Land of weather like England. Unsurprisingly the weather when we landed in Auckland was 11 Celsius and drizzle. We were surprised to find out that the whole population of New Zealand was only 4 million with the majority of these people living in Auckland. For a country larger than the UK this was a real surprise. New Zealand was experiencing an unusually mild winter and therefore the temperatures we experienced were higher than we had been expecting, something which we didn't complain about. After a couple of days acquiring a map, converting currency and the rest we picked up our rental car and begun our 25 day tour of New Zealand. To start with we toured the northern island. It rained almost every day we were here although it did let up occasionally.
Upon leaving Auckland we decided to head up north first so that we could experience the most northern areas of New Zealand, a supposed gem that most tourists to New Zealand miss. We Spent three days touring the region and during this time we visited many beaches including 90 mile beach which is only 66 miles long. The conditions were very wet and windy as New Zealand was experiencing gale force easterly winds. We also visited Waipora Forest which is home to the 2nd tallest tree in the world named by local Maori as "Tane Mahuta". This tree has been aged at over 2,000 years old and is a true giant of the forest. Our journey also showed us just how windy the roads were going to be in New Zealand, although we were surprised at how much better they were in quality than neighbouring Australia.
Coromandel Peninsula & Other
Our first stop after heading south of Auckland was to head into the Coromandel Peninsula. Thankfully the weather had improved slightly for our scenic
drive up the Peninsula. The roads were very steep and windy and it was hard to believe that we were so close to Auckland since there were hardly any
cars on the road anymore. During our time on the Peninsula we visited many beaches even though the weather begun to let up again. This included taking
a single lane cliff pass with passing lanes and no safety barriers. During out time on the Peninsula we stayed in a nice lodge up on the hill. Kat was
rudely awoken in the night which we, much later determined to be the rural (volunteer) fire brigade alarm.
Upon leaving the Peninsula we stopped at the town of Bowentown which is an isolated town with a very long beach and remote coves. Then we stopped at the
Karangahake Gorge on the way to Huka Falls. These falls have a very large volume of water flowing through them which creates a torrent of water with
dangerous rips and undercurrents. It kills many kayakers each year who come down the river and miss-predict the falls. We also stopped at Lake Taupo which
is New Zealand's largest lake.
We spent some time in Rotorua. Rotorua is a strange place as the entire town smells of sulphur and has vents of sulphur oxide coming from drains covers
and the town centre park known as "Kuirau" is full of free hot springs, hot lakes and venting rocks. This led to an eerie and unusual feel to be staying
here.
Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland
On a day trip from Rotorua we visited the Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. This place really is a geo-thermal wonderland as it has a bit of everything
with spectacular colours, impressive lakes and caves. Although the manually set of Geyser which is only done for tourists, although still impressive
was a let down because of the reason it is set off.
Waimangu Volcanic Valley
On the same day as we visited Wai-O-Tapu we visited Waimangu Volcanic Valley. Most tourists skipped this park and only visited the former because
it is more easily accessible and requires less fitness to enjoy. Having said this we much preferred this park as it was quieter and in the end
seemed to have more to offer with small natural geysers, bright blue lakes, the world's largest hot spring lake and many bizarre coloured rock
formations. I would still have to say though that a visit to both is a must.
Waitomo
After the thermal stuff we headed over to a town called waitomo purposely to see the best glowworm cave in New Zealand. Unfortunately we weren't
allowed to take photo- graphs. While we did thoroughly enjoy seeing the entire cave roof lit up be thousands of tiny glowworms and would recommend
it we found a few hidden gems further down the road from Waitomo. Namely the fantastic Marokopa Falls, the Piri Piri Cave and the Natural Bridge.
We couldn't believe that these random stops we made were not mentioned anywhere in any tourist guides or information spots. We didn't see any other
tourists at any of these sights and yet we found them to be some of the best natural wonders in the North Island after the thermal areas. The natural
bridge was formed when a huge cave collapsed leaving only a fragment of its roof in place. The walk just to get to the natural bridge was amazing in
its self and led through dense forest and rock formations.
We ended our tour of the North Island of New Zealand by heading south towards Wellington where we caught the Inter-Islander scenic ferry to Picton in the South Island. On route we stopped at Rivendell a set from the lord of the rings films. We didn't much rate the sight and so spent our time exploring the nearby swing bridge, rivers which flowed next to each other but never merged and the forest. From here we headed onto Wellington via the highway 2 and unknowingly took one of the highest and steepest mountain passes into the capital city. The weather was extremely windy and we were hit by torrential downpours while we were on the road, but eventually we made it into Wellington.
We left Wellington and the North Island on New Zealand on the Inter-Island ferry to Picton and the South Island of New Zealand.
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