divine! After tea, we were presented with post cards, some of the black beach sand and a magnet (that attracts the beach sand) and we got to choose some Paua shell pieces.

All too soon it was time to leave them and Stu drove us back to the port. We originally were going to go up the Sky Tower (like the Space Needle in Seattle), but the weather was taking a turn and it was starting to rain, so we decided to be taken back to the ship with the other 4. On the way back Cathy & Tom asked if we could stop at a local grocery store to shop for some things. Stu accommodated the request and it’s always interesting to see local stores. Sadly, Stu told us they are retiring in a couple of months as this really is a fantastic tour.

grocery store

Back at the pier Greg & I decided to walk back to JOY, an ice cream shop that he recommended and he said to make sure we tried the Hokey Pokey flavor. We tried that and some of their chocolate. Yum!

our ship in the background

We were joined today by Rick & Janie and Tom & Cathy. This was our first tour with Tom & Cathy and they will join us again in Venice. Great tour mates!

It was open seating for dinner so we freshened up and went to dinner. We sat with an entertainer and the arts and crafts couple on board. I swear that Auckland has the most sail boats in the world. Last time the weather was sunny and beautiful and we sailed out before sunset and the number of beautiful sail boats was astounding. We had a cloudy day and even with the rain at dinner there was a steady stream of sail boats in the harbor. Still a beautiful site.

After dinner, the show was a culture show called Haka The Legend which was a local folklore troupe that performed the dances and songs of the Maori culture. Very fun to watch. It was similar to the one we saw yesterday at the Treaty Grounds. We skipped the Game Show to upload photos of the day. It will take a while to get through them all, so be patient and I will add them when I can.