North Island, NZ
After spending a week exploring in a van by myself, I had decided some social interaction (with people younger than 70) was necessary. Booked onto a contiki tour (that you can read in detail about in my Ultimate guide to NZ), I boarded the bus and we hit the road to explore the north island of NZ. Different again from Northland, a little straighter roads and getting a little colder. The cities were a nice change, although i’m a country, beach gal at heart. Every day and every stop had something different.
My first day, leaving Auckland we had a pit stop in hobbiton, the famous untouched film set of the Hobbit is located amongst the rolling green hills of Matamata. Did you know New Zealand originally didn’t have grass? and if you saw how much grass/farmland they have here you would be so shocked. Anyways, the hobbiton movie set was pretty cool, despite never watching any of the Lord of the rings or hobbit movies, which disappointed many contiki friends haha. But if you’re a Lord of The rings fan, 100% you need to go to the movie set. There’es tours that leave Aukland on buses I am pretty sure!
The first few days saw us in Rotorua, also known as Sulphur city, for its natural egg like smell that infuses the entire town. You think i’m joking but the rotten egg stench from the hydrogen sulphide emissions in the ground is so obvious as soon as you arrive in town, and you don’t get used to it. You may want to yack every time you leave the safety of the hotel or local countdown (Woolworths equivalent), but don’t be fooled, the town is full of fun too. It’s natural hot spring pools are a crowd pleasure, heated from the ground (the same natural wonder that makes the town smell). Just out of town (like 5 minutes) is the famous NZ adrenaline adventures, including the Rotorua canopy tours, where you can zipline through the forest at a very fast speed. I did the dawn tour and it was amazing, thrilling and scary all at once. Watching the sun rise over the forest, whilst above the trees was insane. We also did the white water rafting adventure tour with Kaitiaki Adventures Rotorua. In boats we paddled down the Kaitaki river along the beautiful green scenes, and of course down the huge waterfalls and rapids. My adrenaline was pumping and heart rate up, but peaked when we went down the largest commercial white water rapid waterfall in the southern hemisphere. At 7pm, the straight vertical drop is thrilling, and although my boat didn’t tip, we did lose a patient or two, and about 4 of the other boats tipped too… definitely a must do!. Final on the list of Rotorua must do’s is zorbing, where you get into a huge hamster ball and roll down huge hills, sounds very strange, but other than being ridiculously cold (warm up with the hot tubs afterwards), it looked very very fun. We also experienced an awesome cultural night at the Mitai maori village, where we were gifted with a beautiful display of maori song, dance and stories, as we got a tour of the village that used to be home to many maori people. Also a traditional dinner feast, cooked underground in front of us and served as a buffet…delicious!!
Rotorua must do’s:
Zorbing (Zorb.com)
Ziplining (Canopy tours Rotorua)
White water rafting (Kaitaki adventures Rotorua)
Hot springs
Mitai Maori village
Next on the journey was Taupō, a very cute town on lake Taupō, and home to one of the Ironman events each year. Very popular with tourists, for its pretty scenes and mountain ranges, very basic with a lovely coastal path for bike rides and walks. We chilled here for just 1 night, enjoying a boat cruise at sunset, drinking away the days adrenaline activities. lake Taupō is the size of singapore (huge) and there’s so much to do here. I did the Huka falls jet boat ride on the way into Taupō, and other than freezing my face and fingers off, it was thrilling and beautiful. Huka falls ejects 220,000 litres of water every second, and when you’re as close as we got on the jet boat, woah. I was supposed to do a mountain biking trip through the tongariro volcano but weather cancelled this.
Taupō must do’s:
kayak or boat cruise to see the Mine Bay Maori Rock Carvings
Huka falls jet boat ride
Tongariro alpine crossing hike: a walk through volcanic alpine terrain..stunning!
skydiving (although I saved my dive for queenstown!)
Next up was the old ski village of Ohakune. originally a ski hot-spot, and now more a historical, deserted, very texas-feel town we spent the night drinking the only bar (also our hotels) dry of whisky, vodka and beer, going for a hike along the trails and seeing our first bit of snow. It was a joy watching snow- first timers experience the magical white powder for the first time (and i’m not talking about that other white powder stuff). Really just a stop-over, but a cute and tranquil one.
From here we reached Wellington, the capital of NZ and also the windiest city on earth, with an annual average of 30km/hr I was prepared with my puffer jacket to be rather cold. My first city experience here in New Zealand, after pretty much bypassing Aukland in the hussle and bussle of joining the tour. We went hard on night 1, with an included dinner and free shots at the bar, everyone got hammered and were feeling it the next day. After meeting an insane young person with a passion to end homelessness by selling brownies with her initiative Heart Parcels. (https://www.contiki.com/six-two/small-things-care-for-the-homeless/). we went to the Museum of New Zealand : Te Papa Tongarewa. Oh my gosh, okay i’m not a museum person usually, and had my reservations, but this place was insane. if you’re a history geek, cultural enthusiast, or just a child at heart, you will love it. Their Gallipoli exhibit is like nothing i’ve ever seen before, and I learnt so much about New Zealand’s past and Maori culture. We spent like 4 hours exploring Te Papa, and didn’t even see everything. The multi-story maze was just insane and free to go to, which is just mind boggling. One thing I loved about Wellington was it’s marina/ foreshore area. The markets in the evening, with sailboats all docked along the beach huts, leisure centre right on the water and mountains in the background makes it one of those cities you could so easily live in. A group of us caught the cable car up to the lookout overlooking the city, which was so cute, and the planetarium up there served as one of those welcomed reminders about how insignificant we are in this world. After a few days here, we would leave the North Island behind and catch the interislander ferry to the South island.
Wellington must do’s:
Te Papa museum
Freyberg pool and fitness centre (if you’re a gym junkie and can’t not gym when on holiday
Hannah’s laneway, the world’s tallest laneway, where you can pick up a bite to eat, drink or souvenirs.
Wellington cable car to the Carter observatory and the botanic gardens.
Zealandia, a nature reserve displaying wellingtons reptile and bird species.
6. Check if there’s any festivals on at the moment!!… Wellington is the place to be for a festi apparently!
And that my friends sees the end of our North Island adventure. For a more in depth, detailed recap including accomodation tips, tour guides/ groups and places to eat then enquire about my Ultimate Guide to NZ xx