2 Weeks on New Zealand's North Island

Welcome to Middle Earth!

As I reflect on our trip, I can say that New Zealand exceeded any expectations we had. We visited the North Island for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. The trip has been simultaneously action packed and restful, with unique experiences nearly every day. The special thing about New Zealand is that it jams so many geographical features into such a small area, with green rolling hills, snow capped mountains, beaches, forests, lakes, caves, volcanoes and the myriad of geothermal wonders it contains. I had always heard good things about it but was still taken aback.

We decided that we would use our two weeks to explore the North Island properly, rather than stretching ourselves across both islands. We had plenty to keep ourselves busy and will take advantage of our proximity in Sydney (3 hour flight away) to get back to explore the South as soon as we can.

Itinerary

Auckland - 3 nights Whitianga - 3 nights Waitomo - 2 nights Rotorua - 3 nights Tongariro National Park - 2 nights Wellington - 2 nights

Auckland

We arrived late on Friday night and finally got to sleep at 3am, basically giving us two full days in the city, which was more than enough. The first day we went on a ‘free’ walking tour of Auckland, it was interesting to get our first overview of the history of New Zealand, the fact that humans only arrived there about 800 years ago is a key part of what makes New Zealand unique as it was isolated and untouched for such a long time. The arrival of the Europeans in the late 18th century again caused a great upheaval, the contrast with Australia here is interesting and the Maori culture is much more at the forefront of the New Zealand culture (including the language still being actively taught and used) than the aboriginal culture is in Australia. It’s partly a numbers game (16% of the population rather than 3% in Australia), but also the fact that there was a treaty (which did later cause confusion and conflict over the words govern and sovereign) between the Crown and the Maori people very early in the history of the country. Anyhow, this was a story we heard throughout our trip and helped provide some context for the country.

Our second day in Auckland was spent getting out of the city and taking the ferry to Waiheke Island. This is an Island just off Auckland that is covered in beautiful beaches and vineyards, what’s not to like! We spent the morning on Palm Beach (not at the nudist end we discovered it had on arrival) where we had a swim in the perfect conditions before taking off on a walk to the next bay where we found the start of the ‘wine trail’ a series of 6 vineyards connected by a tramping track (kiwi for bush walking*, which is Aussie for hiking). We got a tasting menu from the first two before heading back to another beach for some ‘fsh n’ chups’.

Waiheke Island Vineyard.

*My favourite New Zealand word was trundler, I'll put the meaning at the bottom for those who want to try and work it out.

Whitianga

On our last morning in Auckland I realised that I didn't have a confirmation email for our next accommodation, it turned out I hadn't booked it. Fortunately due to some Qantas points I had, we managed to get a far nicer place than we had been planning on staying for less than half the price! After we'd picked up our rental car we headed out to the Coromandel Peninsula in the North East and specifically to Whitianga. It is a lovely coastal town bounded my mountains on three sides and the sea on the other. We spent Christmas here and had a very relaxing time.

Christmas on the beach all by ourselves!

The most exciting thing we got up to was going to Hot Water Beach on Christmas day, this is a beach with hot springs running underneath it. This means you can dig a hole and have your own 'spa', the water is extremely hot in places and you have to be a bit careful. We managed to find a bit of space at the front end of the huge masses of people and pools to build our own. We did have a bit of success briefly although were covered in cold waves a few times before we finally gave up. Digging holes in the sand was a fun way to spend Christmas and we did have a dip in the sea and a sunbathe as well. We also managed a three way video call between Northern Ireland, Vietnam and New Zealand, this meant we could all get a glimpse of the magical Christmas morning tradition we were missing. We also spent a lot of time playing the board game, Pandemic Legacy, very nerdy, but very fun it was our Christmas present to ourselves (apart from the massive holiday).

A private spa with a great big sea wall - excuse the feet!

Who are all these people on our picturesque beach!?

The screams as a wave covered half the pools was entertaining.

Waitomo

On the drive to Waitomo we had a very important stop, Hobbiton! We are both big lotr fans and New Zealand loves to play on their connection to the films, but this is the highlight. The original lotr set was actually destroyed, however it was rebuilt for the Hobbit movies with the intention of being made permanent. It is set on a farm and the location itself is idyllic with duck ponds, flowers and fruit trees, but the hobbit holes (even though they are facades) make it all feel a little bit magical. It was a bit of a mad dash tour and it was very crowded, it's more about the photo opportunities than learning about the film making process (unlike the Harry Potter studio tour, which is a museum). It was still cool to see the use of forced perspective and how things are scaled differently for Hobbits and Wizards etc. After a quick trip to the gift shop* we headed down to Waitomo a place famous for it's glow worms and caves.

Just getting papped while we go to visit our Hobbit mate.

On the first evening we had a quick trip to see the magnificent Marakopa falls and a limestone bridge. The limestone is what makes the area special and the reason we had made the trip there was to do 'black water rafting', which is basically caving, with rubber rings and glow worms (there was also some abseiling and ziplining to get in). It was an incredible experience and one of the best on the trip, the vast numbers of glow worms lit up the caves with a blue-green light. It was a bit other worldly floating along with thousands of glow worms a metre or two above your head. That evening we headed out on a river side bush walk at twilight and got to see even more glow worms which was again a bit magical.

Focus on the lovely glow worms and not our weird hand posture.

Why hello there!

You can tell body fat percentage by willingness to go in the water.

The light!

* I bought a copy of the famously dense book, The Silmarillion. I can confirm it is as dense as I was expecting and I have not progressed very fast or far.

Rotorua

Rotorua is known for two things, it's abundance of geothermal activity and it's adventure sports. Rotorua was probably the highlight of the trip, we managed to find time for walking and running in the magnificent Redwood forest as well as going down the biggest commercially rafted waterfall in the world.

Human for scale.

The white water rafting was definitely the highlight of our time here, if not the highlight of our whole trip. It was not actually very strenuous as the river is so fast flowing there's not too much paddling to do. The water was warm and the sun was out. The 7 metre waterfall that is the big feature of the trip was really fun and not as scary as you might expect, we got completely immersed in the falls and then submarined our way along for a bit before popping up at the end of the plunge pool. Another highlight of the trip was swimming through one set of rapids, I got tumbled around a good bit, overall very exciting and something I'd recommend to anyone visiting as you could surprise yourself with what you're capable of.

Raft emerging from the deep.

We still hadn't sated our appetite for rapid descents so after the rafting we went to the 'luge' at a hilltop activity centre called skyline. The luges are karts that are propelled solely by gravity and you have braking and steering controls. They actually get up to a very good speed even though six year olds are allowed to ride them alone thanks to New Zealand's relaxed attitude to health and safety! There are three runs, with the scenic run being over 2 km while the advanced is only 1 km as it is a lot more direct and there are even two spots where you can get air.

#LugeLife

It is pretty fabulous!

On our final full day in Rotorua we went to Whakarewarewa, a village on a very geothermally active site where about 21 families Maori families still live. Here we saw a Maori cultural show, learned some history and got to see lots of geothermal wonders. Most impressive were the 3 huge geysers, however it was interesting to see how the residents take advantage of the geothermal resources they have. They can cook by boiling in the hot pools or steaming in sealed boxes, they bathe in hot baths and they can enjoy a spa experience using the hot mud.

Tongariro National Park

On our drive to the national park we stopped off a couple of times, the first was at 'hot and cold' which turned out to be a road side spot in a reserve where we pulled on our swimming gear and went for a dip in the river. It's actually the point where two small rivers meet, the interesting thing is that while one is a regular river, one is a hot river. The point where the two rivers mix allows for a unique situation where you can move from one part of the pool to another and go from hot to cold, it really is an odd, but very cool (and hot) place.

We continued our drive onwards to Taupo where we stopped at the biggest lake in New Zealand to give stand up paddleboarding (SUP) a crack. There is a pretty quick learning curve and we had the hang of it (Sophie more than myself as she didn't fall in once) after an hour. The water was pretty warm and we had had a bit of a swim and sun bathe on the grass afterwards.

What's Stand Up Paddleboard?

The National Park Village did not have a lot going on even though it was NYE which suited us fine as we were getting up early the next morning to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This is renowned as being one of the best day hikes in New Zealand and it did not disappoint. The walk goes between two volcanoes and rises from 1120 m to 1886 m before descending to 760 m with some sore toes! The landscape looks like it could be on Mars with lots of coloured rock and vibrant emerald lakes. We covered the 19.4 km in 6 hours and it was a really nice way to bring in the new year and decade.

Some pretty lakes.

The fun bit at the top.

Wellington

The last stop on our trip, we still managed to squeeze in a lot. The first morning we went to an eco sanctuary called Zealandia. This is a valley that used to be used for Wellington's water supply before they realised the dams were right across the fault line, so they stopped using it and in the 90s the decision was made to try and return it back to it's original state, 1000 years ago before people had arrived in New Zealand. There were no land mammals in New Zealand until people arrived bringing mice, rats and dogs. Later when Europeans came they introduced even more species, including the Australian possum for it's fur, which has caused lots of destruction to the native birds and reptiles. Zealandia combats this with a predator proof fence and they use the area to help conservation efforts across New Zealand. We got a guided tour and saw lots of birds, the rarest of which was the flightless Takahē of which there are only around 400 left in the world.

A not completely terrible photo of a Kākāriki!

In the evening we went to Weta Studios, the place where they made a lot of the props for lotr and the Hobbit, we had a guide who specialised in making chain mail and it was interesting to see their design process. We also got a tour of the new Thunderbirds set. I loved the original series and enjoyed seeing the set design used for the new series, the only parts that were done with CGI were the characters, everything else was done with practical effects.

An orc, a troll and a Matthew - can you spot the difference?

Matthew living his best life piloting Thunderbird 2.

On our final morning we went to the Te Papa Museum, which is the national museum of New Zealand where we saw our first kiwi bird (even if it was taxidermy). It was a good museum and although we flew around it, it was a nice way to finish off our trip before flying back. We even got to enjoy some giant lotr Eagles made by Weta studios in the terminal!

Conclusions

So New Zealand did not disappoint, we absolutely lucked out with the weather which certainly helped things, but even so diverse landscape, amazing geology and it's isolation at the bottom of the world really make this a unique place. It's hard to get to if you don't live in Australia, but it's certainly worth it. Now we just need to find an excuse to get to the South Island!

Trundler - Shopping trolley in Kiwi, word fits the object beautifully! This was on the official supermarket signage where we discovered the term.

Nature Watch!

We saw lots of birds and even some reptiles (not lizards*), here are some photos I took of a Takahē, Kākā (New Zealand Parrot) and a Tuatara. Unfortunately no Orca's in Wellington harbour when we were there. In Nature Watch tradition they are terrible.

One of 400 Takahē.

A Kākā.

A Tuatara - They are born with a third eye on their head, weird.

*Tuatara are the last remaining species of the Rhynchocephalia order.