September 20, 2025
I rarely blog about the day of travel home. But in this case, I think I will as I want to remember a few things about the trip. I realize very few people read this. And that’s ok. It is kind of my public diary of our trips that we’ve made. And we’ve made a few.
New Zealand was a wonderful trip. The country is modern. The roads were amazing to drive on…well taken care of, wide and so on. The food was good. We’ve eaten in many countries and New Zealand would be middle of the road there. But all in all, we ate well. But here are some key things for me to remember about the trip:
1. The roads were windy. New Zealand is a mountain based country. In the valleys, the roads are fairly straight especially between Hamilton and Auckland where highway 1 is a great freeway system. But when you get into the mountains, wow, it is hours and hours of windy road driving. Hard to take in the beauty of the land when you are behind the wheel.
2. In September, New Zealand can be wet and windy. It was more windy than wet. It seemed like the wind blew constantly. Fortunately it was not too cold hovering around mid to high 60’s in the daytime and a bit cooler in the evening. We did turn heat on in our rooms on occasion.
3. I used AirBNB and Chase Travel Hotel rewards on this trip. The Bnb’s were lovely and clean. Being on the beach at Hot Water Beach is fun. The units was not ‘on’ the beach. It was a 100 yard or so walk to get down to it on a nice trail. But there is nothing between the unit and the water to speak of other than a creek/river. The unit in Taupō was so darn clean and nice. It was in the backyard of the people’s home. But the hot tub and putting green experience made staying there unique. We also washed clothing there bring back memories on what poor washing and drying machines they have in some of these countries. It’s probably us on not knowing how to use them correctly. As for the hotels\motels, I think my choices for these properties were spot on. None of them let me down. The view in Napier out across a park and into the ocean was pretty cool. Its location was good too. Our stay in Hamilton surprised me. That was probably the nicest, cleanest motel room that we had. The room in Rotorua was unique in that it was very old. But they did give us the largest room there, I think, as I walked and looked into other rooms. I’ll always remember the floors creaking on every footstep there and washing our bathing attire multiple times there due to the mud baths we took. The funny thing was that we hung up our suits from picture frames on the walls next to the rooms heater. And, the lobby to this hotel, even though you eventually had to walk outside to get to your room, was amazing with two fireplaces constantly going in a parlor like setting.
4. Prior to landing in Auckland, I had not booked anything other than the rental car. Well, I think I booked the Hot Water beach BnB after I got my seat assigned in SFO. I booked the rest the first and second nights in New Zealand. So having said this, it can be done pretty easily on the fly and having watched the prices of hotels, I did not feel like the prices jumped in any way by waiting. And as stated above, it all worked out pretty good.
5. I rented the rental car from Enterprise rent a car. They were very kind. The car was an SUV, bigger than I had expected. But it was a nice Mitsubishi SUV. The pickup and turn in was easy. The adjustment to the driving on the left side of the road came back easy. The biggest challenge was that the turn signal was on the opposite side of the steering wheel that I’m used to. So I think the windshield wipers were on more than needs be. And funny thing, upon driving here again at home, I’m now having to adjust back and going to the store yesterday I think the cars around me thought I was nuts as I kept turning the windshield wipers on every time I wanted to turn. Pretty funny. But the driving, it was great over there in New Zealand!
6. Being able to go to both the New Zealand temples was pretty cool. When we landed in Auckland and headed out of town, we could see this large building down the way on the freeway. Denise and I asked each other, what’s that big building down the way not knowing that this was the new Auckland temple! It sits right on their major freeway leading south towards Hamilton. It has only been in operation since April. And, I was amazed at how small their endowment rooms are. I think that is the new design trend…more endowment rooms that are smaller that can go more frequently. Hamilton took me back to London and the temple we served in there. Older, yet beautiful. And attendance was smaller. But with Auckland coming online, you have to assume that Hamilton has lost a lot of attendance and is still adjusting. But boy, what a beautiful site that temple sits on. President McKay loved to put the temples he led in building out away from the cities on beautiful, large, sites. Anyway, seeing and being in both temples was a highlight.
7. Lastly, I think Denise and I did more ‘fun’ and ‘interesting’ things on this trip than on other trips. I don’t think we’ve ever gone to an Aquarium or Zoo in the past. We’ve rented bikes in the past but never e-bikes that I can recall. And to dig our own hot tub on Hot Water beach will always be a tale to remember. And we will never forget the mud baths and hot spring bathing in Rotorua along with the Māori experience there. And that buffet that they put out was truly the ‘experience’ at the Māori experience! And, yes, we did the touristy thing at Hobiton. I guess if you’re going to be on the north island of New Zealand, you have to do the Hobiton thing. But between you and me, not worth the time or the money UNLESS you are a big Hobit or Lord of the Rings fan.
Flying home went well, all things considered. Unfortunately, neither of us received Business Class seats. We both ended up on opposite sides of the plane…both in bulkhead seats. The good news with bulk head is that you always have a ton of leg room. The bad news is that the chair arms are very hard and fixed and all your entertainment and food trays have to be raised up in a weird way. It wasn’t the most comfortable 12 hour flight we’ve ever had. The experience at the Auckland airport was like some other international airports where they would not let us pass through security until we had a seat assigned. Our flight was to depart at 1:50 so they asked us to return to the ticket counter at 12:15 to form a line to wait for your name to be called once a seat had been assigned. We had to check in the car before 10 AM. So we were at the airport fairly early. Fortunately they had a lovely food court where you could hang out before you went through security. So we got some breakfast (I had sushi believe it or not) and just waited until noon. I think we received our seats probably around 12:30 with plenty of time to get through security and their brief passport control. Passport control is so much better in most international airports now. And for us, arriving into the US, using Global Entry is worth every penny. You zoom right through customs unlike all those in long lines passing through the standard way.
I would love to return to New Zealand someday to see the South Island. They say it is a bit more stunning. But who knows as we enjoyed very much what we saw on the North Island.
Pictures:
We were two monkeys in a foreign land, Denise and I were. But…..
