North Island

 The Bay of Islands

After our escapades in South America, we were ready for our stint in New Zealand - I must admit it took us a day or two to remember that everyone speaks English and so no need to attempt a poor translation. Although its a similar size to the UK (but with less than a tenth of the population) it does feel quite different from home. Their “cities” are more like small towns, motorways are very rarely more than one lane wide and can abruptly turn into gravel tracks, and bizarrely in comparison to South America they haven’t quite got the hang of wifi. However in terms of natural beauty they’ve got it spot on! We spent a fortnight in the North Island, arriving in Auckland which is definitely “the city of sails” and departing from Wellington, the country’s capital.

We spent a couple of days in Auckland, making the most of the international food courts dotted around the city, we headed north to the Bay of Islands. Having been to NZ nearly ten years ago(!!) with my mum I remembered the Bay of Islands as one of my highlights. It was just how I pictured it...

A friendly dolphin with baby in tow

Lighthouse on the northernmost tip of NZ

Waves of the Tasman Sea meeting the Pacific

The great expanse of the Ninety-Mile Beach

From the far north, Cape Reinga, we drove back south and eventually arrived in Rotorua, a town famed for its geothermal springs and sulphur pools – it stinks!

Sulphur pools (what a smell!)

From Rotorua we headed west to the Waitomo caves. We spent the afternoon abseiling, caving, black-water rafting and admiring caves filled with glow-worms (which again were a highlight from my last visit).

Next stop was Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ. On our second day I realised there was nowhere to hide and ended up throwing myself out of a plane at 15,000ft (much to Tom’s insistence!)

To calm myself down (and celebrate my survival) we ended up spending the rest of the day in a lovely mosaic cafe further round the lake chatting to another English couple, sipping NZ wine and munching on the best antipasto plate we’ve ever had (still the food and wine plays a big part in our trip). The next day in Taupo we went tramping (hiking) along a famous route and around Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings film. It was foggy for most of the day but very atmospheric and spooky.

Eerie atmosphere at the base of Mt Doom

From Taupo we drove to Napier on the east coast - the city was devastated by an earthquake in the 30s and was subsequently rebuilt in an Art Deco style which made strolling around feel like we were on the set of an old film. From Napier we travelled south to Wellington and spent our last days on the north island in a lovely beachfront guesthouse which felt very much like a stay at a grandparent’s house and was a nice break from the usual type of hostel.

We ventured into Wellington, visited the fascinating National museum and went to see Avatar in 3D – appropriate as it was filmed in NZ.

Just one type of NZ scenery on the way to Wellington

We’ve now picked up a campervan ready for the second part of our NZ adventure...

Sunset from our final hostel in the North Island