Lower North Island

So the final destination for us before we lost our lovely Corolla was Taupo. But before we left her back we ventured down to Tongariro National Park. The weather was unfortunately against us for doing the crossing, which we were both quite disappointed about. But even some of the experienced walkers were deciding against it due to weather warnings. The national park is really amazing and such a clash of landscapes. The route south from Taupo was nice but it was quite mundane when compared to the national park itself. The three snowy peaks of Mount Tongariro (2122m….), Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe are nestled in huge fertile green valleys with shimmering grey blue streams meandering throughout. We also took a spin out to Huka Falls which was absolutely gorgeous!

Taupo did not suffer the same fake when it came to bad weather and the lake glistened as the sun’s reflection streaked across it until well after 8pm. That’s another thing we really love about New Zealand, that the sun rises around 6 am (we haven’t actually witnessed this of course) and doesn’t set until 9ish. It certainly improves our mood when there are 14+ sunshine hours in the day and makes us feel like we have time to enjoy each place we encounter on our journey and not have to rush to the next town before nightfall.

Taupo was a quiet affair although we both really liked the feel of the town. It had some nice lake-side walking tracks and a really amazing Rose Garden which looked as though it was tended to by a 24 hour gardening team. It reminded me of, and was almost as spectacular as, my Gran’s garden which I used to love playing in when I was young. There wasn’t a stem out of place!

Before we knew it, it was time to jump on a bus down to Wellington and get back to city life for a while.

The bus from Taupo to Wellington took about 7 hours in total with a couple of stops along the way. The road took us back down past Tongariro N.P. on the opposite side of the peaks to where we had been earlier in the week. The three peaks were even more spectacular than they had first appeared to us as this was a slightly clearer day. The snow settles comfortably into the crevasses like syrup on a freshly pulled 99. A strange analogy, but I bet you know exactly what I mean so it does the job!

Also along the way we drove past a gorgeous little town called Paraparaumu. Now let’s just say I’m glad I’m typing this and not narrating I because we are still not 100% sure of the pronunciation ! Anyway we decided that instead of spending the full week in Wellington we would spend some time by the beach in Paraparaumu as well.

We arrived in Wellington on a dull and windy evening and were assured by our disheartened bus driver that the city didn’t always look so grey. We figured we was a local who was having trouble selling us the charms and character of the city when the fog coming in from the harbour meant we could hardly see 50 feet in front of us.

The next day however it was like a new city! The sun was creeping in under the curtains at 7am. I was awake, Gareth was of course dead to the world after a tiring day of sitting around doing nothing on a bus all day the day before HAHA!

We soon found after a short time walking around that Wellington is actually really small and easy to get around. We spent the day just wandering through the side streets in and out of the shops and along by the harbour (Port Nicholson). It was a very busy working harbour which was nice to encounter after all the fancy schmancy marinas and yachting harbours such as Auckland and Taupo. The trawlers were quite a bit more modern than some of the ones at home in the likes of Howth harbour but hard working vessels nonetheless. And judging by the menus in a lot of the local restaurants, the Tasman Sea and the Pacific have plenty to offer.

While we were there we went to all the usual spots like Oriental Bay, the Queens Wharf and Te Papa Museum, which is by the way the coolest museum we have ever visited. We might even go to more museums now that we know they are not all boring as hell like the Art Museum in Chicago (where we went for free and stayed for about an hour each thinking that the other one was enjoying it!)


After three days in Wellington we caught a train an hour up the coast and checked into a gorgeous little beachfront hostel in Paraparaumu. The part we were staying in was a really pretty little seaside suburb with about 25 shops in total and actually 7 of them were take-aways of some description! Being right on the beach we spent a lot of the time walking in the sand and paddling. There was torrential rain for the entire day one day so we caught up on our reading and relaxed in the big comfy lounge of the hostel, gazing out the big bay windows at the beach. It did clear up before we had to leave so we did get a chance to do some swimming. Hmmmm not quite as warm as Fiji….. But still really nice and refreshing and we only had to walk about 30 feet to get to a warm shower so it was fine.

We headed back down to Wellington for one more day before catching the ferry to Picton on the South Island. We decided we would take a trip in the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens and walk the 8 kms back to the city - all downhill of course! It was a gorgeous sunny day and a great way to finish off our North Island adventure.

---

---

---