Advertisement
Published: October 26th 2010
Edit Blog Post
We eventually got out of Santiago after a 14 hour flight delay! But when we got to Auckland, it was too late to collect our campervan so we had to settle for a free night in a hotel courtesy of LAN airlines which included a complimentary dinner and breakfast! Aw, the tough life of a backpacker!!
The next morning we were all refreshed so we got our campervan, stocked up on everything we needed and headed up north from Auckland. We had a quick stop at Whangarei on the way up to look at some waterfalls. Then we drove on up a bit further to Bay of Islands where we camped up for our first night in "Hotel Hiace"! We did a boat tour around the Bay of Islands the next day which was quite nice except for some very heavy rain. The heavy rain became a big part of our travels around the north island for the next 2 weeks so we had to get used to it!
Then, we headed further north all the way up to the very tip at Cape Reinga. I had a tough job keeping the campervan on the road with the wind
and rain we were going through. Anyway, we eventually got there and we got to see the Pacific Ocean meeting the Tasman Sea. Colette says it was a little more impressive than the 'meeting of the waters' down the fields in Ouragh!! We stayed up there for a night and the following day we intended on driving down Nintey Mile Beach. But again, it was too stormy so we only got to drive a few yards until the guy who runs a towing company up there told us not to bother even trying it...I guess he didn't want any business that day!
So we hit the raod again back down in the direction of Auckland. We stopped along the coast at a place called Mangawhai where there was a really impressive coastal walk along the cliffs. Later that evening we drove on to our next stop; a little town called Leigh which is the gateway to Goat Island where we wanted to do some snorkelling. But unfortunately, the next morning it was too stormy so we saw no fishes! So we went to Auckland for the day where we just walked around for a few hours and went to
a really 'cool' bar called Minus 5° where everything in the place is made from ice including the glass you drink from.
Then we headed in the direction of Coromandel Penninsula and stopped in a town called Thames for the night. Then we set off on the trip up north from there which was a really nice coastal drive where we got to enjoy a few beach walks. We stopped in a few nice places including Coromandel Town and Whitianga. The white sand beaches on the eastern side of Corromandel were really impressive. We camped up at Hahei beach for the night and the next day, we did a nice walk from there to Cathedral Cove which was beautiful. After that, it was time to drive south in the direction of Matamata where we were visiting some friends from home, Dave and Tracey. We stopped at a few other nice beaches on the way down as well.
There's not a whole lot going on in Matamata for tourists but it has some nice countryside around the area which Dave took us on a tour of and we got the obligotary tourist photo with Smegal from Lord of the
Rings! We just relaxed there for the weekend and went to Mt Manganui for a night. It's a really nice beach town on the east coast.
After that, we headed for smelly Rotorua. Smelly because its full of geysers and they do stink! We went on a Maori Village experience the first night which was really interesting....really good music and food as well! The next day, we went to the Skyline adventure park where we did some luging and a Skyswing. The Skyswing was a bit scary as it got up to 150kph in 2 seconds!!Then we went to a wildlife park called Paradise Valley Springs. The most impressive part of our trip there was the lion feeding. They are savage animals! We got to see a bit of a bloodbath between 2 of them as they fought over a bit of meat!
That night we drove southwest towards Tongariro National Park and arrived there pretty late but we did manage to find an open campsite. We had intended to do the full day Tongariro Alpine Crossing the next day but the lady at the campsite told us we probably wouldnt be able to do the trek as
they were expecting heavy snowfall that night. Sure enough, the next morning, the snow, ice and gale force winds prevented us from doing the trek so we had to setttle for a few shorter walks around the area. Very disappointing!
Time to get out of the North Island!! So we drove south and stopped at a beach just north of Wellington for the night. We spent the next day strolling around Wellington and went to the Te Papa museum which was really cool. We got the ferry across Cook Strait to the South Island that night.
As much as we liked the North Island, we did have quite a battle with the weather so I suppose we didnt really get to experience it fully!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0364s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Alan
non-member comment
Hi, Hope all is well. Photos look cool, Coromandel is one of my favourite places. Obviouslyno time for GAA in Auckland. All well here. Talk soon. Alan