April 2025 – Where is Phil now?

Auckland to Wellington, via Rotorua

Wellington, New Zealand – Thursday, 20 March 2025

Our trip to New Zealand was always going to be a short one, with not enough time to do all the things we want to do. Naturally, any time spent in New Zealand has a family focus, but I also want to show Eleanor, and on this visit, Paula, some of the good bits, which are mainly outside of city centres. When Eleanor and I were here last time we had numerous plans to see the country, all of which were thwarted by lockdowns, or in the end when we were due to fly back to the UK, Covid-related nervousness. This time there were no such restrictions, self imposed or otherwise, though now, time time itself is the restriction.

Paula hasn’t been to New Zealand before, so it was important that we dropped Rotorua into the road trip. We also wanted to visit Napier, a place we had to drop last time. There wasn’t much else in the north that I wanted to show off, and with limited time, the South Island is where visitors should go. So that was where I focused my planning energies; not that I would get to many of the best places myself.

I split the road trip into two sections; with me renting a car for the North Island leg and Paula renting a car for the south. Car rental in New Zealand is not terribly expensive, unless you want to return the car to a city different to the one you collect it from. Then it’s madly expensive. I broke the trip into two to save us some money, and Paula could collect and drop off the car from Christchurch airport, saving hundreds of pounds, which we could spend on getting the scenic train from Blenheim.

We waited at Mum’s until the morning rush hour was over before saying farewell and thanks, and then set off for day one of our less than grand tour of New Zealand. The rental car is huge by my standards, yet still only a medium-size SUV, a Mazda something or other. I’m not a car person. It was white and everything worked perfectly well and it ‘seemed’ reasonably economical. At least it was comfortable to drive, other than being comparatively huge. Here it is, parked outside our cabin in Rotorua.

Our first stop was at Hobbiton, something that Paula specifically wanted to do. We had tried to book tickets a couple of weeks ago, but it was sold out. We arrived with the faint hope there would’ve been cancellations. We were wrong, it was packed. Oh well. It was sort of on the way and at least it was a nice day (so far) and the countryside is pretty.

I was really surprised at how good the roads were, and that the motorway out of Auckland, and later in the trip, into Wellington had been massively extended while I’ve been away. I’m not an advocate for building more roads in most instances, but there was a real need to improve on what existed and it has made a huge improvement to journey time, and to road safety and emissions.

We spent the first night in cabins in a tourist park in Rotorua. Accommodation anywhere is expensive and with a lot of nights away we are staying in a mix of cheap and (hopefully) cheerful and mid-market places. This was definitely at the cheap and cheerful end of the scale.

After dumping bags, we drove to Kuirau Park in the centre of the small city. Rotorua’s claim to fame is thermal activity, it’s a hot bed of activity (apologies for the pun). Boiling, steaming pools, geysers, it’s all here, there and everywhere in Rotorua, often popping up in residents’ gardens. There are some fantastic thermal parks here, but most require time and money and we were short of time. Kuirau Park has a few free examples of thermal activity and is worth a visit and we saw some quite cool stuff, well I think there was something cool here; hard to tell with all the steam!

We timed the visit to perfection. Heading back into town it absolutely poured with rain, the heaviest rain I’ve experienced in a long time. Luckily the downpour was short lived and we did park right outside the café we went to for dinner.

The next day, Wednesday, we were back in the car early for the five hour drive to Napier, stopping at the spectacular Huka Falls for a look and a walk before taking breakfast and a much needed coffee in Taupo.

The drive to Napier was lovely, especially the winding Mohaka Gorge section through beautiful native forest with the river running below and alongside the road.

We were really looking forward to visiting Napier, it is the most preserved art deco city in the world and was going to be our main holiday when we lived here, before Covid ruined it for us. Napier deserves its own post and that will come next.

Paula finally got to drive on New Zealand roads the following day, I know she’d been dying to get behind the wheel, but country roads in New Zealand are not the best, or they never used to be. They are much better now and I was just being stupid. Paula drove us all the way to Wellington, our final stop on this leg of the road trip.

We stopped in Hastings for breakfast and took a short detour to the Hastings suburb of St Leonards, just because my flat is in St Leonards on England’s south coast; next to Hastings, and we found it all quite amusing. I like my St Leonards more.

The drive to Wellington was great, especially from the passenger seat. We arrived late afternoon and had a bit of ‘fun’ finding our hotel, and somewhere to stop in the very busy street. We did a quick bag dump and then I took the car back to the rental company and that was the end of road trip one; only three days, but we saw a lot and enjoyed ourselves.

With an early ferry booked in the morning we only had the one evening in Wellington so didn’t linger in the hotel once I returned. We took a roundabout walk catching the harbour, and the (in) famous Bucket Sculpture, the Beehive – New Zealand’s parliament building – before stopping for a decent curry in Cuba St.

After dinner we walked back around the harbour, stopping for the worst glass of wine we had in New Zealand at a waterfront bar. With this being the second disappointment at a harbourside venue, we have definitely learned the lesson, this time.

It’s an early start tomorrow for the ferry to Picton, but before that we go back in time to yesterday when we visit Napier.

Waiheke and Maungawhau (shine and rain)

Auckland, New Zealand – Monday 17 March 2025

On Saturday, Paula, our friend from London arrived in Auckland and we picked her up from the airport in Mum’s little car just after midday. Before picking her up, we drove to my ex-brother in law’s house to see him, my niece, nephew and his partner. We then dropped my niece at my sister’s on the way to the airport. It was good to catch up with my BIL, as I’ve rarely seen him on past visits to New Zealand as he was working in Australia. We had a family get together in the evening. My niece lives in Christchurch and was up for a few days and this was the only time we got to hang out together. As always, hanging out with my family is a stress-free affair, though I was driving, so avoided the wine after a single glass. It was the final family meal for this trip and it was sad saying goodbye to my sister. I made up for wine the following day.

An absolute highlight of any trip back to Auckland is a visit to Waiheke Island. We had the offer of the bach (holiday home) we stayed in last time but couldn’t fit in an overnight trip, though next time we will. We had good intentions of visiting a couple of wineries, but as is always the case, we enjoyed the first one we went to and didn’t move until it was time to head back into the city.

The day started quite early for a Sunday, the intention was to get the train from Mum’s to the city, but there was track maintenance and the trains weren’t running so I got some ‘pre-India’ Uber practise in instead. Mum is kindly staying with a friend and has let us have the run of her two bedroom apartment in the retirement village for a few days, so the three of us can stay together without having to pay for accommodation.

We had the worst coffee and an average, very uninspiring/uninspired breakfast at a city waterfront café (a lesson we failed to learn when we later had the worst glass of wine in New Zealand in a waterfront bar in Wellington.) We didn’t let it spoil the day. We had left early to avoid the rush. It was a glorious sunny end of summer day and we knew the vineyards would be popular and didn’t want to miss getting a spot in our favourite place. We had bought ‘executive’ ferry tickets, which meant we could use a special ferry. A group booking failed to arrive so there was just eight of us on the ferry and it was very nice indeed. We were welcomed with a glass of wine, which set the day off just right and compensated for the lousy breakfast. The journey through the Hauraki Gulf to Waiheke takes about 40 minutes and the sea was calm and the sky was blue and I could have spent all day on the ferry just enjoying the air and the small, and not so small, islands we pass on the way.

Eleanor and I loved Casita Miro, a Spanish themed vineyard, last time we came to Waiheke and decided this was the best place to start showing Paula New Zealand wine and Auckland island life. The bus ride from the ferry passes some lovely beaches along the way and this really does add to the joy of being out of the city, any city; even London. I like Waiheke a lot.

The mosaic mural at the entrance to the vineyard that was still being worked on last time we visited has now been completed and I love the Gaudiesque madness of the tiling along the wall and the other art works scattered around the gardens.

We grabbed a spot under a young olive tree and other than adjusting position as the sun moved around the sky, we didn’t really move for four hours. We just enjoyed wine and food and each other’s company. It was a lovely afternoon and I was so glad Paula enjoyed the place as much as we do.

The following day, Monday, brought us back to earth with low, thick clouds and persistent drizzle all morning. Though, I got an early opportunity to test my new raincoat, and it passed with flying colours. Thankfully

We waited for rush hour, and the school run, to pass and caught the train to Grafton, then walked to and up Maungawhau/Mt Eden. The view from the top over Auckland city is normally fantastic, but there was less of it today. Still it was a nice, if rather damp walk, and Paula got a bit of perspective of the city. I like it up here. A lot of work has gone into preserving the Māori history and the landscape of Maungawhau, and the other extinct (we hope) volcanic cones that make up the centre of Auckland City, all 53 of them… This is a well used tourist spot, though I noticed that tour buses have been banned from driving to the top.

We stopped for a very nice brunch in the café on the mountain before walking back into the city, passing near the Air BnB apartment we stayed in (and I hated) for three weeks when first arrived in Auckland in 2021.

It’s St Patricks Day today and Paula has had a pint of Guinness to celebrate every year since she was a teenager, so it would have been wrong of us to break that run in Auckland. We found an Irish pub (there is always at least one in every city) and Paula got her Guinness and Eleanor and I had a pint of something else as it’s not our thing. The pub was rocking for early afternoon, though sadly we couldn’t stay as I had to pick up a rental car at the airport for our road trip adventure to start tomorrow…

Auckland

Auckland, New Zealand – Friday 14 March 2025

This holiday was a long time in the planning. We started talking about it well over a year ago, though we didn’t start to book things until late in 2024. Unusually for us, we’re splitting the holiday into a couple of sections. We have one of our good London friends, Paula, joining us in Auckland tomorrow (Saturday 15 March) and all we’re going to road trip to see one of my sisters in Dunedin, which is close to the bottom of the South Island and from there we separate. I’m going to Brisbane in Australia for a night and then onto Delhi, India via Hong Kong ,before going back to London. Eleanor and Paula are going to road trip in New Zealand for a few more days before going to Sydney and Tokyo and then on to London. Eleanor and I will be apart for 16 days, the longest we’ve been apart since 2019, at least.

Considering the circumstances, our time in Auckland was good. I have an unwell family member, thought it’s not the right time to speak on this, and my aunt’s husband, who has been sick for a while, passed away in hospital during our visit. I guess I’m of an age where visits back home are not always going to be a bundle of laughs.

We arrived in Auckland on Friday 7 March on a warm and sunny day, a welcome relief after what seemed like three months of cold and grey in London. Most of our time in New Zealand, and for me Brisbane and India, was spent under a cloudless sky. It was so nice to be warm again.

With only a week in Auckland we had a fairly full schedule, we wanted to see friends and family as well as revisit a few of our favourite spots from when we lived here during the Covid lockdown of mid 2021 to early 2022. On revisit some of those places brought a happy smile, but some just were a bit ‘meh’, I guess we’ve moved on since the days of lockdown. Our favourite places remain favourites though and it was a joy to walk around and even more of a joy to sample the huge variety of delicious pinot gris wines available in NZ. None of that pinot grigio pish they sell in London.

Highlights

Spending time with my family. It was great seeing mum, my sister, niece, nephew, aunt and my son and grandson. I’ve been away from family for 13 years and it’s been three since we were last ‘home’, though my sister and son have visited us in London between. I’m conscious that every visit is important and getting to hang out with family, even for a few days is precious and not to be taken for granted.

The afternoon we arrived we went for a nice walk from my sister and son to nearby One Tree Hill. Auckland is blessed with a number of great parks and green space and during the early days of Covid in 2021 we took numerous walks here. It is a go to place whenever I come to New Zealand.

Millie, my sisters dog came with us. She looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, but she’d have your legs off in a flash if she took a dislike to you.

As with every visit back to New Zealand Mum and I visited Muriwai Beach. We scattered dad’s ashes here in 2007 and it’s an essential part of any visit. Muriwai had long been a happy place before then and it’s somewhere I would be happy to have some of my ashes scattered as well. I think about these things now I’m in my 60s.

It was a hot and sunny day and Muriwai was at its best. There had been a significant weather event here in 2023 with major damage to property (and a couple of lives sadly lost) due to land slips.

The area where we scattered dad was closed off and almost unrecognisable as a large chunk of it had slipped down hill. Fortunately the famous gannet colony was largely unaffected and the council have repaired access to the viewing platforms. It’s the end of gannet season and it was a pleasant surprise to see a few still nesting their young.

On the Saturday, my son took Eleanor and my grandson for a short road trip up to a small farm holding owned by one of my son’s friends and his partner. D is an old boyfriend of my daughter and now a good friend of my son. D is English and I stayed with him and my daughter on a few occasions when they lived in Bristol, he’s a nice guy and it was fun seeing him on his farm. Eleanor finally go to try feijoas, a fruit that is very much a part of late summer in New Zealand. She wasn’t that impressed, which is fair enough as I’m not either.

As well as growing a lot different fruit and vege for a market garden stall, D has a couple of calves and chickens. My grandson had fun too, in fact we all had a good time.

A secondary reason for visiting the farm was it’s location, not to far from the town of Warkworth. Warkworth is one of the key locations for the NZ TV series ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’. We are slightly obsessed with Brokenwood, though no-one we spoke to in NZ knew much about it. We stopped for a drink in one the bars in Warkworth which is the location for one of the bars in the series. We were a little excited about this.

We also found the church used in the series not too far from mum’s place in Henderson.

Though it was a particularly wet day, which we were very unprepared for so subsequently got completely drenched, mum and I had a nice walk and lunch in Devonport on Auckland’s north shore. We caught the train into town and then the ferry across the Waitemata Harbour and walked to the Navy Museum where we had a damp lunch, before getting the full soaking on the way back to the ferry.

I ended up buying a new rain coat and throwing away the cheap jacket I’d had for 20 years that I found was no longer waterproof. Last time we were in Devonport we had ice creams that melted over and down the side of the cone as it was so hot and sunny. It was the only day where the weather impacted on the day’s activities for the entire month I was away.

Eleanor and I like to walk. We walked a lot when we lived in Auckland for seven months during Covid and then I sold my car soon after we returned to the UK in 2022. We walk a lot in London, and I was doing longer walks than usual to build a bit of walking strength for this holiday, particularly when I go to Delhi in a couple of weeks. We walked a lot around Auckland, it was nice, especially on those clear and warm days.

We visited the Winter Gardens in Auckland Domain. They were closed when we were here last time, and my memory said they were more crowded with plants than they were this time so I was a little disappointed. They were still nice to visit though.

We walked down one of the tree lined paths from the Domain back into the city. I love the trees in Auckland, especially the big old Pohutukawa’s, the New Zealand Christmas tree, and there are some great sprawling examples in the domain. When we were living here I started a folk horror short story that was set among these trees, though I never finished it. I had a good start and a good middle, and even a good end. I just couldn’t find may way from the middle to the end at the time. I must revisit it one day; walking here reminded me of the story.

Auckland has a wonderful seafront and we very much enjoyed a couple of bars and cafes in the Wynyard Quarter as we lived nearby. This trip we found a new bar at Westhaven Marina, a location that has been in desperate need of a place to stop for a coffee, a meal or a glass of wine. We had a couple of really nice walks near the sea; something I miss when living in London, and weirdly while I love walking the seafront at St Leonards, and can’t wait to get back there, it’s not quite the same as walking here. It’s the city person in me I guess.

The trip and my main memories seem to be related to bars. The wine in New Zealand is spectacular, and so much cheaper than in the UK, especially with the exchange rate as it is. We’ve also become quite fond of the old fashioned (whiskey based) cocktail and had a couple of nice ones. Friends recommended a new rooftop bar at Number One Queen St, which we managed to get a table late one afternoon. The view over the ferry building and harbour was just stunning, and their old fashioned was very nice too.

Last time we were here I was introduced to the joys of Debrett’s Kitchen a small bistro attached to Debrett’s Hotel, a very old Auckland establishment. As well as making a very nice old fashioned, and a damn good flat white, its just a cool place to hang out. It’s always been quiet when ever I’ve been there and the music has always been good. My favourite drinking hole in Auckland.

And a final highlight for me was mince on toast. Not something I see in the UK very often. Eleanor thinks it a combination of weird and disgusting, but I thought this one was fantastic!

How did I find Delhi?

I’m back in London, and have been for a couple of days. I’m still joining all my India thoughts up, and depending on where I’m at in the sleep/wake cycle those thoughts tend to vary. I’m really glad I wrote lose notes on most of the days I was away so I at least have some record of events to refer to as it was all a bit of a blur. A very slow moving blur as nothing happens at pace in India.

I’ve surprised myself by not yet editing many of the photos I took over the month I was away in New Zealand, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Delhi and Chandigarh. In the past I’ve been disciplined (or interested enough) to edit and write most days. This trip I’ve barely done any at all. I’ve (hopefully only temporarily) lost the enthusiasm I had for photography, writing and editing those photos and words. It was inevitable really, I’ve been doing this for a long time.

Before we left I’d been thinking that this month long break, the first long break in three years, was perhaps going to be a transition period and my interests would lie somewhere else once I’m back home. I’ve been thinking more about aging and what that means, I’m only four and half years away from the UK retirement age of 67, I ache and my pension(s) are not going to keep me in the lifestyle I’ve become accustomed to, so it’s time rethink how I live. This was something I planned to do while I was away on my own, though I never really got around to it; my brain is full. Something to do now I’m home.

What did I think of Delhi? I almost said ‘What did I think of India?’, but Delhi is as much as a reflection on India as London is on England so it would be a terrible crime to cast of all India into the one Delhi shaped pot. Overall, my view of Delhi is probably no different to the view held by most people who don’t hate it; though I can certainly understand any westerners who dislike it that much. It’s a deeply frustrating, and occasionally annoying city, it’s also (reasonably) welcoming, a lot cleaner than expected, less polluted, easy to get around and overall I enjoyed it. Though it isn’t necessarily ‘fun’.

Would I go back? Probably not, though I’ve seen most of what I wanted to see, so there isn’t any reason to go back, other than to transit to somewhere else in India. I would go back to India; though I won’t travel solo again as I found it too hard this time. It’s not just age that has caught up with me, I’m not as adventurous as I used to be, and to be honest with myself, I was never THAT adventurous in the first place.

What did I like about Delhi?

It’s a surprisingly green city, especially the New Delhi and South Delhi areas where I was staying and sightseeing. There are a lot of trees and some lovely parks. Yes, it’s dusty and a little grubby, but you can’t help that when you’re not that far from a desert. There is also a ‘no burn’ policy; which means there are piles of leaves everywhere, which amused me as every morning near my hotel the house keepers would sweep the leaves into piles, and overnight those piles would redistribute themselves back over their driveways, just to be swept back into piles. Rinse and repeat as the young folk say. There are quite a few electric buses and even electric auto rickshaws. It will take a long time for everything to change, but it will.

Other than the first day I wasn’t bothered by pollution, I occasionally wore a mask, but it wasn’t as bad as expected.

At no point did I feel unsafe, or even uncomfortable, admittedly I’m a white man and the experience of female travellers will be very different. I walked a lot and not always just on the main tourist routes and at no time did I feel like I was in any danger, other than possibly falling into a sewer.

Other than a couple of occasions I was generally left alone, the Delhi-ites didn’t care about me. I used the Metro a lot and other than the last day I didn’t see another westerner on any of the trains; I was occasionally included (not overly subtly) in some selfies, but mostly it was like the London Underground, everyone ignored everyone else. I was expecting constant hassle from drivers, guides, shoe shine boys and beggars, this just didn’t happen outside of places like stations and the big tourist attractions. I walked a lot and other than being hot and the occasion sewer stench it was fine and hassle free.

Delhi has (surprise, surprise) an amazing history and there are some fabulous old buildings, in various states of repair. There are the big attractions (Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun Tomb) that are fabulous, but just walking around I stumbled across a number of ancient structures just in residential streets.

My hotel was fine; it was in a ‘posh’ suburb, with quiet tree lined streets and not far from a Metro station. It served decent, it limited food, had a nice roof terrace and had beer and gin – but only from 5pm. I liked staying there, and had two evenings where I spoke to other guests.

Uber. I don’t use it in London, but Uber saved my holiday, as I’m sure I will detail in a future post.

Once you get used to walking in, or crossing roads, and understand that the honking is often advisory (for instance I’m coming up behind you and know you are there), it’s actually not too bad. There are few footpaths, and where there are they often more hazardous than the road, getting used to walking with vehicles around is a must.

Food. I ate a lot of food, 90% of what I ate was local food, I did eat western food twice; once in Delhi and once in Chandigarh. I practiced as well as I could good food hygiene, particularly hand sanitising before eating and other than a couple of tummy rumbles early on I was fine, I didn’t get ‘Delhi Belly’.

Metro station samosa, I had a few of these.

Making my banana paratha as part of the old Delhi Food Tour I joined.

What didn’t I like?

Signage is poor, there are few signs showing the direction to places of interest. For instance; on the London Underground you will be told to ‘exit here for the British Museum’ for example. While the Delhi Metro is fabulous and cheap and reasonably simple to work out, and announcements are in English as well as Hindi, it would be good to hear ‘please exit here for Red Fort’ or something. I guess a lot of western tourists (there is significant internal tourism) use guides and cars rather than walk or use the Metro.

There are lots of government buildings in central Delhi, near a lot of the tourist areas, this means there are lots (and lots and lots) of armed police and they are remarkably unfriendly and on occasion intimidating. There are lots of police barriers.

Scams. Yes, I got scammed. Twice in hindsight, though once wasn’t really a scam per se and didn’t cost me anything. This guy…

The ATM provides 500 rupee bills, which are about 5 pounds. Lots of things cost significantly less than 500 rupees and no-one has change and it’s really hard to get smaller value notes.

Not Delhi’s fault, but in the end I felt quite lonely. The other guests in the main stuck to their groups, which is fair enough, and I didn’t meet other people as I travelled about. Other than the food walk tour I took on my second to last day there was zero engagement with other tourists and I found this tiring in the end.

I mistook people saying things in English with ‘they understand English’, when often they only know a few phrases and any questions outside of their knowledge sometimes resulted in an agreeable ‘yes’, which I thought meant they understood what I asked, when clearly they didn’t and results could be unexpected. This was not their problem. This was my problem. I don’t understand Hindi, at all.

So overall, if you have any interest in different cultures, in food and in history, then Delhi is absolutely worth visiting. It’s safe and easy (ish) to get around and it’s a big step away from your everyday western life.

I took over 1800 photos while I was in New Zealand, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Delhi and Chandigarh and it’s going to take time to go through them all and write up posts. I plan on doing this over the next few weeks, starting at the beginning (as it’s a very good place to start) of the holiday, with New Zealand.