Auckland to Wellington; the North Island

Kai-Ora, Hello from Kaikora!

We've been in New Zealand for about a week now after arriving in the early hours of last Thursday (26th). Our kiwi adventure began in Auckland; an attractive city surrounded by water who's only downside was how spread out it felt. Despite our sleep deprived states (our flight had set down at 5am local time, 3am Australian time and we had probably had about an hour or so's sleep) we managed to drag ourselves around many of the city centre's highlights before our first day was out. Firstly, we visited the museum of Auckland which was filled with many Maori treasures as well as a fantastic National Geographic photography exhibition. From there we walked into the CBD and towards the harbour. Auckland spills onto the water and the East coast is the point of origin for the city; where the older buildings are evident amongst the recent modernisation into a trendier marina filled with restaurants. This was also a great place to grab a night shot of the city scape later in the day. That evening we ate at one of the Belgian beer cafés where the local green-lipped muscles were cooked in your choice of sauce and served with chips and mayo. 

After a very long and satisfying sleep we spent the remains of the next morning walking to and up Mount Eden (The tallest of many volcanic cones in the Auckland area). Though only a tall hill really it offered great views of the city and made us both appreciate how beautiful the city is. That evening we picked up our rental car and due to Leah's elusive map reading skills managed to orientate ourselves only when we accidentally returned to Mt. Eden. Thankfully it wasn't far from there to the hostel - although it's never fun driving around unfamiliar cities in an unfamiliar car (I was expecting a manual and although automatic is no more difficult I found myself looking for the clutch on more than one occasion!).

The next morning we checked out from the hostel early and hit the road to Rotorua. The three hour journey was fairly easy-going as we passed through lots of quaint villages and towns, including Cambridge. We decided to break the journey there and stop for coffee in a converted church which Leah had spotted from the road. It was fairly typical of the churches we have seen in NZ in that it was wooden and looked like it 'belonged in a model railway village', I was more interested in the coffee which was brewed with care and the selection of cakes wasn't bad either. Before long we were back on the road and passing through the rolling hills of Waikaito (otherwise known as the Shire from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy - we didn't spot any hobbit holes though).

Rotorua is central North Island and has a very distinct feature. It stinks of rotten eggs! The city sits in the middle of one of the most active geothermal sites in the world and is surrounded by hot springs and bubbling mud pools all giving off the rather unpleasant sulphurous gas. Even the drains steam! It's also Maori heartland and we found ourselves wandering through one of the Maori suburbs within minutes of parking in the city. The Marae (meeting houses) are very intricate and have fantastic detail both inside and out and the size of the rowing boats that the Maoris used to get to NZ are hugely impressive too. Our hostel had it's own natural spa in the garden and we were tempted to go in but the air temperature put us off somewhat; we were suddenly feeling the cold in Roturua - especially on the wind (there's a stark difference between NZ in the winter and North Australia in the winter!!). The cold even prompted both of us to invest in winter coats, luckily it's currently off season in NZ and there are heavy sales in many of the shops.

Our next stop was Taupo, about an hour's travel along Highway 5 (otherwise known as the Geothermal Explorer highway). The township sits on the Northern bank of the great lake Taupo, the largest in NZ and has the Waikaito river running through it. This is the home of adrenaline sports in NZ and is the location of the country's first bungee jump. Skydives and white water rafting are also popular in the area as is the much more sedate sport of trout fishing. We didn't try our hands at any of that (mostly so that we could save money for the rest of our trip and partly because we had already planned what we'd do whilst there) but our first port of call was to a stream that runs from one of the hot pools into the river. The attraction of this stream is that it has lots of natural pools along it which act as natural hot baths and even jacuzzis where the current is strong enough. Even better though, the higher up the stream you go (closer to the source) the hotter the water, so you can pick the pool/bath which suits you the best. We chose one that was fairly hot and melted into the warmth. We didn't even have to be submerged; the amount of steam that was coming off the water was making the entire surrounding area really pleasant compared to the cold we'd felt the rest of the day.

Modelling our coats!

The next day we walked along the river to the nearby Huka falls. Huka means foam in Maori and although the falls weren't steep in any way the amount of white water that was generated by them made it clear how they got their name. The water looked like it was glowing as it tumbled through the falls; a really vibrant icy blue colour which stood out on the rather grey day that we were experiencing. Further down the river was Aratiatia Dam which is opened three times a day for the public. We actually managed to find ourselves in the wrong place to watch the opening and although our view of the rapids that followed was good it was a shame that we didn't actually manage to see the water crashing through the gates. Nonetheless we were glad we made the effort to get there. The geothermal activity in Taupo is being harnessed for power generation and our final stop of the day was one of the areas where the steam is being drilled. We were able to drive in amongst all of the piping and see the steam leaking out of the huge drilled holes in the earth. The whole place had a very futuristic feel about it, almost other worldly.

We left early the next day with a long journey ahead of us down to Wellington. The direct route is a five hour or so drive but we decided to take a slightly longer route around the Tongariro National Park on the advice of a Kiwi who was staying in our hostel. It was worth the detour to get a better view of the mountains in the park. These mountains should have been visible from Taupo but the weather was very overcast and often rainy which meant we didn't actually see them until we were fairly close. Although not as large as the mountains in the South, these were still rather impressive and were also stars of the Lord of the Rings films where the middle peak (Mt. Ngauruhoe - the most uniform and conical of the three) became Mount Doom itself. Although the drive was long it was a fantastic way to see the country. We felt that North Island NZ felt a little like the hills and valleys of Wales crossed with the forests and mountains of Canada. Of course, the scenery was dotted with the obligatory sheep which typically ran away when we tried to take their photos!

We made it to Wellington with about twenty minutes to spare before the car was due back but it turns out that the city is one of the more awkward to navigate as it is littered with one-way streets. Cue fifteen minutes of rush hour stress, inner city mania and panic of getting lost multiple times and we eventually arrived at the rental shop bang on five o'clock, just as we were due in!

Wellington itself felt much busier than Auckland and it certainly wasn't as pretty (that's not to say it was ugly, just that it felt a little bit more industrial) and we didn't get the impression that there was a great deal to see. If it had been better weather we may have climbed Mount Victoria on the western side of the city but as it was we had views that were almost as good from the botanical garden which was also atop a rather large hill. From here we took the cable car back to the city centre and ambled along the water front to the museum. We spent a little bit of time here but both felt fairly tired and before long we decided to head back to the hostel and take it easy for the rest of the day.

This takes us to today (2nd) which was also a very early start, this time so that we could make the early morning ferry across to the South Island. The journey took about three and a half hours and we arrived in Picton at nearly midday. There was just an hours wait at the ferry terminal before we connected with our coach down the East coast. We arrived in Kaikoura (about half way between Picton at the top of the South Island and Christchurch somewhere near the middle) just after three this afternoon and have been dodging the heavy rain ever since. We're hoping it clears up a little by tomorrow as we've got a whale watching trip booked. The area is renowned for its sperm whales and the company we're going out with has a 95% success rate of seeing the giants. It's also highly likely that we'll see dolphins, albatross and even seals so we have high hopes for the trip. From there we've got another coach booked and should be in Christchurch by about six o'clock tomorrow evening.

The view from the Interislander ferry

Anyway, that's more than enough from us. Hope everything's well at home,

Lots of love,

Leah and Mat

(Written 2nd August, posted when we get internet...again).