A decade ago, we made the bittersweet decision to move away from our home and friends in New Zealand to live close to Jessica’s beloved grandmother for the birth of our first child. (NZ had become our second home and we promised friends, “We’ll be back!”) After that grandma’s death, we had our second daughter and finished the renovation of our home.
Three years ago, we sold that big California house and signed a 1-year lease for a beach house rental to see how much we would genuinely love living just steps from the sand as a family. (Aforementioned grandma pretty much raised Baby Jessica for the first three years of life at the beach!)
As our landlord tried to renew our lease for the second year, Matt’s job suddenly went 100% remote and we realized “We can live from ANYWHERE in the world right now!” Our kids are young (and not in a brick-n-mortar school) and my job can be done from anywhere too.
So we moved to Europe with our kids for a longer spell, then traveled with them through Africa and Asia when our work schedules opened up yet again (so we didn’t have to stay in the European time zones)!
Now you’re all caught up…we were unshackled and free and found ourselves being pulled back by an invisible magnet back to New Zealand…this time with kids!
If this is the first post you’ve ever read of ours about New Zealand, and you’re looking for exciting tips for your first trip,
this is not the post for you.
I usually say an outsider’s first trip to New Zealand should be to the South Island. The scenery is more dramatic and what people are expecting (usually based on films, go figure), and there are a lot of exciting adrenaline-pumping type activities for you to choose from…
However, roughly 80% of the population live on the North Island (yes, read that again), and that’s where we lived…and so naturally, the North Island is where all our friends are, and where we wanted to be all kiwi summer long.
So what you’re going to read and see is not a “21 thrilling things to do on your First Trip Ever to New Zealand.” 🙂 This is “Chill Things Jess and Matt Do Coming Back to Live on the North Island With Kids.”
Being technically homeless, coming back to New Zealand did feel like we just finally decided to move back for a spell and see how it went now that we were a whole decade older, with parenting kids now below our belts…
We soon bought scooters for the girls to cruise around the neighborhoods we were living in…
Caught up on things like laundry…
And seeing what was new at Pak n Save in the last decade (they stopped making my favorite tea! tragedy!😂)…
At one point we took them back to Hamilton for a few days “holiday” to see some friends there and enjoy staying by the lake…
When we first moved to our first flat in New Zealand, we lived about 5 minutes walk from this lake and walked/ran it almost daily…
And we took them to Hamilton Gardens right during the last days of it being free to the public :)…so many HG memories with various friends! (You know who you are. 😉 )
We rented a house from a lovely woman (it’s their family’s bach) right on the beach in a town so small it barely has a grocery store…but we also saw a pod of orcas swimming off our quiet beach one day too, so that has its pros and cons… 😉
Days spent at the beach (or taking the girls to other favorite “secret” beaches we love), swimming or boogie boarding or snorkeling…
Exploring new and old favorite cafés because kiwis do this well…
Early mornings or evenings spent walking on the beach alone, all together, or in pairs as a “Date”…
Introducing the girls to Real Fruit Ice Cream (all around NZ if you keep your eyes peeled)…
Hanging out with friends…
…kind of a trip now that we all have kids, and in “the old days” it was just couples, couples, couples! 🙂 SO AMAZING to look back and see…
The girls especially love staying with our friends who have a farm…
…so much to learn on a farm!
Taking the kids to see native New Zealand wildlife like kiwi, kereru, tuatara, kea, kakariki and more at a conservation center. Great talks, great people.
Picking carrots and potatoes in wellies…
We met so many lovely neighbors over our time renting. This couple kindly invited us to watch them pull in their kontiki with their ATV on the beach (girls love this!), and the biggest catch was a small hammerhead. Trying to carefully cut him lose to go free…
Days earlier we had seen this during a beach walk, so it wasn’t the first we’d seen. (And yes, we swim happily at this beach!)
Our oldest took several surf lessons from a local couple…
She was a natural and was given use of someone’s extra foam surfboard to practice outside of lessons.
We also eventually ended up with bikes…lots and lots of bike rides…
Making miniature nature houses (“fairy houses”) is something they do everywhere they feel chill and relaxed…
If there’s riding nearby, we’ll check it out…
We went up north for 3 weeks and visited some new spots as well as old favorites like this one:
It was actually closed down by the DOC but thankfully the men working there let me pass because the website hadn’t shown it and it was their first day working there (thank you, guys!) so I got to go on one of my FAVORITE walks in New Zealand with absolutely no one else on the path…then on my way back, sweaty, I had a swim in another favorite spot (this is why you wear your togs under your walking clothes in NZ, just in case you come across a beach or pool of water calling your name)…
Our big splurge on our Northland trip was a helicopter ride over the Bay of Islands:
My thoughtful husband insisted I sit up front with the pilot because I was SO excited to see this area from the air!
Did I mention that I’m going to become a helicopter pilot next? 😉 I LOVED IT!
Then it was back to regular life…
Playing at cool parks…
Parks with Flying Foxes by the ocean…(not “zipline”)…
…and parks next to lakes big and small…
Bush walks…
…some to waterfalls…
When people came to visit us in New Zealand, we usually took them to the above waterfall…
…and the below is the highest waterfall you can raft down, which we also did with a dear friend and her husband who came to visit us!
Speaking of visitors, if you must go sightseeing after all this, the luge in Rotorua was a huge hit with the kids.
Staying at this vineyard with a sauna was the hit for mama and daddy….
The problem is, I still have 187 other places to show you and recommend on New Zealand’s North Island for views, walks, exploring, hanging out…
…both for with and without kids…
White sand beaches to west coast black sand beaches…
The best stargazing…you’re seeing clear skies and from the Southern Hemisphere…
So many towns with good cafes and shops to explore…
Frolicking through hills…
…showing the girls some of our favorite repeated viewpoints while driving…(not as exciting for your children as it is for you 😉 haha but does that stop us? 🙂 )…
…and them finally experiencing why you love a certain place so much: priceless.
Someone will have to stop me because I have thousands of photos and things to tell you about visiting the North Island of New Zealand but we’ll leave it at that…:)
Next…
We head to Samoa on holiday!
**For a full list of our travels with kids the past two years, starting in The Azores, see our list In Chronological Order HERE!
