a week in my life, part two: Auckland and New zealand’s far North

welcome back to my WIML series, where each week i detail out how i spent the prior week as an american temporarily living in new zealand! this past week was spent in auckland and exploring new zealand’s far north, so if you’re looking for how to spend a week on new zealand’s north island, this post is for you.

this post summarizes february 10th – 16th.

favs of the week:

all the details:

Activities

• Roadtripped to the Far North. This was an unreal trip! we drove about 5 hours north of Auckland to spend the weekend in new zealand’s “far north”. this area is super remote, but we were able to find a house to rent in the town of pukenui. we didn’t spend much time at the house anyways – we spent our time exploring the 90 mile beach, cape reinga, and several beaches in the area. all the details from this weekend trip are available on my far north post! I highly recommend doing this if you are planning a week on new zealand’s north island though.
• Walked Long bay regional park’s coastal track. I saw this on tiktok and immediately added to my bucket list. i’m so happy I spent the day in this park! The coastal track was relatively easy and had beautiful views the entire time.
• spent a few hours at long bay beach. After I walked the coastal track, I spent a bit at the beach. This beach was huge and not crowded at all (I was there on a Thursday though). def recommend!
• had our own little super bowl party (a day late…). Clay was working while the Super Bowl was on, so we watched it the next day with all the super bowl party necessities (buffalo chicken dip, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers, etc)!
• Golf lesson! decided to use this unemployed time to learn how to (confidently) hit a golf ball. second lesson next week!

Eats

only including those worth mentioning here 🙂

• plain croissant and chocolate almond croissant – Amano. We had seen reviews of Amano’s stellar croissants, so we had to try them for ourselves. omg. out of this world! will 100% be returning for more. Additional details on croissants around the world of course!
• Buffalo chicken dip – yours truly (lol). made this healthier buffalo chicken dip to watch the super bowl and it was very close to the real thing!
• Peach and Cream ice cream – giapo. Giapo has yet to disappoint and this was no exception! I had the “Golden Hour Hawkes Bay Peach and Cream” flavor and it was amazing. Clay had the espresso brownie which was also so good.
• Berry pitaya bowl – Good life superfood co. soooo good and just gorg tbh.
• Korean fried chicken – cheeky chooks. we decided to stop in Whangārei for lunch on our way up north and found this spot on google maps with a lot of good reviews! I had the hot and spicy korean fried chicken and clay had the cheeky chili chicken on mac n cheese. both were unreal. Chicken was super crispy, flavorful, and perfect level of spicy. a must stop in Whangārei!
• Breakfast pie – container cafe. We stopped at this stand on the side of the highway in pukenui for breakfast and ended up getting bacon and egg pies. Nz is somewhat famous for their pies (of all different kinds) and this was my first time having one here. it was exactly how it sounds… a mini pie filled with scrambled eggs and bacon… so it is hard not to like. would have been better with hot sauce though!
• real fruit ice cream – container cafe. Real fruit ice cream is a must in nz’s far north! it’s different from normal ice cream in that an ice cream base is mixed with whatever fruit you choose. soooo good.
• zesty lemon bar – salty brew. we stopped at this little coffee shop off of someone’s garage on Karikari peninsula and obviously had to try their lemon bar. unreal.
• a legit hamburger – a random takeaway restaurant on our road trip. only throwing this onto the list to make it known that if you order a hamburger in some parts of nz… you may end up with a burger with actual slices of ham lol

drinks

coffee, alcoholic, etc!! only those worth mentioning.

• Moodi. I’ve been on the hunt to find a NZ replacement for poppi and olipop and this is probably the best I’ve tried so far!
• Chipper hazy pale ale. Not usually a hazy gal but really liked this beer! and the can is super cute so that also probably helps.
• Te Motu’s the shed rose. We’ve had this wine in our fridge for weeks and finally drank it on the beach on valentine’s day! it’s a dry, crisp, and fruity rose that’s perfect for the summer.

etc

Currently reading:

• Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. I cannot figure out why this book is so popular. The author’s writing style drives me absolutely nuts and I don’t think the story makes up for how much it bothers me? someone please explain why everyone seems to be reading this.
• How to win at travel by Brian Kelly. brian kelly, aka the points guy, just came out with this book to share his knowledge of the travel industry. I’m about halfway through it and really liking it! even as someone who has traveled a fair amount, I feel like I’m learning a lot from it.

Currently planning:

• family visiting us in NZ in a few weeks!
• melbourne for the f1 race in march – plz help us get tickets 🙂

stay tuned for part three <3

I hope you found the details of my week insightful! as mentioned, I think both Auckland and the Far north should be incorporated into any itinerary for spending a week on New Zealand’s North Island. More week in my life content to come! if you have comments or questions, please let me know below.