Road trip Auckland - Wellington and return.

Hi there,

I’m coming back with a post about our 1 week trip around the North Island of NZ.

I always wanted to travel the whole country first and then continue more into Asia which was one of reasons why NZ has been chosen as a place to be. You know, naturally people tend to be interested in places far, sometimes missing a lot just around the corner.

Fortunately, we had another good motivation to pack and go: my best friend Alina has arrived from Norway to Auckland for 3 weeks before a start of her year in Dunedin where lucky girl will be doing a 6 months exchange.

Finally, simple as it is, Boris and I took a week off from work, packed dogs and headed to Wellington.

Below is a map of our journey and a short description of places we saw, and OF COURSE a lot of pictures. Enjoy like we did!

The original route was:  Auckland, Hamilton, Mt Maunganui, Tauranga, Rotorua (x), Taupo, Napier (x), Hastings, Havelock North, Norswood, Dannevirke, Palmerson North (x), Masterton, Castlepoint, Lower Hutt (x), Wellington, Levin, Whanganui (x), New Plymouth, Auckland. I also wanted to see Gisborne, but it was too off the route, and we decided to call it next time.

Auckland-Wellington is red on the map above, and return is in blue. Sleepovers are marked as (x) and circled on the picture.

A good start of any trip is a proper preparation. As a part of my job I read online through tripadvisor and lonelyplanet to hit on must-sees and "must-eats". We had a rough plan of dates vs. places or better to say where approximately to stop for nights. Despite of that, we willfully didn't book anything in advance but called places a few hours before arriving instead. Main reason was our zero experience with that kind of long trips, thus i didn't feel confident we would stick to the plan. 

Also travelling with dogs I was not sure we would find a place to sleep. We even took blankets and a tent!

It worked all perfect in the end. Stayed in motels, never paid more than 100$ for three adults and 2 dogs. Absolutely satisfied with money/value.

Good web page for pet friendly accommodation: http://www.wotif.com/

Speaking ahead, in case you won't be bothered to finish the post, we spent 6 days and drove 2000 km return. Pure joy!

The first stop was in Hamilton and Hamilton Gardens. The town itself didn't impress me much previously, so we went to the gardens straight. The Gardens are divided into two sections basically. One, less cultivated kind of, is dog friendly (dogs on a leash). The area is seasonal meaning you have to be lucky to see certain parts in bloom. That time we got to enjoy the Rose Garden even though its "relative" in Auckland at Parnell was blooming a good while ago. Unfortunately, magnolias were not even near to show their full beauty.

The second part, thematic gardens, was strictly no dogs, and we left babes in the car.

American themed garden

Italian garden. I loved it the most.

Indian garden. Was extremely beautiful and stylish.

Chinese garden

I wouldn't say we were very much impressed with Hamilton Gardens, but it is something to visit if you driving past Hamilton. I guess.

On the way from Hamilton to Tauranga we came across a big market in Cambridge and immediately did my part of compulsory shopping: a colorful glass/cement dish, a cement yorkie and a stuffed dog. Yay!

Didn't buy those, but so gonna duplicate the pictures one day. Love the simple idea!

The second official stop was Tauranga and Mt Maunganui which I thought was one place. Nope, two separate towns.

Tauranga is a lovely town down South from Auckland. One of our dogs, Malina (the white maltese) and a new big freezer have come from there before. It's not often i fall into small places but Tauranga is my absolute fav, and I'm already making my plans to retire there breading dogs..

Well, it's a very resort-like place with lots of youngsters outside.

Apart from looking "young" and sunny (they say there is more sunny days in Tauranga than in Auckland), Tauranga is one of NZ main centers for business and international trade. Actually, it doesn't look big and international, and a few Russians living there do complain to be constantly bored BUT land is cheaper there compared to Auckland, uhhh.

Tauranga has a population of more than 100K. About 17% of which is 65+ years old. This figure is about 5% higher than in NZ on average. Somebody was definitely wrong to call it "young" :(

A view from Mt Maunganui

One new famous place in Tauranga we were keen to check was Bobbys Fresh Fish market.

1 Dive Cres Tauranga

Well, if you love Fish-n-Chips and are keen to gain another 10 kilos in a few weeks, I recommend. Otherwise, stay away. Far, far away. Seriously, NZ, you have no understanding of what healthy tasty food is?

Full and feeling extremely heavy after lunching at Bobbys we headed to Rotorua.

Here I have to say that I never particularly liked Rotorua for no big reason, but this time a glimpse of a starting affection was noticed between the two of us.

I was kind of sure, Rotorua is big until I saw its population is twice smaller than of Tauranga. The town is famous for 'rotten eggs smell" which comes from numerous hydrogen sulphide emissions. Rotorua is a well-known geothermal area, and you will see geysers and mud pools literally all around the place.

Speaking about "the smell", they also call Rotorua a rotten-rua or a Sulfur City. Fair enough.

Government Gardens and the Rotorua Museum of Art and History. The Gardens are lovely!

One of natural hot baths in a local park.

Polynesian Spa is a place to experience. If I'm not mistaken, it's in Top 10 NZ spas. Located at the Government Gardens, open till 11 pm. (last entry at 10.15 pm), makes it a perfect ending of a busy touristic day.

Entry is 25$/adult for Adult Pools and Priest spa. You can also book a private pool for extra $, but i personally see no need unless you can't stand many Chinese at one place. Yes, it's 99% Chinese :) They also sing Chinese songs there while bathing which i find cute.
http://www.polynesianspa.co.nz/polynesianspa/adult-pool-and-priest-spa/

The place has a stupid lockers system, so I recommend to take no valuables with. Should reserve 1.5-2 hours.

Silver Oaks Motel is a place where we like to stay in Rotorua. It's nothing fancy but clean, dog friendly by arrangement and seems like price per night could be negotiated. I really like this place! pictures below give a general idea what motels in NZ look like.

http://www.regalgeyserland.co.nz/hotels/heritageinn/index.html349 Fenton Street, Rotorua

We had a double room apartment (sleeps 4) with an outside spa for 80 dollars.

I'm going to cut it here for now and will continue from Taupo, where we had lots of fun!

Cheers,
Elena

11.02.14
Auckland

Look who is back

Sad as it is I gave up on my blog in the end of April even though there was a descent interest from public world wide.
Actually I'm surprised people have been still checking it all that time!

This half a year has brought a lot of changes. I guess a day counts for two when you are settling down in a new country. Bless the immigrants! :)

To sum it up in short, I got a job and had my Silver Fern visa renewed (and there's a good story behind to tell), , we moved houses, I got a second dog, lovely Malina (she's such a beauty and a stereotypical blondie), mom is coming to visit in February, my bestie Alina is on the way to NZ to do an exchange here, and the last and the most important, Chiquita has arrived to Auckland in September!!

Now what i'm going to do over upcoming days is to review my old posts and see if I need to add anything there and well, I'll just tidy up a bit. And for the long run, I'm hoping to keep the blog and cover my story of "one immigrant and a dog (well, two dogs already so far)"

Meanwhile, guys, if there's anybody reading the thing; if you got your Silver Fern and plan to head to NZ soon, or you are thinking of applying for Silver Fern next year, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I'm very keen to hear from you, and we can even organize a get together in NZ one day soon!
You can either drop me a comment to this post or even connect on fb (please, write me a message you are from blogger): https://www.facebook.com/lena.smirnov

Lena is back in town! :P

and Malina herself

Talk to you soon,

Elena

Silver Fern 2013

Annual online application for the Silver Fern JS visa 2013 was filled yesterday on Monday 29th in just a few minutes. As always.

My congratulations to everybody who were lucky and got their places. Those, who didn't make it though the payment, don't be sad, it was a pure luck in the end.
I hope you don't give up and find a better way to make your dream come true.

As a matter of fact, it was very annoying to hear that they didn't fix the web site this year AGAIN, and people had to struggle through ridiculous number of errors and misunderstandings. And this was the government site, you know.

I would like to ask people who read this blog and made it through the payment yesterday to share their experience for the sake of next year applications. Could you, please, leave a comment answering the following:

1. Your country of residence.
2. What kind of bank card you used for the payment, credit/debit.
3. What time your payment went through. You can see it in your net bank, for example. It's a very important information to see how fast places were taken this year.
4. What browser you used.
5. Your occupation/diploma name.

Also any relevant information, comments on this year's application are very welcome.

Thank you very much in advance,

Lena

3 months

Hi there, almost 3 months ago i moved to Auckland, and I can hardly believe it was just 90 days ago.

It's been a tough time recently. 

Last weekend my mom who lives in Altay in the middle of Russia lost her dog. This dog, Lisa, was a true member of the family and she has lived with us for nearly 20 years. Now mom is officially there alone, and it was literally a physical pain to hear her crying on the phone. 

You know, time goes on and parents are not getting younger. Everyday you spend away trying to settle down in a foreign country or saving for a house to bring old ones to visit, your parents are one day closer to the other big day.

Mom feels her life has passed away and she doesn't have much to wait for. Her only concern is me being happy and us living near by. Here I am, as far away as only possible.

The second commitment is my dog Chiquita whom I had to leave in Finland. If I knew from the very beginning she'd have to be away for that long, I would never move to NZ by myself at first place. 

For now Chiquita lives with my good friend, but she has already gotten health problems because of the stress and all medical treatments she had to go through. It will take another month-two to bring her to NZ.

As you see, immigration is not going to be an easy way if you have commitments or strong emotional bonds  at home. I would really question the decision twice.

Speaking about me, there were times when i was going to bed thinking tomorrow i would buy a ticket back for sure, but life is not that easy, of course. In Auckland, and I don't regret it after all. Still a chance to beat them all.

On the good side, I've found a job, and I start on Monday. 

As most best things in life, it came all of sudden. They called me early on Friday and invited for an interview. I had other things to do, the place to see was far away, and it was about to rain, but well, a chance  was still a chance.

The company is a small family run business in selling and hiring machines and equipment like excavators. It doesn't happen often but I felt like being a part of the family from the very first minute. The best part is that people in the company are very open-minded and flexible. I'll be independent and I will have a lot of things to do and to learn. I've got my first task to do, the "homework": to learn driving rules and pass a test on Monday. Guys promised to get me driving in one month already, can you imagine.

Oh yes, my job has nothing to do with polymers, it's an administrative role with a touch of accounting and marketing - ideal case for me for now.

Polymers are here to stay though, and i have a plan for them too.

A few days ago I was coming back from another interview, got lost and had to use a train. Trains are much older here than in Finland, but for some reason I like them a lot, and coming home from the station I thought it would be cool to work somewhere I'd have to go by train. The dream came true :)

Another dream that almost came true was a hammock. I fell for the idea in Dusseldorf a few years ago when we saw it in a shop in the City center.

 And look what I've found on the Long Bay beach a few weeks ago

The cat on the following picture lives somewhere in my neighborhood. It's famous for being extremely fluffy, arrogant and photogenic. 

My first picture from the well-known around Mount Eden, and you can see the crater behind me.

Closing of the open air movies season in Viaduct. We watched old "Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory "- major like.

On Sunday we went to pick up mushrooms. Yuki was there with us!

A few mushrooms I saw mostly looked like that one.

Basically, we found no mushrooms but met locals who let us ride horses instead. I was not complaining.

A Finnish touch in Auckland: korvapuusteja

A rainy day in Auckland, it's a middle of autumn already, oh boy.

On the way to my job-to-be I felt a familiar smell. It was so nice, I couldn't help but follow it. Guess what, guys were building composite walls. You can definitely state I miss Arcada, say hi to Rene from me.

 Superwomen don't cry.

P.s. Pasha, your taking-pictures-skills need an urgent improvement!

Bu,

Lena