Visiting New Zealand

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My visit to New Zealand was only for a week to the North Island. Sara and I had only fitted in Kiwi land in our travels since our flight from Sydney to Latin America (Santiago) was via Auckland and we said why not. And I am so glad we decided to go...the country is just amazing and unbelievably beautiful and green. Every turn of the road is a landscape photo, what can I say?
We landed in Auckland where we picked up the campervan and first headed north of Auckland along the "Twin Coastal Highway" as they call it. To be honest I have trouble remembering all these Maori names of villages and towns and I was pleasantly surprised that so many places are in Maori names.
Our first major stop was the Bay of Islands (and for what other reason) where there are almost 150 islands spreaded around in the sea. Unfortunately we did not pick up a tour to one of the islands as time was pushing to move on. In the area there is also Waitangi town where a peace treaty was signed in 1840 between the Maori and the British - if you are into history pay the site a visit I guess. And close by there are the Haruru falls (which they mean loud noise in Maori - they are not huge in any sense but still worthwhile).
I do not know if you are into trees but you have to see the Kauri trees in Puketi and in Waipua forests. I mean they are huge...particularly in Waipua forest. The largest tree there is over 50 m tall and has a circumference of 13 m...these were by far the largest trees I had seen in my life!
Sheep in New Zealand is big business and I would suggest you pay a visit to Sheepworld - somewhere close to this small village called Tauhoa north of Auckland. At the place they have a show of dogs herding sheep and it is just impressive to watch how they train these dogs with different signals, whistles and calls to run after the sheep...good money in a well trained sheep dog as well! And I also had a go at shearing a sheep the traditonal way...
Our next stop was the Waitomo caves, south of Auckland. These limestone caves, apart from the usual stalactites and stalagmites, they have some unusual habitats in them, glowworms. Imagine walking into the underground cave, total darkness and then above you to see millions of stars and constellations. This is how it was in these caves with the worms glowing!
Around this area south of Auckland it is all about volcanoes and rotten eggs smell from the sulphuric geothermal springs and geysers...we drove around the Tongariro national park and it was stunning...a conical shape volcano covered in snow was more than what I had expected and it was beautiful, but also a bit cold for my bones.
The highlight of the New Zealand visit for me was the geysers around the Rotarua region. There are plenty of geysers that you can visit and we chose to visit "Orakei Korako" (also called Hidden Valley) national park. I had never seen a geyser before in my life and the geysers were just so beautiful and so unreal. Imagine geysers, hot mud pools, boiling water and the earth steaming ...and now colour the area with orange, green, white, brown and you get what "Orakei Korako" looks like...a must see if you are visiting New Zealand I would say.
And speaking to the some locals they mentioned that the South Island is even more beautiful than the North...it is hard to imagine how...it will probably involve another visit to NZ in the future to check it out.

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