end of sharing a cramped hotel room.
Frankly speaking, if you had limited
time, I might skip this capital city.
That said, the National Museum, Te
Papa Tongerawa, is worth a visit. The
museum has a huge number of hands-
on activities for the kids, from playing
dress-up (always a winner with a four-
year-old girl) to interesting exhibits.
Outdoor life
After a three-hour drive, with a
brief stop for lunch in Greytown,
we found ourselves in the Hawkes
Bay Area. This region is studded
with glorious wineries with fine
dining establishments, and five-
star accommodations. However,
when you’re travelling with young
kids, you might not feel particularly
comfortable in such establishments.
Luckily, a friend had recommended
the town of Havelock North, where
I found a family-friendly gem in
the Cottages on St. Andrews (www.
holiday-cottages.co.nz). A bungalow
with a farm, playground and pool?
My kids couldn’t have been happier.
Havelock North offered us the
outdoor life I often crave when we’re
breathing in the polluted fumes of
Wan Chai. We picked strawberries,
skimmed pebbles at the beach, visited
Arataki Honey (
co.nz) to see bees making honey,
and enjoyed life in the outdoors. We
did want to experience a winery, so
we skipped the high-end places and
took a recommendation from the
Visitor’s Centre for the family-friendly
Clearview Estate in Te Awanga (www.
clearviewestate.co.nz). Gorgeous
wines, laid-back outdoor dining
with a kids’ menu and a fabulous
playground ticked all the boxes for us.
The highlight of our stay in Havelock
North was a trip to the Hawkes Bay
Farmyard Zoo, where we got to feed
and pet the animals, and my little
ones enjoyed their very first pony ride
around the farm.
To break up the two-hour journey
from Havelock North to our next
destination – Taupo – we stopped off
at the art deco town of Napier. I’m
a huge art deco fan but obviously
my under-fours prefer the bold lines
of a playground. So I bribed them
with sweets whilst we followed my
guidebook’s 30-minute walking tour
of Napier’s art deco centre. Then we
grabbed fish and chips for takeaway
and played on the beach before setting
off for Lake Taupo.
Lake Taupo, the largest lake in
New Zealand, is rather lovely. My
kids weren’t so enthused by the lake,
but rather by the fact our motel had
a trampoline. You could easily spend
a week relaxing at the lake and its
surrounds but, unfortunately, we only
had one night. No visit to Taupo is
complete without a trip to Huka Falls,
apparently the most visited natural
attraction in New Zealand. They are
by no means Niagara, but very pretty
to look at. A must-see Taupo attraction
is the Huka Prawn Park (www.
hukaprawnpark.co.nz). Who knew
prawns could be so entertaining? The
folks at the farm cleverly harnessed
the area’s geothermal heat waste from
the power station next door to heat
the ponds, where they breed tropical
prawns. There’s a fun nature walk,
tour of the prawn farm, restaurant
(you can guess what’s on the menu)
and, most importantly, the chance to
fish for prawns.
I’m a geography nerd, so when
I saw a flyer for the Craters of the
Moon geothermal walk depicting
plumes of steam escaping from a lunar
landscape, I decided we had to go.
This was the only disappointment
of our North Island adventure – an
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