Abel Tasman National Park

After a the kerfuffle of will we won't we get on the coach in Wellington, we managed to get to and on the ferry ok, wahoo. It was a perfect day and we saw dolphins inc. a baby one on our crossing. 

We had opted to stay longer at Abel Tasman National Park, in Kaitiritiri, the bay where the kiwi bus drops off/picks up. What we hadn't quite realised is that to get into the park itself required getting some pretty expensive (about £40) water taxis as the roads aren't very direct and it's not walking distance. Even if we had realised, it still looked quite expensive to stay in the park, so either way a cost. 

Anyway, boring spiel over! It was incessantly raining our first day, and set to continue all weekend, but we took a risk that paid off and on Friday headed off on an adventure. We hopped in the water taxi to a place called Anchorage and hiked over beaches, through streams, rainforests, marsh land and over a number of cool bridges to a place called Tonga Quarry ready to be picked up by the boat and be eaten alive by Sandflies. The time estimations were pretty generous, so we reckon we might've been able to make it to the next pick up point. Infact, we reckon the whole route could be done in 12 hours, if you could be bothered. An interesting fact about Abel Tasman, the Dutch explorer the National Park was named after, didn't even step foot in New Zealand when he discovered it's existence.

The following afternoon, we decided to do a "short walk" to "split apple rock" which was accidentally almost as long as the day before, but worth it for the views.

More rain cancelled any more kayaking or walking plans, but was quite nice to just chill out.

Here's to hoping for some better weather!

Split Apple rock ^^^^

Wellington

When we arrived in Wellington on Saturday afternoon, the weather was beautiful- a nice change from the persistent rain of the past few days. Wellington isn't the biggest city in NZ, but it is the capital. It also holds the record for the windiest city in the world with an average windspeed of 16km p/h. 

That evening, we were in for a sporting treat- ENG VS NZ in the women's rugby world cup final was on in the hostel bar. There was a dozen or so English people on the bus- everyone else sided with the Kiwis in the bar. Even though we lost, it was really exciting to watch a final in the host nation.

The following day was mainly a life admin day of clothes washing, food shopping and cooking, but we did manage to ride the famous cable car and walk down through the beautiful botanical gardens. 

On Monday, we went to Mount Victoria, which I was obviously far too excited about! On the way back down, we attempted to find the "Hobbit hideaway" filming location, but we quite literally couldn't see the wood from the trees as neither of us could remember the scene in the film.

 

In the afternoon we went to a museum called Te Papa. It had lots of interesting exhibits on Kiwi nature, on the effect that sitting on two tectonic plates has on the country* and Maori culture. But the absolute highlight was an amazing exhibition on the battle of Gallipoli. Nearby art department film studios "Weta" had created huge life-like models of soldiers and nurses in the battle, scaled up x2.5. It honestly was the most moving war exhibit I've ever seen and almost moved me to tears, so I hope they tour it at some point. I did however spend the first 10mins of the exhibit thinking that it was odd that they fought over the Galapagos island and it's tortoises before I realised...

We continued our cultured day by hooking up the hostel tv to my tablet so we could watch the new series of The Crown, much to the delight/horror of the other guests.

On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the "Weta" workshop- the art dept company mentioned earlier, who do props and costumes for a gazillion films and TV series inc LOTR (obvs), Spiderman (Andrew Garfield era) and Dune. They also did the first two series of the new Thunderbirds and had an entire warehouse of model sets, which was F.A.B.

We then did a flyby visit to The Beehive- houses of Parliament, but sadly no Jacindas were spotted.

We didn't quite know if it was going to be our last evening in Wellington that night. Kiwi Experience is advertised as a flexible "hop on, hop off" coach tour, but post pandemic they are completely full to capacity and, imho, have oversold tickets. We were on the waitlist for a seat on the coach right up until that morning, then for some reason, only had the second leg of our journey booked. Luckily, the following morning, we snagged a lift to the ferry port, and it was plain sailing from there. 

Next up- Abel Tasman National Park!

*I've had to get over the fact that there are slightly terrifying Tsunami and earthquake signs everywhere, gulp.

ENG VS NZ (luckily I came prepared with an England shirt for the men's football world cup)

Botanical gardens feat. lens flare

Oriental Bay- colder than it looks. But still can't get used to it being Nov and seeing Christmas stuff and it being sunny.

Te Papa model

Hand for size ref

Made a new friend. Strangely obssessed with jewellery.

Parliament. Again with the lens flare.

Kiwi Experience- North Island

Kiwi Experience 

On Monday our kiwi experience tour started. For those who haven't heard of it- it's essentially  a coach tour of New Zealand aimed at backpackers. Most people are mid 20s, but still quite a few of us nearer the 30 mark. The tours are designed to be flexible- you can stay longer in places and hop the next coach. At their peak, they run a coach every day, but in the barren post covid tourist world, there is a shortage of drivers so they are currently every 3 days. In fact, we are on the first tour since covid- 293 days since the7 last one.  Being on the first big bus that has rocked up in a while in some of these towns definitely makes us the pioneers (/and guinea pigs) in this post apocalyptic era. 

Hot Water beach

Our first day kicked off with heading to Hot Water Beach, which is what it says on the tin. We dug holes in the wet sand on the beach that filled themselves with hot water like a jacuzzi, then sat in them until the tide came in with much colder water.

Waitomo

The following day we headed to Waitomo, famous for having caves lined with millions of glow worms. Here you can do "blavk water rafting" where you travel through the cave's underground river on rubber rings, jumping off waterfalls etc. It was the highlight of my last trip to NZ. This time I chose to go for the more sedentary (and cheaper!) boat tour. Once again, it was pretty surreal to being pulled along in the dark with glow worms above you, like the stars. A bit like the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland where you are flying through the stars.

That evening I ate a really cheap takeaway roast dinner?! Apparently that's a thing here as I've seen a few, dreamy. We also went to the pub, wahoo!

Rotorua

The following day we travelled to Rotorua, nicknamed Rottenrua because of the smell of sulphur that lingers in the air. We were staying in a pretty random hostel with it's own climbing wall. That evening we went to a Maori cultural evening, where we we watched a show, learnt about Maori culture and ate a hāngī- meat and veg that had been cooked in a geothermal hole in the ground.

On Thursday morning, some of us visited a nearby geothermal park which was pretty spectacular, full of massive geizers, bubbling pools and hot rocks.

Taupo

In the afternoon, it was back on the bus to Lake Taupo, stopping off at more scenic places on route. Taupo was beautiful, some of us went for a walk along the lake. In a classic Vic style injury, I managed to twist my ankle in a rabbit (?) hole when bounding down to the waters edge. Whoops. Provided a good comedy moment though. That evening everyone headed out to a nearby bar for more beer and bad pool playing.

We were supposed to be doing the Torringo Crossing on Friday, a 17km walk through the volcanoes and mountains but it sadly it was cancelled due to bad weather. So instead of a 04:30 start, a lie in and a trip to a nearby spa with natural hot pools in the rain. It was an absolute steal at £7 and was surrounded by nice forestry. We then headed up the road to watch the Wairakei dam open and flood the valley in a dramatic fashion. It continued absolutely chucking it down for the rest of the day so not much to do but venture out to the world's coolest McDonald's (as voted for) which has seating in an old plane. Annoyingly, the plane bit closed late afternoon, but once the idea of maccas has been planted, nothing will stop me.

The next morning, I headed there for breakfast and finally got to sit in the plane, it was deffo worth the calories!

Next stop, Wellington!

Hot Water Beach 

Cathedral Cove

Maori Cultural evening, Rotorua

Geothermal park, Rotorua

Lake Taupo before the rain

Before the dam opened...

After the dam opened!

World's coolest McDonalds

One very happy McDonald's fan

Paihia and the Bay of Islands

On Thursday, we travelled up to Paihia in the North of the North Island to explore the Bay of Islands and surrounding area.

It was the first place the European explorers visited in New Zealand and where the treaty between them and the native population happened*. 

On Friday we went for a 18km walk from Paihia to Russell (another town of modern day NZ firsts, inc. the first pub). The walk included beaches, forest and walkways over swamps and mangroves. Check it out on strava if ya interested.

On Saturday, I went on a boat cruise around the Bay. One thing worth mentioning is that the price of tours etc. in NZ has gone up a lot post covid, in some cases doubling in price, so it's looking like it's going to be an expensive few weeks! Anyway, back to the cruise. It took us around to look at lots of the islands- most are privately owned with Selling Sunset-esk houses on them, but in addition to that they have lots of historical significance e.g. first Christian church in NZ. There was lots of wildlife too, but sadly no Dolphins, Whales or Penguins as is often the case in the bay. The tour stopped off on the island Urupukapuka so I went for a walk with a couple of people from my hostel dorm and found an empty secluded beach to relax/swim in. The beach also came with lots of sheep!

When I got back me and Kate had fish and chips and watched the women's rugby quarter final- NZ vs France in a bar (with lots of French people from our hostel).

After a short walk on Sunday to a lookout point, we headed back down to Auckland. I grabbed a pizza with my Aucklander** pal Peter who I met working in Italy in 2016! It's so awesome to be able to catch up with mates in the southern hemisphere 😁.

*I don't know too much about what went on, so apologies if my phrasing is inaccurate 

**I think I just made that word up

Big tree on our big walk

Lunch spot on Urupukapuka

Classic NZ

Tense final few minutes 

Reunited!

Auckland

Not too much to report in Auckland, it's a nice quiet, clean city and a good place to catch up on sleep after the long flight/get some planning done at the start or end of a trip.

The weather was perfection as it's spring here- sunny and warm but not too hot.

One thing we did do though was to walk up to Mount Eden- a grassy inactive volcano a couple of miles outside of the city centre. We timed it for sunset and it didn't disappoint. We also got chatting to a group of Welsh women sat next to us- turns out they were the Welsh Rugby team! Sadly just off the back of being knocked out of the competition by the Kiwi's, but still full of beans*. Even more randomly, I found out later that one if them is David's friend from uni- small world!

*Speaking of beans, there wasn't a tin opener in the hostel, which resulted in a hilarious half an hour of us attempting to get it open with a number of different implements before a German woman got out a knife and smashed it open for us. In Heinzsight, we should've checked first...

View from Mount Eden ^^^

Sunset at Mount Eden ^^^^