New Zealand 1: Auckland and Coromandel

It's a long, long way to New Zealand from almost everywhere! We left the farm at 9am on Wednesday 11th February and arrived at  Auckland Airport Hotel Ibis at 1am on Friday 13th! 2 long haul flights back to back with a stop in Singapore, just long enough to spend the complimentary SIA transit vouchers. There is also an 11 hour time difference between SA and NZ! The rental car company picked us up from the hotel and once we had wheels, we headed west to Waitakere State Park and Karekare beach, with it's hot, black volcanic sand. We headed across to the Kumeu wine region, which is virtually a suburb of North Auckland and had lunch at the Tasting Shed at Coopers Creek vineyard. We followed the coast road via Riverhead, Long bay and the North Beaches down into Auckland to our hosts Louise and Dave. We went to dinner in Mission Bay and enjoyed catching up on about 20 years of lost time.
On Saturday we were chauffeur-driven around by Louise, for a guided tour of Auckland, taking in One Tree Hill, Mount Eden and Silo Wharf on the waterfront for lunch. Jet lag really kicked in, so we were lucky to catch a few hours sleep before heading out to a Super 15 rugby game; Chiefs vs Blues. You can't come all the way to NZ and not see some live rugby!
On Sunday we left for our road trip, taking the coast road from Auckland via Clevedon and Miranda to the Coromandel Peninsula. There were plenty of sea birds and waders to spot. New Zealand has a lot of birdlife, but very few species, many of which were introduced to the country. And although there are amazing forests, so much open land and many undeveloped areas, the only indigenous land- mammal is a bat.
The Thames Coast from Thames to Coromandel Town is an awesome coastal drive and made it onto our "Top 10 Coastal Drives of the World" list. We stayed at the Anchor Motel, drank NZ Sav Blanc with local fish and chips takeaways while watching SA vs Zim on TV in our room. Cricket World Cup is in full swing here now!