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Published: April 6th 2018
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We stepped off the plane in Auckland to be greeted with grey skies and rain but the fact that we were able to get into a taxi, speak to a driver that could understand us, knew exactly where we wanted to go and knew a quicker route than the one the satnav suggested more than made up for that! After checking in to where we were staying and having a nap we walked along the coast to the city where we were meeting Julia’s sister Jenny, who has been in Australia for the last six months. We’d only been in the country a few hours and we were already excited about what the next couple of months had in store. Lee, our friend from Vietnam, picked us up the next morning and showed us some of the sights and Piha beach before taking us for a great breakfast which was by far the most expensive meal we’ve had in the past 6 months! As well as catching up with Jenny we were also joined by Antje, Julia’s mum, and Franzi Jenny’s friend who had flown 30 hours from Germany to come and see us! It was great to see them all
and catch up but there was no time for any R&R as we had a busy itinerary set out for the next couple of weeks.
Our mode of transport was the Intercity buses which whilst initially proving to be a bit painful when booking for a group of five, turned out to be stress free and good value for money. Our trip was taking us from Auckland to Coromandel Town, Tauranga, Rotorua, Hamilton and Taupo which is where we would all go our separate ways again. For those of you that aren’t aware the Germans are partial to a spot of coffee and cake (Kaffee und Kuchen) so as well as taking in the sights of New Zealand I was also looking forward to trying to put the weight I’d lost in Asia back on by assisting them in their quest of discovering the best bakeries and cakes the country has to offer - especially seeing as Julia had rationed me to one ice cream a week in Asia!
The two weeks flew by and we managed to do a great mix of things, and I even managed to squeeze in a game of cricket and got to
see England beat New Zealand in Hamilton. We visited a living Maori village in Rotorua, which is famous for smelling of rotten eggs because of the thermal activity, and got to see the Haka performed as part of a cultural performance - how they manage to bulge their eyes and stick their tongues out that far is beyond me, they must practice from a very young age! From Coromandel Town we drove across the peninsula to visit Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach where two hours either side of low tide there are patches of thermal water just beneath the surface that you can dig down to creating your own little spa on the beach. Someone had placed a thermometer in one of the hot pools which was showing as 51°C! There was a lot of walking involved including a hikes up Mount Maunganui in Tauranga which was really picturesque, and Mount Eden and One Tree Hill two dormant volcanoes in Auckland. We also discovered, thanks to Franzi, that Kiwi birds are nocturnal and we got to see one feeding at the Otorohanga Kiwi and Native Bird Park.
After the two weeks it was back to being just the
two of us and our first stop was Turangi where we stayed on a sustainable farm for a couple of nights which was interesting and included having to use compost toilets and solar showers - a bit like being at Glastonbury but without the music. We were using it as a base to walk the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which was a 19.4km hike and reaches a highest point of 1886 meters (you start at 1120m). The few days before we planned to do it the shuttle buses that take you to the start and pick you up had been cancelled due to the conditions being too bad but the morning we did it we woke up to clear skies at 5:30am and more stars than I’ve ever seen in the sky before! It was a steady walk and I think the hardest part was getting down from the summit along a steep track made up of broken rocks and a sand like consistency that gave you the sense that it would be a hundred times easier to slide down on your bum but seeing as nobody else was doing that I gingerly managed to get down on two feet. Only
coming dangerously close to stacking it a couple of times as Julia watched on from the bottom very amused at the sight! Once you got to the bottom of that descent you were greeted by the Emerald Lakes that had this amazing colour and was a great spot to stop off and enjoy the picnic we had taken along with us. It took us about 5 hours I think to complete the walk with stops included compared with the estimated 7-8 hours that is given as a guide but I’d definitely recommend to anyone passing through the area and it was one of the most enjoyable hikes we’ve done since being away.
Our time on the North Island ended with a few days in Wellington, where we caught up with Lee again - this really would be the last time we saw him before he headed off to London in March, and we also had a day with Julia’s friend Kat whose cruise ship that she works on was docked there for the day! Wellington was a cool city that reminded us very much of Brighton with all the coffee shops and artsy feel to it. The Te Papa
museum was really interesting, especially the Gallipoli exhibition with it’s life like models created by the same workshop used by Peter Jackson for his Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. I also happened to stumble across the New Zealand Cricket Museum at the Basin Reserve which we visited and we did the free parliament tour where we saw the Speaker of the House and the leader of the opposition.
A lot of people we spoke to before we got here told us that of the two islands the South was the one you wanted to spend more time and was the more beautiful of the two, but I’m not sure much more beautiful a place can get! We’ve seen such a variety of landscapes and great scenery here it makes it very difficult to see how anything could beat it or pick out a favourite bit. You will be sat on the bus and as you go around a corner you could be greeted by a vast expanse of water either being the ocean as you head out onto the coast or a big lake inland somewhere, or you could be driving by a big area of green
farmland or a mountain range - there really haven’t been any bad views! It’s almost like they could do with one or two bad ones so that your eyes get a chance to reset and you don’t take all of the good ones for granted! And in case you’re wondering there also weren’t any bad cakes, my personal favourite being the scones that we had in the cafe in Hamilton Gardens.
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