New Zealand - North Island

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New Zealand

Right, a couple of things to note before we get started on this stage of our journey We have decided to split the New Zealand blog into two sections, one for each island. The reason for this (as you will soon come to see) is that we took SOOOOO many pictures and have written so much and they tend to go on and on so we thought you may need a break in between islands to go make a cuppa.

You will see that one of the first pictures on each blog is a map of the Island in question (North and South) which we pulled off the internet and very badly drew over it so as to try and show you the route that we took around the Island. Please try and keep the laughing to a minimum as Matt had to do it with a mouse and windows paint which is a lot harder than it sounds but we think it does the job.

At the end of the pictures for the South Island you will see some additional pictures that we took on the long hike to Harwoods Hole in Able Tasmin. We thought that we would create a 'Wheres Wally' type game, in each picture Dianna has hidden herself and you need to look carefully to find her, for some you may need to use zoom in but we promise that she is in them somewhere!!!!

Ok. It is fair to say that we were both looking forward to New Zealand and it was always going to be the highlight of the trip for us and we certainly weren't disappointed with what we found. It is an amazing country with some of the best scenery we have ever seen and we would recommend to everyone that they visit at some point if they can.

Whist in New Zealand our plan was to spend a month exploring the North Island and two months exploring the South Island. Now having visited, we could quite happily have spent a year on the North Island and 2 years on the South Island as there was so much to see and do and we loved every minute of it!

North Island

After a short flight from Fiji we flew into Auckland only to be greeted with wind and rain and bitter cold - just like being back at home! As we had spent 3½ weeks in lovely hot Fiji, we were not ready for the New Zealand cold and had to quickly pull out all our 'winter' clothes from our backpacks.

We spent the first few days in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, exploring the parks, harbor and surrounding areas. The city centre is dominated by the concrete 'Skytower' built in the mid 1990's as a symbol for the city in the run up to the new millennium. At 328m it is New Zealand's tallest structure and we had an excellent view of it from where we stayed, just 2 blocks away. At the bottom of the tower is Sky City Casino and having been to Las Vegas we couldn't resist a quick trip to it while we were there and actually walked away with more money then we went in with which was very good. If we only had hundreds of pounds to play with we could be millionaires by now - instead we walked away $5 up (having only played with $5 to start with so not too bad)!

We had set aside 3 months of our travels to explore both islands of New Zealand and as their train and bus service was very limited we decided to drive our way round. We didn't want to buy a vehicle so decided to hire. We researched camper van hire and car hire and camper van hire worked out to be very expensive. After much research we found a great deal on a car hire and found the longer you rented for, the cheaper the daily rate was. We booked a hire car for 75 days and it worked out (with all add ons like insurance, etc) to cost just £15 a day whereas a camper worked out to be nearly 5 times more, plus you have all the added worries of break-ins with a camper and extra cost on fuel, etc so we opted for a car and decided to stay in holiday parks and hostels en-route.

After a few days in Auckland we picked up the hire car and off we went . We headed North from Auckland and gave ourselves a week to visit Northland which is the area on the tip of the north island.

Whilst in New Zealand we wanted to do lots of hiking/walking but did not have proper shoes so one of our first stops was a little town called Dargaville where we went to a shop called Warehouse (which is a bit like a Macro) and they had a shoe sale on so we bought 2 pairs of good of hiking shoes VERY cheap; Matt's cost £10 and Dianna's cost £5.

From Dargerville we carried on north to Ahipara and en-route we stopped off at Waipoua Kauri Forest, a huge rainforest which is home to the 1200 year old “Tane Mahuta” (God of the Forest), the 2nd largest Kauri tree in the world. It has a girth of 13.77 meters and a total height of 51.5 meters/ As you will see by the pictures it is gigantic and very impressive.

We carried on north up the west coast for a day and by this point we had reached the top of the North Island and were starting to make our way back down the east coast towards Auckland when we came to the town of Waipu. Here we visited the 'Waipu Caves' which looking back was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Waipu Caves are 10km off the beaten track and when we got there we were surprised and pleased to find we were the only ones there so we had the place to ourselves. Waipu Caves are a 200m deep cave system which contain one of the longest stalagmites in New Zealand and thousands of glow worms. To enter the cave you needed a torch as it was pitch black and you have to wade knee deep in an underwater stream to get into the cave and to see the glow worms. We had been in the cave for about 10 minutes exploring the place and had just we plucked up the courage to get in the stream as it was freezing cold. Just as we had climbed into the stream and started to make our way deeper into the cave the batteries on the camera died. Not wanting to miss anything, Matt quickly made his way back to the car to get some more batteries and left Dianna standing in the stream in the cave on her own. Whilst waiting Dianna shone her torch around and when she shone it on the water she saw a big 2-3 foot eel swimming past her leg about 2 inches from her! (see picture) When Matt got back he found a very unimpressed Dianna ! We carried on deep into the cave where we came to a big cavern with thousands of glow worms in it which was absolutely amazing. The caves were awesome and something we will never forget (especially Dianna and the eel).

Continuing down back towards Auckland we stopped off in the small town of Kawakawa to visit the famous 'Hundertwasser Toilets' designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. They are all the town is really known for and the main reason to stop there but well worth a quick look. Essentially they are public toilets but they were designed and decorated by the artist with broken tiles, recycled colored bottles and lots of quirky features that you wouldn't usually see in a toilet. They were definitely the most unusual and artistic toilets we have seen but quite good all the same.

Having made our way back past Auckland we headed east to the Coromandel Peninsula, where we decided we wanted to visit 'Hot Water Beach' which is a long stretch of beach situated on top of a thermal vent. To get to it we had to take a road (if that what you can call it) over the mountains that split the peninsular length-ways. The trans-peninsula 309 road which leads over mountains was a 40km unsealed road and it felt like we were off-roading in a mini with no suspension but great fun all the same and we got to see some spectacular views from up in the mountains.

When we made it to Hot Water Beach we went to take a look. The idea is to wait for low tide then dig a hole in the sand and fill it with sea water and get in. It then heats up due to the thermal vent and you get a free hot spa for a couple of hours until low tide finishes. This is the idea but unfortunately the day we got there it was freezing cold and heavy rain but undeterred we still headed down the beach to take a look. There were a couple of brave souls who had gotten there early and dug themselves a hole and by the time we got there it was low tide and the hot pools were in full swing. At this point we were both very cold and wet so we decided against stripping and getting in but we did take our shoes off and dip our toes in a couple of the pools and the water was impressively hot, one was actually too hot for anyone to get in.

From here we headed south to Rotorua. Rotoura is one of the world's most concentrated and accessible geo-thermal regions where twenty-metre geysers spout among kaleidoscopic mineral pools and steam wafts over cauldrons of boiling mud. There are hot pools, geysers and springs dotted around everywhere and the whole area smells very strongly of eggs from the Hydrogen sulphide (not from Matt). Rotorua was such a nice place that we stayed for a week as we had been constantly traveling everyday up to that point and were quite tired and looking forward to staying in one place for a few days.

There was plenty to see and do in Rotorua and one thing we had to try was the luge. Skyline Skyride provide a ski lift style gondola which whisks you 200m up to a station on the top of a mountain and you then jump on a luge and hurtle down a concrete track traversing corners and chicanes for 1.5km as fast as gravity will take you which is pretty damm fast we found out! There were 3 tracks of varying distance and speed and after the first go we were hooked and both racing for our lives against each other. It was at this point Matt found out that Dianna is fearless as she beat him in getting to the bottom first more than once - excellent fun!!!!!

Now its fair to say that Dianna's sense of direction is bad at the best of times but put her in a 3D maze with bridges and tunnels and it is AWFUL. We visited a 3D wooden maze in Rotorua and the idea was to enter the maze and make your way to each corner which had a colored wooden roof (red, blue, yellow and green) and then make your way to the exit. Setting off in different directions Matt made it to all four corners in about 15 minutes and on his way back to the exit all he could hear was Dianna cursing. She had found the blue corner without too much hassle but she found it not once but five times and couldn't find her way out from the blue corner. Matt had to go and rescue her or she would have been there all night.

Whilst in Rotorua we also went for a long walk in the Redwood Grove which is a massive forest of redwoods Whilst walking up in the hills we found a great vantage point overlooking the town and from here we had an excellent view of the erupting geysers at 'Wai-O-Tapu' thermal pools which was great. To watch them from the ground you have to pay quite a lot of money and we got a free show from a great viewing platform. We had an excellent days weather and walked for hours. On the way home we stopped off to see the beautiful Blue Lake and Green Lake which get their hues from subterranean mineral activity. We enjoyed the forest so much that we returned the following day to go jogging.

From Rotorua we headed south to the town of Taupo which is slap bang in the centre of the North Island and is situated around the northern shores of Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake. It is known as the skydiving capital of New Zealand and it was here that we had hoped to go sky diving if they had availability. On the way to Taupo we stopped off at a little adventure park to look around to make enquiries about skydiving and how far in advance we would have to book. Amazingly, they had a free slot for 1pm that afternoon and with it being 11.30am it gave us an hour and a half to contemplate our fate. We decided to just go for it and headed straight to the Taupo Tandem Skydiving Centre where we checked in, climbed into our overalls, watched a quick video, met our skydiving instructors and were whisked off in the plane.

Strapped to our instructors we had a pleasant 15 minute plane ride which overlooked Lake Taupo and the surrounding mountain ranges and with the weather being amazing and not a cloud in the sky you could see both the east and west coast of New Zealand. The instructors said it was the best day of the year thus far for diving which filled us with confidence. Then came the moment. The 12,000ft buzzer went off and we were ready to go. The door was opened and we were shuffled to the edge where we had to swing our legs out of the plane and then turn our head round for a final photo and then WOOSH!!

It's hard to explain the feeling of free falling - it's kind of the same feeling you get when you ride the 'Oblivion' at Alton Towers. That feeling in your stomach as you fall. With Oblivion you fall for about 3 seconds whereas skydiving at 12,000ft your free falling for 45 seconds. Then the canopy opens (thankfully) and you slowly floating back to earth whilst taking in the sights - what an adrenalin rush!!!!!!!

That moment when the door opens and you are shuffled forwards, sat on the edge of the plane with your legs dangling out, looking down at the world and then take the plunge is just incredible (terrifying but well worth it).

I think the way we went about it was the best way, the fact that we only had 1.5 hours to think about it and contemplate what we were doing didn't give us a chance to get too scared. Matt would have done it any time and any place, even with too much time to think but Dianna would have gotten scared and backed out so doing it at such short notice was perfect. That evening Dianna was in shock and kept saying over and over 'I can't believe we went skydiving this afternoon'.

Whilst in Taupo we also visited the Huka Falls (meaning 'great body of spray') where the full flow of the Waikato River, one of New Zealand's most voluminous rivers, funnels into a narrow chasm about 4m wide then plunges over a ten meter shelf into a seething mael-storm of eddies and whirlpools. The sheer power of some four hundred tonnes of water per second rushing through make it an awesome sight and very impressive to listen to the water booming just below you

Leaving Taupo we continued south to Wanganui via the Tongariro Mountain Range. These were the first real snow capped mountains we had seen as up till then they were all just rocky with no snow so we were quite excited . We had hoped to do some hiking in them and travel along the famous Tongariro Crossing but the weather took a turn for the worse and as we were driving to them we hit a heavy snow storm (on a blindingly sunny day which was quite strange) and we were not properly equipped so after much umming and arrghing we decided against it and left the range behind us and carried on our way.

From Wanganui we carried on south to Wellington where the ferry departs for the South Island. On route we went though a little town called 'Bulls' and it made us laugh as the town clearly hadn't lost their sense of humor for they had renamed the road signs of the local amenities to fit the towns name. For example they have a police station called Const-a-Bull, a medical centre called Medic-a-Bull and a town hall known as Soci-a-Bull. We also spotted a ceramic shop called Bull-in-a-china-shop.

We made it to Wellington and our time on the North Island was at an end. We stopped in a little town just outside Wellington called Upper Hutt for a few days whilst waiting for our booking on the ferry 'the Interislander' to take us to Picton on the South Island. We arranged a 'split hire' with the car rental company where we dropped the car off in Wellington and collected a new one in Picton. Taking the car on the ferry would have cost us over £200 so the split hire option was definitely the way to go. In Upper Hutt we stayed in a holiday park right next door to Upper Hutt Park which is where part of Lord of the Rings was filmed (the orc tree scenes and Isengard) / The holiday park actually had one of the trees used in the film on a stand which was quite cool.

We had enjoyed the North Island immensely and we looking forward to the south just as much.

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Photos

In Auckland Park
The first day we arrived in New Zealand

The kauri tree
Huge!

Comments

[Claire Blackwell]

Wow, wow wow wow
That I think sums up my thoughts on New Zealand. I am defo going to move it up on the "Claire list of place to go". I still giggle at you eel encounter! Oh and you never told me about getting lost in the maze! Hilarious!!! You look like you guys are having an AMAZING time - you both deserve it! Keep enjoying! Love and missing you loads every day. BBS