We picked up our camper van, lucky rookie, and were on our way. First stop: grocery store. We stocked up with snacks, fruit, tim tams, and bread for PBJ sandwiches, yes they have peanut butter in this country! So it's a good place here. We then hit the road toward the bay of islands, which is at the tippy top of the north island. It would be a 4 hour drive. Sara started driving and about an hour later we switched. It wa my first time driving on the left side and it went surprisingly well! The roads are narrow and our car is big so that's a little tricky, but other than that it was fine! I turned on the wind shield wipers instead of the turn signals a few times which just made us laugh. We were able to jam to my Kiwiland adventures playlist on spotify- follow it! I just got spotify before coming here and so far it's been great to use the downloaded playlists. As we cruised we enjoyed the beautiful scenery around every turn and we admired all the sheep we saw along the way!
We got into the town of Paihia around 4pm and found a campervan site to park at/ sleep at for the night! We decided it'd be a good idea to set up shop and organize our things and make lucky rookie our home. We unpacked our clothes and groceries and stored them in compartments under what would soon be our bed. We had been in the car all day so we were eager to get outside and be active. We went to the info center and they recommended a hike we could do. We drove over to this little parking lot and then started hiking from there. It was a pretty leisurely walk through a forest, then some mangroves, and then some more trees which ended at a waterfall. The waterfall was a little underwhelming, but it was still a nice walk! It took us around 75 minutes to get to the waterfall and it was around 7:30 pm when we got to the falls. We were a little nervous that we'd get stuck in the dark but we started to trek back. We were walking and then saw a family that we passed on our way there, remembering that people here are super friendly, I decided to ask them which way they were heading (basically u can we get a ride) because we were nervous we'd get caught in the dark. They were SOOO nice, of course, all kiwis have been so far. We thought they had parked by the waterfall buy actually they were staying at a holiday home near by which we walked with them to. The family lives in New Zealand and was on a weekend trip because the dad's work has holiday homes all over NZ that employees can stay at for free- how neat! We should do that in the states. The mom and one of her 5 kids joined and drove us back to where we had parked. It was so fun talking to them and learning more about New Zealand. For instance, on our hike, Sara and I thought we saw a kiwi because we knew what they looked like and figures they were common to see since they are new zeland's national bird. We told the family we saw a kiwi and they said wow that's awesome, they had never seen a kiwi in the wild. They asked where we saw it and we said in a tree on our hike. They said kiwis can't fly.. So I guess we didn't see a kiwi. But it was so interesting to learn that kiwis are rare to see, especially because they are the national bird. But then again, we don't often see bald eagles flying around the states.
We got back to our camping site, attempted to put together our bed of wooden planks and pads. We packed our bag for our snorkel excursion the next day and then went to sleep around 10pm, we would get the most sleep we had all trip that night. Sara set her alarm for 7:50 because we had to be at the wharf at 8:45 for our 9am excursion.
In the am Sara rolls over and tells me it's 8:30, she was still in a daze but I popped up and said shit we gotta go. She had turned off her alarm when she heard it, I didn't even hear it, but we ended up sleeping until 8:30. Thankfully we had already packed our bag so we quickly changed, and even though we planned on walking over to the wharf which would take 15 minutes, we decided we would play it safe and drive over there. We were trying to find street parking but couldn't so we found a lot and parked and the tried to figure out how to pay.. There was no attendant, and then we found a pay station. However, the pay station only accepted coins and we didn't have any. It was 8:55 and we didn't know what to do, so I suggested leaving $10 under the wind shield and hoping for the best.
We sprinted to the wharf and they were literally untying the boat as we got their so we just hopped on and sailed away. It was a lovely boat and there were 12 of us total on it. The owners of the boat were a couple that lived on the boat in the summer and then had a home that they lived in for the rest of the year. The boat was adorably decorated with a little kitchen and then underneath were two bedrooms and bathrooms. Shortly after we got on the boat, we were served freshly baked homemade rhubarb, raisin and coconuts scones with homemade jams and butter. We also had tea & coffee, the coffee was delicious! Then we went to our first bay and did a small hike up one of the islands which had a beautiful view from up top!
We hopped back on the boat and went to another bay where we had the option of going on a hike or hanging out in the boat before lunch. Sara and I were the only ones who decided to go on the hike so we ventured out and did some climbs up this beautiful mountain! Seriously gorgeous views from every angle. We got to one of the best lookout points and then headed back down for lunch on the boat. Lunch was incredible. She made homemade Rosemary and sea salt focaccia bread- it was jaw dropping good. We also had veggie paella, salad, and chicken. After lunch we went snorkeling and saw some big fish and sea urchins. Our boat driver went to catch urchins to eat. After snorkeling for a bit we hopped back on the boat and were greeted with home made brownies with a rhubarb cream on top and homemade short bread cookies. I kid you not, the meal I had today was probably the best I'll have this entire trip. It was so good. We headed back to shore and relaxed on the boat soaking in the beautiful island views. We got back to shore for the moment of truth, which was checking too see if lucky rookie was still there and/ or if it had a ticket. We got back to the lot to find that we didn't have a ticket AND our $10 was still in the windshield. WOW! Either these people are super nice or someone wasn't doing their job today- either way, we were happy campers-- LITERALLY! :)
We the got back on the road towards Tauranga, our next destination. I drove for 4 hours and then Sara took the last 2 hour which were in the dark. We got in around 11 and tried finding a campervan park but they were all already closed. I recommended we park on the side of the road and sleep there, which Sara was understandably nervous about. Then we saw police so I hopped out the car and asked them where we could park to sleep, to which they said, the side of the road. So here we are, parked on the side of the road. Good night!
We woke up to rain pouring on our home. As our plan was to go on a hike that morning it wasn't looking too promising. We stumbled out of our lucky rookie onto the side of the street, and in our pjs, with our bed head look we opened the door to see many people walking and running. We figured if these people were hiking up the mountain this morning, we could too! So after getting cleaned up, we put on our shoes and began the hike! And then suddenly the clouds opened up and it stopped raining! It took us about 45 minutes to climb to the top. We were in Tauranga and climbing the mount there, which is at the top of their peninsula. Sadly because it had just stormed, it was pretty cloudy up there. When we got to the top we couldn't see much, but it was fun to be in the clouds up there! The hike was lovely though, tough, but wonderful views before we got to the top.
After our hike, we headed to another town called Waitomo. Waitomo is famous for their caves, tomo means hole in their indigenous language. Their caves are not your average cave though, they are glow worm caves. They are filled with millions of little worms that attach to the ceilings of the caves and glow when it's dark. They hang nets from them to catch their prey. The caves were really neat, there was a group of 6 of us and we had a really neat 2.5 hour through a little family company that just opened 6 weeks ago, glowing adventures. The caves were really neat because since the company just opened, the caves were very untouched and less commercialized. Many of the tours in the mainstream area have bridges through them but we got real down and dirty in our gum boots and helmets with head lamps.
We got there and they gave us lots of clothes to put on and told us we could shower after our expedition. We were more excited that we would get a shower than actually going through the caves. Which says a lot because we were really excited about the caves.
It was an awesome experience. We had to crawl through tight spaces and stomp through extremely muddy parts that felt like quick sand. I got stuck and Sara tried to help me but I ended up falling right into the mud. We saw stalactites and stalagmites and I even drank water from one of the little pools in the cave- our guide Heath said the water is completely filtered through the minerals in the stalactites. The water tasted great and was freezing cold! After exploring and admiring the glow worms we hiked back to the home, showered and had tea, biscuits and grapes with our group.
The whole time we were in the caves it was pouring outside and it was still pouring when we got out. We wanted to head to our next stop, Rotorua, but we didn't want to drive in the pouring rain so we waited around the house for it to clear up. Unfortunately it didn't clear up and we thought we should get on the road before it got dark, so we headed out of waitomo and our first stop was to get gas because our tank was very low. Then we were on our way to Rotorua. We got there and found a place that we could sleep in our parked car. It was called the backyard inn. We ended up chilling there for the evening because it was still pouring outside. We met some people in the comunal dining hall- a couple from Argentina, a guy from Germany and another three guys from Ireland, one of whom is now living in San Francisco! We enjoyed conversation and wine with people from all over the globe and then headed back to lucky rookie for another night of sleep.
We again woke up to rain on our home. We were nervous we wouldn't be able to do any activities that day but decided to sign up for white water rafting because regardless if it was raining or not we'd still get wet. The night before, everyone at the inn had recommended it- saying it was the best thing they did! We thought we'd give it a go. We signed up for the 11:30 session so we had some time to explore in the morning. We went over to the Maori village which is a town where the indigenous people live. Rotorua is famous for its geothermal landscape -- hot springs, geysers, and more. The entire town reeks of sulfur, it smells absolutely awful. The thermal pools were used for them to bathe and the grounds were so hot that they are able to cook their meals on the ground in a wood box. We learned about their penny diving tradition- when the Europeans came to town they took their pennies out made a wish and threw them in the river. The Maori people were so confused as to why people would throw money away, so the kids would jump into the river and grab the coins, then because they didn't have a place to store the coins, they would keep them in the cheeks- this tradition is still a thing! We walked around their village and got to see a geyser erupt, which was really neat! The thermal grounds were so interesting because of the many colors that the pools had and the different natural chemicals that they contained. We learned a little bit about their culture and traditions and then headed back to town get ready to raft! As we got our bag ready the sun decided to show up, so we were very excited we wouldn't be rafting in the rain! We got to the rafting center and were quickly geared up and given the low down and what to do- we were about to do grade 5 white water rafting, which is the highest level of Rapids. We had such a blast- in our raft was our guide Kim, and a German couple. We rafted over 3 waterfall- one of which was 7 meters- out of the three different rafts in our group, we were the only raft to not flip completely over when going down the waterfall! In addition to rafting over waterfalls, we went on a swim down the river into some Rapids, we got to jump off a platform into the river and we attempted to "surf" in our raft by pushing up against the rapids! It was a really good time and we got really wet!!
After rafting we went back to the inn and chilled out for a bit and talked to two girls traveling in their gap year. A gap year is when you take a year off after you graduate high school and either travel or work or both before going to university. The girls were both working in Australia and were taking a trip to NZ! It was cool talking to them, they were both originally from Europe and one of them had lived in the states before too. I loved hearing their opinions on the cultural differences between the places they've lived.
We then headed out to our next destination- Tongariro national park, to do a one day hike called the crossing the next day. On our way to Tongariro we turned off the side of the road and went down a Gravel road to Kerosene creek which is a hidden gem of a hot spring. All the hot springs in Rotorua cost money to enter, but this natural hot spring was free! We went for a little dip and the water was soooo warm! And it only smelled a little bad from the sulfur. I jumped over a waterfall into the spring which was super fun and I loved just laying in the stream with the water rushing past my body (almost pulling off my bathing suit bottom).
There were probably 30 people down by the creek so it wasn't too crowded and we were able to relax and enjoy. When I pulled my hand out of the water I noticed my silver ring was a completely different color, because of some of the natural chemicals in the water it had tarnished it to a darker color that reflected all these blue and purple colors. It was super interesting to see that happen.
We then headed out to the inn which we would stay called the crossing backpackers, in the town of Erua. Along the way we stopped at some lookout points and were able to see the sunset over lake Taupo.
We got to the inn, took showers to clean off all the sulfur, got our bags ready and hit the hay for our first night sleeping in actual beds.
We got up and our shuttle picked us up to go to Tongariro National Park. We couldn't drive to the park because the hike we were doing takes around 6 hours and goes one way, it's called the Crossing because you cross over and between the two sides of the national park and it'd be near impossible to cross over there and go back in one day. The park actually requires you to have round trip transport booked in order to do the hike. The crossing is known as New Zealand's best one day hike and it definitely didn't disappoint. We started for an hour going a little up and a little down, it was warm and we were in tanks and leggings. Then we started the first ascent- about an hour straight up! It started getting chilly so we put on our sweatshirts. Then we had about 10 minutes of flat land before another ascent that lasted another hour. By the time we climbed the second ascent we were in the clouds and sooo cold because of all the wind up there! We put on our wind breakers and then we admired the amazing views from high above. It was incredible how high we climbed. There was a red crater, volcanic ashes and dirt, and three crater lakes that were the most beautiful colored lakes I have ever seen. The first part of our hike felt like we were in a desert, then we trekked through mountains, and on the way down on the other side of the mountains we felt like we were in a rain forest.
We made it all the way to the end!!!! And just in time for our transport to take us back to our lodge. Our bus was leaving at 4:30 and we made it back at 4:20. We filled up and quickly drank our entire bottle of water because there was no water on the trail but our bus had a big bottle waiting for us- it was amazing. We got back to our lodge which conveniently had a hot tub that we relaxed our muscles in for probably way too long. We decided it'd be best to chill there and hang out at the lodge for the evening and get an early start in the morning!
We left early in the AM to head to the region of Taranaki which is on the west coast. I have a friend, Kirsty, that is from Taranaki and studied abroad at UW-Madison for a semester. It took us about 4 hours to drive there and we met her in New Plymouth where she works. We took a walk near the ocean, saw a sculpture carving festival, and I got an amazing flat white. We then headed to a cute restaurant in the city for lunch. After lunch we decided to drop our campervan off at her home so we would only be driving one car around. Kirsty lives in Stratford which is a suburb about 40 minutes from the city of New Plymouth. Her home is on a farm a little bit away from the main burbs, but her family still lives more in the town. After dropping our home off we went to get ice cream at her favorite dairy, because their town is known for good dairy, similar to Wisconsin, they have a lot of cows there! The ice cream was so yummy- the popular kiwi flavor is called hokey pokey and Sara and I both got it! Then we went over to her parents house and because her parents have traveled a lot through the South Island her dad helped us plan out the next portion of our trip. We sat down with him for about two hours and had a big map in front of us learning about the best places to see on the South Island. After trip planning we headed out with Kirsty and her sister to their netball tryouts. Sports are really big in her region, so even after college they have club teams that compete. Kirsty recently picked up netball which is a popular sport there. It's similar to basketball but you can't dribble or move with the ball, only pivot, and there is no backboard. There are a lot more rules but that is the gist of it. We went to try outs and observed and tried to learn the rules of the game. Sara and I both love spots so it was fun for us to learn about a new sport-- and these girls were awesome at the sport. It was so fast paced and really fun to watch! After try outs we took a drive by a nearby lake and also admired the huge mount Taranaki because it had finally come out from behind the clouds. Then we stopped by a take out place and got some food to bring back to her place, where we just hung out for the night! We also tried Marmite -- which is a New Zealand spread that I wasn't in love with. Kirsty said that only people from New Zealand like it, and when there was shortage of marmite, a small jar cost $200!! After chatting for a bit we went to sleep in a nice comfy bed! Thanks you so much Kirsty for hosting us!
The next morning we got up early (are you seeing a theme here) and went on a hike. We had to drive to Wellington that day which is a 4 hour drive, so we decided to get s little physical activity in first. We went to mount Taranaki and hike for about 2 hours to some waterfalls before getting back to our car and heading south.
We got to Wellington, first got lunch, and then headed to the Te Papa museum which is new Zealand's museum of everything! It was really interesting and fun to learn more about the history and culture of NZ in an interactive environment. After we had exhausted our time in the museum we decided to take a stroll around the city. We enjoyed checking out the shops, the city center, and I very much enjoyed getting a flat white at a cafe on Cuba street. Cuba street is their main Street that cars can't drive on, there are a lot of shops, cafes, ethic restaurants and street performers there. We walked around and then went to move our campervan out of the parking lot it was in, to find a place to park for the night. We decided to try out freedom camping again-- aka parking on the side of the road. So we found a spot and then decided to walk around some more! We went to a night market on Cuba street that had a lot of different ethic food vendors, some live music and little shops. We then went to a free comedy show at a nearby bar which was somewhat funny! It was cool to go somewhere with a lot of local kiwis though, and they stereotypes about Americans a lot so that was sometimes comical. We then went to another bar which a friend of Sara's had recommended, it was called the library and it was a hidden gem. There was just a small sign for it and the we went inside up a flight of stairs, opened a door and inside was a low lit bar with the look of an old school library. Their hand-crafted cocktails were great- I had a peach mule, because as a fan of Moscow mules the drink jumped out at me.
After hanging out at the bar, we went back to our home in a random parking spot- freedoms camping for the night!
In the morning we drove to the top of mount Victoria for a scenic look out of Wellington. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy, but we were still able to see a good amount. We then drove to the ferry, and then drove onto the ferry! We were taking the ferry to the South Island and it was such a huge ship they actually had a parking garage on the ship. So we drove on and parked and then went up to the lookout deck, where after I took a few photos, I fell asleep. I woke up about 4 hours later and we were about an hour away and starting to go by some islands. I went outside and Sara and I were admiring the beautiful scenery when a guy came up and asked if we were sisters (about the 15th person to ask that this trip). She said no and after talking to him and his friend for a bit they said they were from Israel- and Sara was talking about her experiences there. They were surprised she had visited until they discovered we were Jewish. There are very few Jews in the world, let alone NZ, so for us to run into each other was fun. We chatted with them until we reached the dock.
Time for some new adventures on the South Island!
Sending smiles from Picton,
Rebecca
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