That’s right, welcome to New Zealand! After 6,054 miles and some exceptionally comfortable flying on Singapore Airlines, we arrived safely into Auckland. Our stay in New Zealand’s largest city was short…but we successfully carved out enough time to visit a few of their craft breweries before heading north to the Bay of Islands.

Our first full day in New Zealand brought us some great (but way cooler than Asia) weather and a perfect spot to celebrate Keira’s 11th birthday! 🎉 At first we thought we might need some help finishing off the scratch vanilla cake with strawberries & custard filling and buttercream frosting that Keira & Tara made…but rest assured, we killed it. 🎂

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Paihia was a great home base for our stay in the Bay of Islands. It felt like we were less than 5 minutes away from anywhere we would want to be, from beautiful beaches to hillside hikes to downtown cafes.

Although the kids spent most of their time lounging in the trees or playing in the water, our hike up the Kerikeri River was amazing. The tree pic from the top of this post was also from this hike and could possibly be the most perfect tree we’ve ever seen.

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After a few days of less-than-ideal ocean winds we found a break in the weather and took advantage of the opportunity to get out on the water. So we boarded an Explore “Discover the Bay” tour which took us through some of the area’s 144 islands.

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Don’t be fooled by the crystal clear and shockingly blue water…it’s a chilly 61 degrees! 🥶

Along the way we were fortunate enough to get a visit from 2 pods of New Zealand’s resident bottlenose dolphins. There were some huge adults, some little ones, and also a few that stopped by to check us out and take a few spins out in front of the bow! 🐬

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Our last stop on the Bay of Islands tour took us to historic Russell. Home of New Zealand’s first capital, it’s first restaurant (The Gables), and the BEST HOT CHOCOLATE in New Zealand (Newport Chocolate).

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From Paihia we headed south to hunt down the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and found the perfect haven to unwind in Cambridge. The incredible surroundings (including Hei Hei the chicken) made this one of our favorite Airbnbs of the trip. 🐓

We also found some amazing food while in Cambridge, so if you ever find yourself glowworm 🐛 hunting in the Waitomo region make sure to stop in for some delicious pizza at Alpino and just about everything at Pony.

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There are quite a few cave tours to consider and potentially take advantage of in and around Waitomo. We decided to visit Ruakuri (pics below) and the original Waitomo Caves tour. The Ruakuri caves are beautiful and their immense caverns are filled with thousands of unique formations. There are even a few places where water falls mysteriously from hidden caverns.

The only downside of glowworm hunting is that it’s nearly impossible to capture a decent picture of the amazingly bioluminiscent creatures…mostly because you’re not permitted to take pictures where the highest concentrations are. As for the original Waitomo Caves tour, the highlight of this one was the final 10 minutes where they take you through “Glowworm Grotto” by boat. While the majority of the 45 minute tour felt a little like cattle herding, the final float through the grotto was stunning.

Back in Cambridge it was time to say goodbye our friends, Hei Hei & Gladiator. Sorry, Shere Khan was too chicken to be in the picture. 😝

See you in Hobbiton!