New Zealand Snapshots - The North Island

by Tasha and Alex in New Zealand, In Transit

On Saturday we left the North Island and the first stretch of our New Zealand leg. Unfortunately, we've been having so much fun that we've been neglecting to keep our humble blog updated - well, that and the patchy internet connections we've found so far. Yeah, that sounds better - because of the dodgy internet, we now have to cram three weeks of travel into one post. So here's a quick round up of the places we went and the things that we did on the North Island. 

Note: You can view our entire New Zealand trip photos here. Or for more kiwi awesomeness check out our other New Zealand articles.

Auckland

Auckland doesn't really deserve the bad rap that it gets. It doesn't have that much in the way of landmarks, but honestly I'd still prefer it over Hobart or Brisbane anyday. What I noticed most about Auckland is the hills. Seriously - if you want to walk down 3 blocks you will go steeply up, down, up, down and start up again. It’s a serious cardio workout. Also there is a Gloria Jeans on almost every corner. We were there for 3 days, stayed in the small CBD and found at least 5 outlets.

Also their skytower is pretty much identical to Centerpoint Tower in Sydney - but a bit cooler - and cheaper to visit. And - you know - you can totally jump off it!

Hamilton

There’s a saying in the North Island - that all roads lead to Hamilton - which is true as we passed through a good 4 times, despite the fact that Hamilton is possibly the least interesting city in all of New Zealand. Although it does have Hobbiton nearby in Matamata - which I first saw just after the Lord of the Rings movies came out. It was still pretty interesting back then - with just the struts of what was Hobbiton remaining. Although today it's definitely quite a bit more detailed with around 50 hobbit holes all decked out in their movie splendour. And the coolest part is that it’s pretty damn real. All the flowers, gardens, vege patches, and stacks of wood are all 100% real and maintained daily. They also have just finished rebuilding the Green Dragon inn where the hobbits go a-drinking. It’s really detailed and the free mug of lager/cider didn't hurt.

 

Waitomo

To call Waitomo a town is perhaps a gross overstatement. Waitomo is more akin to a grouping of a few houses, businesses and the Waitomo Caves. Blackwater Caving is - at this point - my favourite New Zealand adventure. To tell the truth I was a little freaked out by wading through tight caves and underwater rivers in the pitch black - including jumping off two - count them two - waterfalls, backwards, in the dark. Yeah, okay, I was more than a little freaked. But between me (Tash) and the small asian lady behind me – we managed to fall into every possible crevice to the point it was hilarious. Also our guide serenaded us as we floated under the glowworms – with freaking Disney songs!

photo by: Ianz

Rotorua

Most people stop in Rotorua because it is a hive of interesting Maori History and New Zealand Heritage and so on. Alex and I – we stopped here for the hot springs. To be fair – they were really really good hot springs. And completely coincidentally, our trailer park had their own springs – two tent spots down from our van. Mmmmmmm. There maaaay be a slight connection between the proximity of the hot springs and our lack of actually walking around town until day 3 or 4 in town. However hot spring induced utter laziness led us to discover perhaps the most awesome pizza place known to man (or woman) - The Pizza Library. An odd round-the-corner place with its awesome literary menu such as the Hunger Games (meatlovers), Hamlet (ham & pineapple) and the Bible (supreme). My personal favourite was the James and the Giant Peach – which, while boasting a delicious apricot base, contained no actual peaches, giant or otherwise.

Tauranga

Tauranga reminded us of some of the more upmarket, beachy suburbs of Sydney – full of surf stores and seafood restaurants and teenagers with too much time on their hands. Unfortunately, that’s not really up our alley, so we decided to use our few days in Tauranga to relax and unwind after a week on the road. We did go out to the nearby Mt Manganui – ‘the Mount’, as the locals say – and hiked around the base of it. We were around halfway through the walk when dark, ominous clouds started moving in, and we were juuuuuuuuust a bit too slow to make it back to Bessie before getting drenched in our first (but not last!) torrential downpour in NZ.

photo by: mark 75

The Coromandel & Thames

For our last leg in Bessie before we had to drop her off back in Auckland, we decided to drive around the Coromandel peninsula. Originally we wanted to head up to Hot Water Beach, but realised that it would be completely pointless in the middle of the day. So instead we decided to drive through the forest across the centre, on New Zealand’s oldest scenic drive - the 309, a 30 km unsealed road through the mountains. This may not have been our greatest idea. It was very pretty and scenic – but also hair-raising, doing winding turns on a gravel road on the edge of a cliff in a van 3 times the size of what I’m used to driving. Luckily, we were back on paved roads by the time the rain started. We ended up stopping in the (very very VERY) small town of Thames, and pulled into a holiday park run by a very grumpy kiwi (who couldn’t seem to believe that we wanted to stay there), largely because it advertised ‘free wifi’. That turned out to be a free 1 hour connection per day, but what can you do? Free wifi is free wifi.

Although some of the campers looked haunted

After leaving Thames, it was time to go back to Auckland and say goodbye to Bessie. We originally wanted to go via Mount Eden, but got lost along the way – heading back, once again, to Hamilton – and ended up running out of time. After saying our goodbyes, we bought our 60hr bus passes and left Auckland for (thankfully) the last time.

Taupo

Taupo is normally a hive of tourist activities – for both scenery buffs and adrenalin junkies – except that we had torrential rain the entire time we were there. (spoiler alert: this became a common theme) Most of our time ended up being spent in our dorm at the Taupo YHA, run by a very strange man and his huge adorable dog. Not that that was entirely a problem – we ended up making friends with some American girls and taking advantage of the three sweetest words Taupo had to offer: Free. Unlimited. Wifi. On our last day, the weather had cleared up a bit, and we did the Huka Falls Jetboat. Jetboating is always heaps of fun, and this one was great since we went right up to the Falls on a day when they were almost at full capacity. Not to mention, we were the only group of the day, so our driver decided to give us an extra 20 minutes on the water for free. Mostly cause he was bored, I think.

Wheeeeeeeee!!!

Napier

Napier is famous in New Zealand for one thing – it’s the warm and sunny beach town that never rains. So, of course, the day we arrived, so did the rain. And boy, did it rain. The entire we time we were there, the manager of the YHA we were staying at kept apologising, because “It’s normally so sunny outside!” On the upside, it meant that the hostel was almost deserted, and we got upgraded to a private room for free. Determined to not let the rain beat us, we went to the national aquarium, which was pretty awesome. A huge improvement over the last aquarium we’d been to (Melbourne – now right at the top of my “do not go” list), I was happy because they had turtles. As anyone who knows me can tell you, if there’s one thing I love, it’s turtles. They also had a pickled, slightly decomposed giant squid in a display case, which was just as nightmare-inducing as it sounds. (If you’re not sure, that’s ‘very’!)

Pictured: turtle - not squid, but if you would like to fuel your nightmares click here for a squid photo not taken by us - I tried and the camera jammed - which told us everything we needed to know!

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