Kia Ora New Zealand

25 October through 31 October 2025

Kia Ora = hello! Or in the Maori culture, more specifically, it means "be well" 

When I finally arrived in Auckland (YAY!), I was quite tired. I wouldn't blame it completely on jet lag, since I literally jumped ahead 23 hours (Friday basically vanished), but I didn't get as much sleep time on the plane as I had planned. I departed from Honolulu around 11pm on Thursday night, and as soon as we were in the air, Fiji Airways, bless their hearts, passed out drinks and food. I was already quite tired, but I couldn't turn down sustenance at this point, not knowing when I would get fed again. During the flight that lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes, I did manage to get a little sleep, but not nearly enough. When we landed in Samoa, I wasn't required to get off the plance, but others were disembarking and many more were boarding the plane, so it was not conducive to sleeping at that point either. Mind you, this was at 3:35 am on Saturday (notice how Friday just vanished? That's the magic of the international date line!). 

A view from my window seat.

When I landed in Fiji, everyone was required to get off the plane and stand in line to go through customs before boarding the plane to Auckland. It was an long process, but I got through without a hitch. Thankfully the Fiji Airways agents who originally checked me into the flights in Honolulu had been gracious with my overweight and oversized luggage. I am traveling with a 40 liter backpack that I bought specifically for this trip so I wouldn't need to check any luggage (for the simple reasons of not worrying about losing my luggage and also to not have to wait around at the luggage carousel) and also a 25 liter backpack. I laughed and wasn't stressed at how much overweight my bags were, and told them, truthfully, that it's becasue my Bible is so heavy. Then I asked what I had to do to get my bags on the plane, assuming I would have to pay for my bag to get checked instead of just being a carry-on. She told me to take it to the 'model overhead bin' to check the dimensions and size to check if it would pass that test. It definitely failed...it just sat on the top of the space. I laughed again and brought it back to the counter, still expecting to pay to get it checked. She started tagging both of my bags with carry-on tags and told me that it was fine. I was slightly concerned that my bag wouldn't fit when I got on the plane, but I knew if worst came to worst, I'd move some stuff around to make the smaller bag fuller the the larger backpack flatter. It turns out I didn't have to do any of that, and it all worked out swimmingly. 

Me and my 65 total liters of travel space (40 liters in my back pack and 25 liters in my front pack).

I took a pre-booked shuttle from the airport to my hostel, once I landed in Auckland. As I mentioned earlier, I was quite tired, but I knew I needed to keep to a regular schedule, otherwise jet lag would mess with me. I checked in to Verandahs Parkside Lodge, which is beautifully situated at the edge of a park, so there is a lovely area to sit and look out onto the greenery! 

The view from my hostel in Auckland. 

I took a walk to wander a bit, ended up walking down Karangahape Road (a.k.a. K-road), which is apparently the city's main LGBTQ district and also known for its nightlife. I definitely knew it was not my scene and was glad to be there during the early afternoon. I stopped at a restaurant near my hostel for dinner and was back and asleep at 8pm. On Sunday, I had searched online to find a local Assembly of God church that I wanted to check out. I missed their morning service, as I had gotten distracted while chatting with Veronica. No worries, I went to their 6pm service instead. During the day, I walked around the Ponsonby area of the city, which is also nearby the hostel and is known as a foodie's paradise. This area was much cleaner and felt more upscale than the other area I'd walked through. I found a lovely cafe to sit in for a few hours with delicious mushroom coffee and a large selection of delicious gluten free food options! Later in the day, I took an Uber to church and met a few lovely ladies there. I really enjoyed the worship music and the message entitled 'Soar Like an Eagle'. There was even a small bbq gathering after service that I was invited to, since the following day was a holiday for the country (Labor Day). One of the women from the worship team drove me back to my hostel after the bbq. 

On Monday, I went to a hot yoga class and then set off from my hostel to explore the central city area, known as the CBD (central business district). I went to the One NZ cell phone store to have them set me up with a local eSIM card for my phone, so I can have data, local calls, and local texts. I ended up having to stop back in the next day to get help actually getting it to work correctly, but overall it was easy and not too epensive (99 New Zealand dollars, which is approximately $55 USD) for 90 days. I also ended up purchasing an umbrella, since it just wouldn't stop raining, and I had left my rainjacket at the hostel...rookie mistake! Turns out it was quite windy, and the umbrella struggled to stay open the correct way anyway. I made my way back to the hostel to book my bus and shuttle tickets for the next day, as I had decided to head north to go scuba diving. I went back out to Ponsonby to eat dinner at a famous sourdough pizzeria called Dante's. It was so delicious! 

My sourdough pizza from Dante's. Mmmm!

Tuesday morning I did another hot yoga class at the local yoga studio. I stopped at Woolworth's, which is one of the local grocery store options. I knew I needed to stock up on some food, since the town where I was going to dive wouldn't have a grocery store or many restaurant options. After I checked out of my hostel, I walked to the bus station, which was in the CBD area. 

The bus ride took over 3 hours, but there was really beautiful scenery once we got out of the city (mostly because I was simply out of the city in the countryside...plenty of those pictures forthcoming in future posts)! The bus got me as far as a town called Whangarei (most locals pronounce it "Fun-gu-ray"), so I had also booked a shuttle to take me to Tutukaka, the small town where the dive shop is located. I was the only person on the shuttle, and the driver was a wealth of knowledge of the area and he shared so many details of the land, the history, and even took me on a short tour of the town to show me the corner shop, the three restaurants, and most importantly the location of the dive shop. Then he dropped me off at the Airbnb I had booked, which was a 5 minute walk away from the dive shop. 

Before I realized this would be cold water diving! 🥶

On Wednesday, 29 October, I did two boat dives with Dive! Tutukaka. I was a bit scared when their first question in the dive shop was whether I had ever dove in cold water. "Ummm, no...I was certified in Indonesia, where the water temperatures feel like warm bath water." Welp, that is definitely not the case here! They made sure I had the appropriate cold water gear, so I wore a 7mm long wetsuit (I am used to wearing a 3mm or 4mm short wetsuit, so this was much thicker). I also wore a sleeveless vest with a hood under the wetsuit, and this was a lifesaver. The hood helped keep my head protected. Not that it didn't get cold, because it did, but not nearly as cold as it would've been without it. I also wore booties with my fins to keep my feet warm. I asked for gloves on the second day of diving, and those helped too (or I knew better what to expect when I jumped in the water...either way I appreciated having them). I also had to wear more weights on my weight belt than I am used to, since the wetsuit made me so much more buoyant. 

I'm the one in the middle, mentally preparing to get into the water!

Okay, back to the water temperature...it was only 15 or 16 degrees Celsius. For you non-metric folks, that's only around the low 60's in Fehrenheit. It maybe wouldn't seem so cold if I had to take a quick shower in it, but not pleasant to dive around in for 45 to 60 minutes. Needless to say, I got cold, and I used more air than normal, so my dives didn't last as long. Truthfully, though, I was happy to get out of the water and back on the boat to warm up. 

The arch we drove the boat through at Poor Knights Islands.

We went out to Poor Knights Islands, which is a marine reserve, which means there is no fishing allowed (and it's been protected, as a reserve, since 1981). This has given the marine life a chance to become healthier and more abundant. It took me most of the time during the first dive to get myself (mind and body) used to the colder water (remember I was used to water temps in the 80's), so I wasn't necessarily noticing things to see throughout the dive. It was an interesting underwater landscape for me, though, with the kelp everywhere instead of beong surrounded by tropical corals. There was coral, just not as much as I am used to seeing in tropical waters. During the second dive, the dive guide pointed out a nudibranch that is only found in New Zealand, called Jason's Nudibranch. I had almost forgotten how neat nudibranch can look underwater, if you can spot them. They can be quite small to notice. 

The 'only in New Zealand' nudibranch.

On our way back to the dive shop, both the dive guide and skipper told me how the next day was forecasted to be the best weather all month, so I decided to dive a second day! When I asked them about other diving opportunities around New Zealand, they told me that although there are other areas that offer diving, I was already diving in the best spots in the entire country by going out to Poor Knights Islands. That made me feel sad (that I maybe wouldn't have other diving to look forward to) and also happy (that I wouldn't have to dive in cold waters again on this trip). I am not taking it completely off the table as a future option here, but I am not diving my way up and down the coasts. And, honestly, there's so much hiking to do, I will be plenty busy. 

On our way out to Poor Knights Islands the next day, we spotted a pod of dolphins along our way and drove the boat along with them for a few minutes. It was magical, as they prefer to get close to the boat, since it churns up food for them to eat while they're around it. We also spotted two small penguins in the harbor as we left, too! The penguins and dolphins were my favorite part of the dive day.

There's a ray, just hanging out, waiting for us to leave.

 Not that the diving was bad, because it was still fun to get underwater and see a ray and pufferfish on the fist dive. 

Pufferfish!

The second dive was really fun when we got to swim into a cave, and at one point in the dive we were surrounded by a large school of trevally fish swimming around us. All in all, I am definitely glad I dove a second day!

The next day, on Halloween, I took a bus to a nearby town called Wauipu to meet up with a fellow female solo traveler to join her on her roadtrip adventure around the North Island. More to come on that next time (we stil have a few days left together going around the island together as I type and post this). 

Here's a sneak peak from our Hobbiton (Lord of the Rings) movie set adventure. Cheers!