Great Barrier Island (Day 1)

Well, first of all I got an email a couple of weeks ago from my good friend, Leslie, from the US telling me that she quit her job recently and had a few weeks off before starting her new one. She was going to come to New Zealand for a couple of weeks to visit and see the sights which was awesome - my second visitor to the Island!! Her visit came at a good time as we had 2 days off for Easter and I was able to manage another day off the following Friday. (Note that here in NZ we actually get public holidays for Easter unlike back home...but I guess at least we have Thanksgiving back home which sort of makes up for it.)

So for Easter, I had already planned to go to Great Barrier Island (NZ's 4th largest island approx. 100km off the coast of Auckland) with a bunch of my work friends. As mentioned in the previous post, Mike went back to Canada. He was originally supposed to join us, but his vacancy left room for Leslie to come along (as it turns out we were in really big houses anyway and it wouldn't have been a problem). We booked flights on Great Barrier Airlines. The roundtrip 30 min. flights were actually cheaper than the 3.5 hour ferry would have been. The planes were really tiny, and we were packed in as you can see in the picture above, but it was really cool to fly above Auckland and a bunch of the other tiny islands along the way. The scenic flight alone was probably almost worth the airfare. My only complaint was the duct tape holding the plane together and the lack of service on the flight (no flight attendants, toilets, or movies).

Side note: The security for the domestic flights here in NZ is ridiculous. In fact, it is nonexistent (at least for these little puddle jumpers). We arrived 30 min. before the flights, told them our names (no ID required), were handed a reusable boarding pass, then waited a bit before being called right on the planes. There were no metal detectors or anti-liquid laws or anything. It would have been interesting if they checked our carry-ons as we had Beer, Liquor, and Wine (as we heard the stores might be closed for the holidays) and the game Twister - that would have raised some eyebrows.


We arrived bright and early Friday morning, picked up the 8-seater "Bongo" van from the airport, and headed to our baches (as you may recall from an earlier post, a "Bach" is the kiwi word for a holiday home). Paula had arranged the houses and I hadn't even really looked up much about them so didn't know what to expect. It turned out that they were beautiful and situated up on a hill with a gorgeous view out onto the water with big decks to sit on and enjoy the sunrise/set. They each had 3-4 bedrooms and plenty of room to hang out downstairs. The picture above shows our view from the balcony. Best of all, for two houses, it only cost us each $160 NZD total for three nights.

Since we arrived early the first day and the weather was nice, we decided to do a hike. James was the captain of the Bongo and drove us along some windy roads and through some beautiful scenery to the Windy Canyon hike up to Mt. Hobson (the highest point on the island). We all enjoyed a morning / afternoon hiking to the top where we had a nice lunch before heading back down. The weather was great (and pretty hot for April). That first evening, we relaxed in the house, BBQ'd some sausages and veggies on the grill, and fell asleep early after a long day. PS - you can find some more great photos of the trip on Steve and Deon's Blog HERE if you're interested.

Leslie on the Windy Canyon hike

Hanging out on the Bongo

Top: James, Chi. Bottom: Steve, Paula, Leslie, Me, Michelle. Photo by Deon.

James, Steve, and Me posing at the top of Mt. Hobson

Deon taking a picture of Leslie taking a picture of me on the hike

Another of Deon's pictures from the hike

At the top of Mt. Hobson (621 meters)

Top: Michelle, Me, Steve, Deon. Bottom: Chi, Paula, James