What a great family vacation with Mom, Dad, Sona, Aiden, and I! We spent Wednesday through Sunday exploring the Coromandal and ended up with a great New Year’s Eve celebration in Auckland watching the fireworks at Sky Tower.
We started on Wednesday flying to Auckland (1 hour flight) and Aiden was so good. He didn’t cry and was relaxing during the whole journey. Our rental car was at the International terminal so once we got our bags, we walked the green line (15 minutes) to the other terminal and picked up our Ford Everest SUV. First time driving a diesel car and the acceleration wasn’t that great but excellent mileage. Fortunately, all the luggage fit along with Aiden’s stroller. The drive was very scenic but very windy going up, down, and around the mountains. We stopped a few times for pictures but mostly driving without rest until we got to Coromandal town Wednesday late afternoon around 2. Checked into the Harbor View Motel after buying some groceries from the Four Square supermarket. Made pasta that first night and watched a great sunset!
The next day we decided to check out the town and I booked a train ride for Aiden which went through the mountain. It was great and Aiden had a great time checking out the trees, birds, and the scenery. For lunch, we had mussels/oysters and Mom-Pop had some pizza which they enjoyed.
Day 3 was really busy. I booked a boat tour to see Cathedral Cove and the other highlights around Whitianga. The driver was great and showed us most of the attractions including Shakespeare’s Cliff, Champagne rock, couple of beaches, and of course Cathedral Cove. We also saw some fish when he threw food into the water. I was hoping to see some dolphins for Aiden but none showed up. After the boat ride, we had lunch downtown (burgers and sandwiches). After lunch, we decided to head to Hot Water Beach and Aiden had fun playing with Mom building sand castles and enjoying the thermal pool that we waded in. Very unique to this particular beach. There were mounds of sand being dug up to find the hot water and only 1 was available and it definitely was scalding but felt good.
Day 4 in Coromandal was relaxing and we just went into town and then hit a theme park called Waterworks which featured a lot of interesting water contraptions and Aiden seemed to learn about them as well as use their playground fully. Sona and I hiked a couple of times and the views were great. We had another dinner downtown where I had steak and Sona had Halloumi.
Checking out on Day 5 to drive to Auckland on New Year’s Eve. We checked into the hotel around 2 and went to the mall until 6. Sona and I got ready to go and left around 8:30 (after Aiden slept) and took the train into Auckland CBD. We fortunately found a decent Chinese place for dinner and tofu, chicken, and cabbage. The fireworks were spectacular and I was able to record a lot of from where we were sitting. We left around 1 via Uber and slept around 2 AM.
Day 6 is our journey home and we left around 11:30 to head to mall for some last minute shopping before driving to airport. Our flight was on time at 4 PM and we got home around 6 PM. What a great adventure and we all enjoyed spending time together sightseeing, laughing, playing with Aiden, playing cards, and walking around.