Bens World Tour: New Zealand: Spoiled, spoiled and spoiled in Waipu

Kia Ora,

Everybody loves to be spoiled. And everybody knows that you are spoiled most by grandparents (hint hint for when I come home guys :-D). And a few weekends ago we were invited to Ella’s grandmas and Aunts house in the Northlands.

I was so excited after getting the invite a few weeks prior when meeting Ella’s grandma and Aunt. They had asked us which foods we missed from the UK and I told them I haven’t had a real roast dinner since coming to NZ. And so this perk was added to the invite! So happy!

Me, Dannii, Ella and Scott took the bus on the Friday afternoon and were amazed at how beautiful their home was (well, possibly Ella wasn't as amazed as we were). They owned some farmland and managed a lot of animals and crops between them. And they had the most spectacular view, a view which we would be waking up too over the next two mornings.

We sat on their balcony looking out whilst eating our roast Pork (with crackling!) dinner. Ellas grandma had also made a chickpea curry for Scott which was also really successful, so much so we were all eating that too! We shared wine and stories also whilst planning our next day adventures, which would turn out to be amazing!

In the morning we woke and Ellas grandma so kindly entrusted me to drive her car for the day. And our first stop was the Waipu Caves. These are relatively unknown, non-commercialised glow worm caves, much like the Abbey Caves I visited in November. However on this occasion the water levels allowed us to get deep in to the caves. The glow worms were so clear that we could actually photograph them!

Scott was loving the rock climbing element within the caves and towards the end we lost him, only to find him in some very high, ridiculous position. Otherwise we were all wading through the caves and returned very wet and muddy.

After a quick shower and another well-prepared meal we drove to the beach at Waipu. We got to bring a friend to the beach, Mac the Welsh Border Colly! He enjoyed his beach walk whilst me and Scott enjoyed a little more rock climbing getting as close as we could to a secluded beach. We then moved to a second beach, played Frisbee and again took in the view.

In the evening we met Ella’s grandma and Aunt at The Pizza Barn. It appeared to be a local favourite of theirs and they served amazing pizzas. After deciding me and Scott wanted one each (of course) we chose a good mix between the six of us and ate the night away.

On the journey home some keen eyes in our car spotted another pair of eyes on the side of the road. With very little deliberation the car was turned around and a rescue mission was launched for two abandoned kittens at the side of the road. We were there for maybe 30 minutes, during which time we were approached by many friendly locals asking if we were alright!

Unfortunately we only rescued one of the kittens, even after a second search the next morning. The rescued kitten was named Seuss after living in a hat on the bus journey home and has now been rehomed in Auckland. A job well done on behalf of some ***** who decided to dump the kittens. Furthermore, in a country with so many endangered, flightless birds, dumping cats is just even more ridiculous and unfortunately this isn't an isolated case in NZ.

But before leaving with Seuss we were fed well once more and said our goodbyes. Ella’s aunt took us to a viewpoint over Whangerei, a view I accidentally found in November but was more than happy to visit again!