New Zealand - North Island

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We're in KIWI LAND!

We arrived nice and safe on Oct 25th into Auckland. It was very strange stepping into a busy city after getting used to 'Fiji Time'... but we found our hostel and some cheap chinese food pretty quick. We spent our first night there.. we were on the phone with a travel agent most of the night figuring out our plans for the next two weeks. We weren't too flabergasted by Auckland, it was chilly and another city, but we were very excited for our journey ahead. We had been told it was cheaper to rent a car between the two of us, especially considering how expensive the tour buses were. The next morning, we picked up the car nice and early and screamed our way through the streets of Auckland (we kept having to say..'stay left, stay left'). From there, we planned to drive to Waitomo to see the glow worms. HOWEVER, our little blue car was full of suprises and flashed the 'check engine' light as us just before hitting Hamilton. We spent two hours in the rain holding a sign ('Quality Cars!!!'), waiting for their arrival to switch the cars. When they drove up, we were shocked to see this beautiful car ahead of us.. soooo nice. We managed to talk them down a half gas tank and day rental.. and got a beauty out of it. NICE.

Unfortunately, because of the time constraint, we couldn't make it to Waitomo that day. Instead, we drove to Rotorua, the most thermally active area in the North. It was a very beautiful town and stepping outside you could smell the Sulphur aroma. We wandered about the town exploring it's muddy pools and steamy bubbly spots. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the hostel for a few drinks. The next morning, we had MUCH planned but were moving a little slower that day. However, we still managed to wake up early to head south towards Taupo. On the way, we stopped at Rainbow Mountain. We took a painfully slow hike to a crater lookout. There were beautiful colours surrounding the crater on the rocks, and we were in awe just sitting and observing. Once we made it down the mountain, we grabbed our usual Nutella...slash, cheaper Hazelnut Spread, and drove on. Our next stop was the Thermal Wai-O-Tapu Wonderland! We went for another walk around a very thermally active area for about an hour. As you can see from the pictures, it was beyond belief. At one point, the water was actually neon green.. crazy. We walked on a very long bridge that brought us over the water and got stormed out by the Sulphur smoke. It was very stinky.. but really an experience in itself. We were pumped to head to another very unique area a local informed us about. It was called the 'Hot/Cold Bridge'.. we threw our bathingsuits on and jumped in the river! It was one of the neatest things we have ever experienced. The river was as smokin as a hot tub in one area, and where another stream passed by it was freezing cold. It was fun moving throughout the different areas and feeling changes in temperature. Our stomaches soon growelled as our hazelnut spread was depleating quickly. We heard of this amazing restaurant by the hot springs, where we enjoyed a huge plate of chili nachos between the two of us, and drank about 2 wine bottles full of water.. gulp. We had full day and headed to our next sleeping destination, Palmerston North.

This town was more of a stopping area for us. We got in pretty late, but stayed at the cutest hostel which felt very homey for us. The next morning, we drove to Wellington where we got on the ferry with our little car and were shipped from the North island to the South. The ride over was so amazing, the water was a rich blue colour and we couldn't stop staring at the mountains ahead....

update soon 😊

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Photos

Our First Car
Waiting for the new car... sad our little blue car died :(

Quality Cars!
Got some interesting reactions with this one haha

Rotorua
in the thermal areas, a lot of the trees are orange... weird

Hot Springs
Found these in a random city park... as warm as a hot tub so nice! but stinky

Volcano
apparently... jennie thinks it's man made heh... last threw mud around the park in 2003

Claudio!
From Chilie... couldn't speak much english i think we were a bit much for him

Lava Bar
With New Zealanders and Irish...ers

At the Wai-o-Tapu Wonderland
Steamy hole

Dancing Trees
orange again!

Comments

[Tammy Tinney]

GOOD JOB!
cute boys!!! thats my girls!!! Please fall in love with someone BECAUSE that would be a SWEEEETTT story!! and...im living vicariously through you two!! Seriously tho! the scenery is amazing and the pics of the orange lake are insane! crayzness girls! xxox