Kerikeri - 'la vie est belle dans une maison flottante'

23rd to 27th Feb: After just one day in Auckland, we head north to Kerikeri. Before we start, however, we meet with a German family that we originally wanted to meet in Germany before the trip. The reason for this was our and their planned first parental leave trip for an exchange of experiences. Unfortunately, despite several attempts, it didn't work out, and coincidentally, we are now in New Zealand at the same time and are catching up on our meeting. Crazy - on the other side of the world, in Germany it would have been too easy with a distance of about 110km;-)

The route to Kerikeri is quite long. In our timeless existence, we hadn't considered that today is Friday and the New Zealanders leave for their vacation homes in the afternoon. There is a lot of traffic in the Auckland region and it takes us more than five hours to get to Kerikeri instead of the planned 3.5 hours. At some point, we stop at a playground where the kids can finally move around and have fun. Bo gets pizza and we eat heartily. Baby Le gets baby food. Fortunately, the long drive doesn't bother him much.

In Kerikeri, a very special accommodation awaits us. We have rented a boathouse with a direct river view from the bed. An extraordinary place to stay that we quickly 'fall in love' with. Despite all the disadvantages like no drinking water (only river water from the tap), no bathroom (shared bathroom), no dishwasher, and many roommates like spiders, ducks, geese, and an opossum that regularly makes a lot of noise over the corrugated roof and our heads at night. Most of the roommates stayed outside - luckily, including the mosquitoes that unfortunately were abundant here. But the atmosphere of this old boathouse, the rooms decorated with love, had so much charm that we had a hard time saying goodbye after four nights (we extended in between). The boathouse was located in the middle of a beautiful garden with great outdoor areas that invited you to 'chill'. Waking up in the morning with the soothing sound of the river was wonderful. Breakfast was served outside, homework was done overlooking the river. You could relax in the colorful hammocks. A beautiful spot on earth that we will always remember. An idyll where you could let your mind wander. Even though we didn't particularly like or connect with the town of Kerikeri, the surrounding nature was great for day trips. During a (short) hike, we met a German family with two children. Our kids got along instantly, so we spontaneously decided to go to the nearby waterfalls. A longer hike that our kids wouldn't have done alone. In total, we were on the road for over four hours and none of the children complained even a little bit. And in the end, there was a feeling of sadness knowing that it was goodbye...