Finally we have found a campsite that offers decent internet. We have now 2hrs or 1 gig of free internet, so plenty of room to upload new pictures and write an update. The main reason is that we are currently in Auckland in one of the city campings and modern facilities are more common here than elsewhere in NZ. We are in Auckland because sadly we needed to say goodbye to the grandparents who travelled back home today. But the trip ain’t over for us yet, we have one more month to go here.
We have been travelling through the North Island for the past week. It is totally different from the South. It starts already on the ferry crossing. You leave Picton via a gorgeous bay with great views of mountains and then after 3 hours of sailing you arrive in the busy harbour of Wellington, the capital of NZ and the second most populous urban area. Suddenly we were back to big city life, with traffic jams, multi lane highways and parking problems. But we managed fine and enjoyed two days of Wellington. On the first day we visited Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of NZ. It was highly recommended by others and we really enjoyed it. The museum is very interactive, has a great diversity of topics and shows a good overview of typical NZ stuff. From earthquakes to Maori and from rain forests to giant squids. The second day we walked around town, tasted the famously good coffee from Wellington and enjoyed the harbour views.
From Wellington we wanted to drive to Rotorua, the heart of all the volcanic activity. But that would make it a very long day, so we decided to make a stop in between, where we freedom camped in Waikanae on a parking place right on the beach and where we visited the excellent bird sanctuary in Nga Manu Nature reserve.
From there we drove further north, where we stopped at Orakei Korako (‘Hidden Valley’) located halfway between Taupo and Rotorua. This is an area that is less busy than the other volcanic areas around Rotorua and the special thing here is that the valley has been virtually untouched by humans, so it shows geysers, hot springs, mud pools & amazing silica terraces in a beautiful setting. We could not stop taking pictures. In Rotorua we also visited Te Puia, the more classic tourist stop here. You get the whole shebang here, a 30 meter high geyser, bubbling mud pools, a Maori village, traditional wood carving and weaving and if you pay extra, some dance or dinner can be added. It was nice to visit and not to busy, but not nearly as good as the hidden valley. We were glad we had chosen to visit both.
From Rotorua we drove to Waitomo, our last stop before Auckland. In Waitomo there are about 30 different caves and a few of them are open to public. Of course we wanted to see the famous glowworm cave. After a thirty minutes walk though the cave you step into a boat and you float through the cave in absolute silence and darkness and suddenly the cave ceiling is flooded with small lights from glowworms. They thrive here because this cave has the right combination of damp, darkness and temperature. A very special experience. We also visited a second cave, the Aranui cave. This is a dry cave, so no glowworms, but thousands and thousands of stalactites and stalagmites.
From Waitomo we drove to Auckland today, where we had a farewell dinner at the Viaduct harbour, before bringing the grandparents to the airport for their flight home. Goodbye and have a safe flight!