Two weeks in New Zealand

Hey there,

I'm still alive! And I just came back from an exciting vacation: I spent two weeks travelling through North Island with my family (my mum, my dad, and my younger brother). It was the perfect vacation after I spent the previous two months non-stop in Taiwan. Although I really enjoy my time here, there were some things that started to annoy me a little. Most notably it was the bad weather (always foggy and nonstop rain), the pollution (cars and motorcycles everywhere), the food (no more stinky tofu and spicy intestines please!) and the city in general (I needed to see some trees).

But, no worries: now that I had such a long vacation I enjoy my rainy, polluted, tofu-filled city life again!

In this post, I'll show you some of the nicest nature shots and tell you a bit about every day. I know, a 14 day report is gonna take a long time to read, but I decided to post mainly pictures and let them speak for themselves.

Day 1

I arrived in Auckland after an 11 hour flight and met my family at the hotel. They already picked up our rental car and after a good night's sleep we were ready for departure!

Day 2

Our first destination was the Coromandel peninsula. Though it was very rainy and foggy when we were there, it was one of my favorite destination on North Island. The grass is incredibly green and there are sooo many scenic views. In the beginning, we probably stopped every 10 minutes to take a picture:

After a three to four hour drive we stopped to visit Cathedral Cove.

After a 45 minute walk through a forest with lots of old fern trees (a plant you can only see in New Zealand) we arrived at the beautiful beach:

 Day 3

Since time was ticking, we decided to leave Coromandel the next day already and move on to our next destination: a small village called Matamata with one attraction: the Hobbiton movie set from Lord of the Rings. On our way there, we stopped at a village called Waihi and payed a short visit to their historical gold mine.

Then we arrived at Matamata and participated in a guided tour of the Hobbiton village. As a big Lord of the Rings fan I was thrilled to visit this one-of-a-kind movie set, located on a sheepfarm:

Bilbo's hobbit hole:

My future home:

Two little Hobbits:

The village in one word: Amazing!

Day 4

In the morning we drove to our next destination: Rotorua, a city know for its active volcanic plateau (with geysers, hot springs and mud pools) and for rich Maori culture (the aborigines of New Zealand are called Maori). Both of these sights are combined in the Maori culture village, a village that was built in the middle of hot springs and mud pools. Even nowadays it is still populated, but mainly it is used as a tourist attraction.

In the evening, we participated at a hangi (traditional Maori dinner) and watched some traditional dances, for example the haka war dance.


Day 5

Another day following the path of the ring (Lord of the Rings): this time at Tongariro National Park (aka Mordor). First, we were very determined to take on the 'Tongariro Crossing', a 10 hour hike over Mt. Ruapehu (aka Mount Doom).

Two orks:

After two hours of hiking on stony paths in the rain, we decided that reaching the foot of the volcano was good enough...

Nice rainbow after our return:

 Day 6

Over night we stayed at lake Taupo, New Zealand's biggest lake.

The next day, we drove to the Waitomo caves. These caves are famous for their stalagmites and glow worms. We participated in a guided tour through one of the caves, which was overpriced and disappointing. Afterwards we went on a 3-4 hour walk, which made up for the previous disappointment. Far away from the herds of tourists we appreciated the grassy hills and interesting rock formations.

After our trip we went to our accomodation for the night: a small B&B on a sheepfarm in the vast hills of the area, called Te Tiro (the view). And the view was indeed amazing:

At night, we walked around the gardens of the farm and discovered a cave in the middle of the forest that was filled with hundreds of glow worms. It was a magical sight, hidden far away from the world.

Day 7

First, we visited a so-called natural bridge. The word 'bridge' however doesn't give enough credit to this monument built by nature:

Then we drove to a nearby waterfall, which seemed almost too perfect to be natural.

We ended our day of sightseeing with a visit to a small zoo that featured New Zealand's favorite animal: the kiwi. It's very adorable! Unfortunate it was too dark in the cage to take a nice picture of it... This street sign (kiwis crossing) gives you an idea how the bird looks:

 Day 8

The next day (Easter Sunday) had a relaxing start: we spent the morning in the Hamillton gardens, a public park featuring different kinds of gardens. In the afternoon we went to a beach (Piha Karekare) a little bit above Auckland. You would almost not believe this beach is half an hour away from New Zealand's biggest city:

Day 9

That day we started our last stage of the vacation: the Bay of Islands. On our way there, we stopped to visit a gannet (a bird) colony:

In the afternoon we went to a forest to see New Zealand's most famous (and most beautiful) trees (also the world's biggest trees by mass): the kauris

In the afternoon, we used a car ferry to get to our accommodation for the night. The village in which we had to wait for the ferry was very cute and we could watch the sunset:

Day 10

That day we left the car somewhere and participated in a bus tour to Cape Reinga and the 90 mile beach, two of the most famous sights in the Bay of Islands. Despite the many tourists (next to ours there were several other buses) it was a very nice trip. First to the place where the Tasmanian sea meets the Pacific (Cape Reinga) and the cute lighthouse:

Then to experience a fun new activity: sand boarding (riding down a sand dune on a surfboard)

And finally driving for one hour on the incredibly long and almost completely deserted 90 mile beach:

Day 11

This was another cultural day: we visited an old English missionary station in Kerikeri and a reconstructed Maori village:

Then we went to our motel for the night. It was located on a hill, with an amazing view of the bay:

Day 12

Some colonization history: we went to Russell, the oldest colonized town in New Zealand:

Typical wood house in Russell with old tree:

Day 13

The day of our return to Auckland. We stopped at a public bathroom that was built by the artist Hundertwasser (colourful!)

 And we walked a little bit, to another waterfall:

After we arrived in Auckland...

... we went to a Rugby match in the evening! Rugby is the national sport of New Zealand. That evening the Auckland Blues played against a Soutafrican team, the Sharks. Unfortunately the Blues lost.... The game was still interesting (and funny) to watch.

Day 14

 The last day! We walked along the harbor bay in Auckland, and enjoyed our last day of vacation with some relaxing in the sun.