New Zealand - North Island

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We spent 11 days on the North Island in total, we flew into Auckland on a pretty awesome flight, with a “sky couch” which basically doubled the width of the three seats in your row so you could properly lie down. We'd left LA at 21:45 on the 31^st of March and arrived in Auckland at 05:00 on the 2^nd April, therefore losing a whole day of our lives!

Whilst in Auckland we explored the city, going down to the waterfront to see the bridge and going up the sky tower. On our 4^th day we picked up our campervan, then had to drive it back through Auckland centre which was rather difficult when I'm not used to driving such a big vehicle! Our road trip began by heading north to the Bay of Islands, taking the scenic route where possible. This meant some very windy roads but definitely worth it for the views. Our campsite at Bay of Islands was really nice, right on the edge of a river. While we were there we took a boat cruise to the 'Hole in the rock' on the way out we stopped by a pod of dolphins, it was amazing to see them in wild and so close, as they went right under the boat.

From there we had a very long drive down to Rotorua, whilst here we took in the beautiful scenery of the Blue and Green Lakes, we also went to the Hanumara Spring and the Dancing Sand Springs, the water from the spring and the surrounding lake was crystal clear. In the evening we went on a Maori Cultural Experience. At the village the chief of each bus was confronted by the tribe before we were allowed to enter the village. Once inside they demonstrated different aspects of Maori life, we were also shown where the Hangi (feast) is brought up from the pit in the ground where it was cooked. We really enjoyed the evening and were stuffed after all the food.

From Rotorua we drove to Waikite Thermal Pools, only an hour South. We decided to camp here for the evening so got free use of the pools, the pools were ranging in temperature from 35 degrees to 42 degrees. However because it was a really hot day the pools were far too hot to be in, so we favoured just lying in the sun until it had cooled off. The following morning we went to experience the volcanic aspects of the Rotorua area at Wai – O- Tapu, here we saw geysers, collapsed craters, boiling mud pools, sulphur pools. Unfortunately all the sights were accompanied by a strong smell of sulphur, making us feel a bit sick.

Taupo was our next stop, to take in the lake, which apparently is the same size as Singapore! After arriving we had a walk around part of the lake, however finding no decent place to swim. We then occupied ourselves by taking silly photos rolling down a hill until we got to watch the sunset. As it was cloudy the next day and due to rain we packed up and heading down to Wellington.

The rain hit our first evening in Wellington and unfortunately was still going when we woke up. We decided to go into the centre as it was our only day to see Wellington, luckily it did dry up a bit towards the afternoon and we were able to take the cable car and walk back through the botanical gardens. We caught the ferry the next day and therefore had to master driving on and off a ferry, a new experience for us both!

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