We only had one week left to discover North Island. This was really short so we had a packed agenda. We really enjoyed the ferry from the South Island to the North Island because the views during the trip were so beautiful. We arrived in Wellington and explored the city by foot. Cuba street is New-Zealand’s coolest street if you ask me. The street is full of culinary restaurants and there is a really good vibe in all the shops and restaurants. We had breakfast at Fidel’s, this is one of the tasty spots where you can find a lot of locals. We took the Wellington Cable to overview Wellington. After strolling around we went to the harbour and to the national museum of New-Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa. The museum has elements of the natural environment like the earthquake, but also about the Maori culture, art and history. We were fascinated about the Gallipoli exhibition, the battle between New Zealand/Australia and Turkey during WOI. You walked in a timeline and there were movies, big sculptures, attributes and all different things to do in this exhibition. Wellington was also good for a new haircut, everywhere there are good barbershops. Rick went for a New-Zealand haircut and we moved on for our next destination: River Valley.
When we drove to River Valley something happened: hunderds of sheeps were on the way and were led by a shepherd and his dogs. It was really cute to see all the little sheep around our car. At River Valley we enjoyed a day full of extreme rafting. We went rafting at the Rangitikei River. This is New-Zealand’s longest river (185 km). We had to learn all the commandos in the raft and practiced all of them when we were really rafting. When we were done, we were full of adrenaline.
We were not done with activities, so the next day we had to wake up at 5 and started with the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The tracking was really hard. There were heaps of steep climbs and the weather changed every hour. But the 19,4 km was so worth it. We passed locations of the movie Lord of the Rings and beautiful lakes. Even there was snow on the mountains! I coudn’t count my blisters because there were so many but after the crossing we jumped in the pool and we were satisfied!
Next day we had a very easy day and we went to the New-Zealand must see Waitomo Glowworm caves. It was so magical to walk in the caves and see all the little glowworms. There are so many caves and they all have another story how they were discovered etc. We booked a guided tour and walked around in different caves. The caves did have something mysterious and scary, so I was happy when we were outside again.
We still weren’t done with all the activities so the next day we did the famous mountainbike trail at Roturora. We had really bad weather, so after we’re done we were full of mud. Our last destination before heading to Auckland was The Bay of Islands. It’s in the name because it literally is a Bay full of Islands. The Bay is full of dolphins, so we went on a dolphin tour and the dolphins were everywhere. They jumped and played around our boat, so special. We weren’t allowed to swim with the dolphins, because there were little babies with them. We visited one of the famous islands and after this we headed to Auckland to hand in our campervan. We heard Auckland is not that nice, but actually I kind of liked the city. Especially the little creative village Ponsonby, which is full of conceptstores and designerstores. We strolled around and went for an overview of the city to One Tree Hill. It was so cool to see the sea and the city from one point.
Because in Holland there was Sinterklaas, we searched for a dutch store and yes I found some kruidnoten and pepernoten, yummy! A good ending for our NZ trip! I figured out that you can’t compare the two islands of New Zealand, because they are both so different.
In my next blog I will show you my video about New Zealand!