NZ - North Island or Lord of the Car Part 2

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The New Zealand (NZ) inter-island ferry takes us from Picton in the South to Wellington in North Island. It made a welcome change from driving for Alan, providing an opportunity to relax and enjoy the view while sailing across the Cook Straits. Although we didn’t get to see any dolphins, Alan did think he found our next 2 houses! (see photos)

From Wellington (NZ’s capital (but compact) city) we travel to Rotorua and then onto Auckland.

The weather in the North Island is much wetter than in the South, which probably explains the greenness of the hills and fields (just like at home). The North’s contrasting scenery does not disappoint - perhaps a little less dramatic than the South with spouting geysers rather than snow capped mountains.

Our stop in Rotorua enables us to learn about the Maori culture and experience a traditional Maori welcome and numerous dances like the Haka (you know this - the NZ Rugby team always do this before they play England, sticking out their tongues with bulging eyes and making lots of ‘gu-hugh’ type noises). We have our first real Kiwi encounter (cute bird), walk on the moon (or at least see craters), watch violent and spectacular boiling mud pools and were impressed with the power of the Pohutu geyser erupting (which, by the way, also soaked us). Of course we couldn’t leave here without relaxing and indulging in some spa therapy and bathing in the thermal mineral baths that helped soothe our aching muscles after lots of walking.

Thankfully we narrowly miss a mini-tornado passing through Cambridge by a few hours on our way to Auckland - our final stop in NZ. We now know where all the people are in NZ - Auckland! After visiting the sparsely populated South, Auckland seems quite busy. Similar to other parts of NZ, we chose not to partake in the pastime of bungy jumping from the Skytower to see views of Auckland, but instead choose to view the city and its surrounding areas from its highest point of Mount Eden - much more civilised!

By and large NZ has been a whirlwind tour for us - driving over 2700 km (and my feet feel as if they walked at least another 1000!). We were definitely too ambitious to think that we could immerse ourselves in the country within such a short period of time. We probably missed more than we saw, which of course just means we have to come back some day! Moving on, we now have the sunshine and warmth of Fiji to look forward to!

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