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Great New Zealand Home Exchange


Our IVHE- home exchange to Property 595 - Sunny one level semi detached townhouse in the heart of Auckland, New Zealand

Aucland Home Exchange property 595
We were able to complete a vacation home exchange with our vacation property in British Columbia #489 for a house in Auckland for a week.
 We checked in to the Airport Holiday Inn Express and crashed for a few hours after the all night flight. Later we started exploring the coast on the west side of Auckland. The west coast was hilly and remote. The roads reminded me of the mountain roads in West Virginia. In addition to the beautiful scenery we saw a rare colony of gannets and the beach where “The Piano” was filmed. The townhouse was a great location where we could use public transportation to explore the sights around town.
 We toured the Winter Gardens and the nearby Auckland Museum. Kelly Tarleton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World were great and we walked back to the house. We took a ferry to Devonport and hiked to the military structures and gun placements on North Head.

Once we had finished exploring the local sights, we picked up a rental vehicle and left Auckland and drove to the Coromandel Peninsula. On the west coast, we walked though the Water Works Museum where water powered each exhibit. Next we took a train ride up a mountain on a track that one man laid over the course of 26 years. It was quite a remarkable achievement. On the east coast we wanted to hike to Cathedral Cove, but a recent cyclone has destroyed the staircase, so we did a scenic hike to the Shakespeare Cliffs instead. After an enjoyable hike to Wentworth Falls, we visited an active pit open gold mine. We entered several abandoned gold mine tunnels in the Waitawhete Gorge; we found no gold, but the glow worms were in residence. In Hamilton, we spent several hours touring the majestic gardens. The 500 foot Wairere Falls sRotorua is a tourist town surrounded by geothermal activity. We went to a Maori hangi (feast) where we were fed pork, chicken and lot of other foods that were cooked in an underground pit. Their performance was both educational and entertaining. We visited a village buried by a volcano, hiked in a Redwood forest, and toured the Rotorua Museum. Further south, in Taupo, we hiked to Huku Falls and the Crater of the Moon. We saw Maori rock carvings while boating on Lake Taupo. We took a raft through a cave in Waitomo and saw thousands of glow worms, enough to illuminate the cave. At a nearby bird center, we saw kiwi birds and other native birds. We continued south to Wellington. We spent half a day in the TePapa Museum and still didn’t see all the “Must See” exhibits. On our second day in town, we took the cable car to the Carter Observatory and the Botanical Gardens.hould not be missed on the way to Rotorua.
Home Exchange property in Rotarua0598

 We finished our North Island tour with a drive along Wellington’s scenic south coast.

This was our first exchange with IVHE, location was very convenient, we could walk or take the city bus anywhere in Auckland. Cottage was well furnished and comfortable. Highly recommend this exchange programme to others. Don  - Owner of Property 489

 Home swap/trading to save $£$£$ on your vacation is a wonderful way to experience the world! money. It really is very easy! For more information on home exchanges please visit www.ivhe.com to see a stunning selection of properties available for home exchanges and trades.

1 comments :

  1. Good post! New zealand is amazing place. My family is planning to visit France & Italy. Both the countries impressing nature and countryside, vineyards and medieval towns and not least a tasteful cuisine. Ferie Vence

    ReplyDelete

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