We are taking a bit of at departure from our normal traveling rhythm. Our objective in our FIRST trip to New Zealand is to see as much of the country as we can in just a few weeks. New Zealand is one of those countries that you really need to rent a car to see the sites. We don’t really like renting cars but buses and trains aren’t going to get us everywhere. We also are going to be moving way faster than we normally do. We prefer staying in places 7 to 10 days but there are so many places to see…. that we really need to go a bit quicker. Plus, we have a car so it is really easy to do an old fashioned road trip. We have done so many long car trips in the US in the first years of our marriage that this isn’t a new experience. It has been pretty fun so far but a bit exhausting. We started in Auckland and then stayed 2 nights each in Cambridge, Rotorua and Taupo. We have some great pics from each leg of the trip.
Our first stop leaving Auckland was the Hamilton Gardens. We paid about $12 US to gain access to some incredible gardens in many different styles. We saw Egyptian, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, French, English and about 20 other examples of world-wide garden styles. It was kept up perfectly and I don’t think we saw any of the gardens weren’t weeded and trimmed recently. Many had buildings and statues that made you think you were there.
That night we stayed in the small town of Cambridge in a small Airbnb. This is the first of many stays in New Zealand that seem to be in old garages or sheds the suburbs that have been converted to short term rentals. It was a very clean looking town that reminded me a lot of Lynden in Washington state. This was to be our launch pad to see my most anticipated attraction in New Zealand- The Glow worm Caves. This is one of the reasons I really wanted to come to New Zealand. There are several caves that have worms that live on the cave ceilings that have lit-up abdomens so they can attract insects to eat. We visited the Spellbound caves that had a boat to move you through the caves and see the thousands of blue light worms on the cave walls and ceilings. It was really magical and my photos really can’t show how cool it was. The next day we drove out to the coast and saw some beautiful beaches, a beach town (Raglan), and then took a hike to a waterfall that gave us some much better photos than the glow worms. New Zealand seems to have attractions everywhere.
Our first stop after leaving Cambridge was Hobbiton, the movie set from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. They have turned the set into New Zealand’s most visited tourist attraction. It was a bit cheesy and expensive but was something we didn’t regret doing. It was fun to walk the hills and take pictures of all the Hobbit holes. One of the houses was an actual Hobbit house that they let us wander through and see how Hobbit’s live :>) After Hobbiton we stopped at small river that had some wavy reeds in the clear water that looked other worldly. We then drove to our next small Airbnb in the tourist town of Rotorua. Rotorua has tons of tourist attractions like Gondolas, Luge Carts, Zoos, Rafting and many other things that cost a bunch of money. It’s big attraction is that the whole area is a hotbed of volcanic activity. The whole town stinks of sulphur, but you just kind of get used to it. There were many private parks that have paths through the hot springs or just pipe the hot water into pools for tourists. We had just paid for some big ticket attraction of Glow Worms and Hobbiton so we tried doing a lot of the free walking activities. We walked through the Yellowstone like mud pits, steam vents and hot springs in the downtown parks. They were interesting but don’t have the amazing colors of Yellowstone. We also took a hike through a Redwood forest. A hundred years ago, they planted some California Redwoods on the hill above town and it is now another attraction.
The next town was Taupo, another tourist town an hour away on New Zealand’s largest lake. We stayed in an overpriced motel near the lake. Our first day had great weather and many Kiwi families were having a great time hanging out on the local beach. Taupo Lake is a lake-side town with family resorts that reminds us of Lake Chelan in Washington state. Taupo also had a lot of hot springs and we were able to find a free river outside of town that was well over 100 degrees (called Hot ‘n’ Cold, there are two streams merging and you can vary the temp based on where you hang out). The amount of hot water in this country is really amazing. Many private companies are selling hot pool experiences but there is enough hot water that some of them are free. The big attraction in Taupo is Huka Falls a couple of miles out of town. It isn’t a traditional falls but more a narrow area in the rocks where the river gets squeezed into some powerful rapids. Taupo also has the “Most Awesome McDonalds in the World”. It was voted that because it has an old DC 3 that you can eat in. We try not to eat American fast food but for the Macca’s with an airplane we made an exception.
We are seeing a lot and are so far really enjoying our North Island Road Trip. Next stop is Napier and then we will finish up the North Island in the capital of Wellington. Fast Travel continues!