It was my first time in New Zealand, and this was a place I really dreamed going to for something like 20-years or so. I simply could not miss the opportunity to include this destination in this round the world trip and dedicated almost 3 weeks there, which was - by far - the longest time I would spend in a country in this overall adventure.
When it comes to organizing my trips, I am kinda old fashioned and still carry travel guide books (there was pretty much one guide book for each country/region I visited so, that added a bit of weight to my luggage !). Being French, one of the best guide books I can think of is called "Guide du routard", that's like the French version of the lonely planet and is very well organized and useful when it comes to (1) plan the day with the highlights to see in the region you are - and avoid speding time in the not-so interesting places and (2) find the best and most authentic spots to have lunch/dinner and try local specialties. Since this guide is originally targetted for backpackers (although it's not fully the case anymore), it also helps finding the best quality/price ratio places. Unfortunately, this guide is not available for all destinations worldwide, and New Zealand, such as Taiwan, Oma, Namibia or some parts of Australia are not covered, so I had to use my second (and more expensive) choice of guide book, the more universal Lonely Planet to plan my NZ discovery journey.
For this particular destination, I was lucky to make some friends from Australia and NZ during my first visit in Thailand and south east asia in november/december, and they all gave me good tips for my planning. There was a clear consensus that I should dedicate more time on the South Island in comparison with the North island as 3 weeks is actually not that much to discover NZ.
So at the end, I organized my trip as such :
- Hire a car after my arrival at AKL airport and drive 4 days across the regions of Waitomo, Taupo and Rotorua
- Bring the car back to AKL airport and fly for Wellington where I would stay a few days
- From Wellington, fly to Christchurch in the South island, spend a couple days there and take the Tranzalpine train to cross the island from East to West to reach Greymouth
- Hire a car in Greymouth and sspend some time in Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers area, then Queenstown, the region of Fjordlands NP, head to the southernmost region of the south island and spend the day in the not so well-known "Third NZ island" of Stuart Island.
- Drive back to Queenstown and fly to Auckland where I would spend my last day in NZ before flying to the French territory of New Caledonia.
- And eventually, catch some sleep between those places !
After a pretty uneventful night in a mediocre hotel of Mangere, the city near AKL Airport, I decided to hit the road and escape the city towards the south, and the first stop would be having some lunch near Raglan, on the West coast of the North Island. On the way I stopped for my first nature visit at the Bridal Veil falls before Raglan.
North Island countryside...
Bridal Veil falls entrance
Bridal Veil falls
Long exposure of the falls
After this refreshing visit I drove a bit along the coast, but did not dare to use the drone due to windy conditions.
The coast near Raglan
At the end of the day I ended up in district of Waitomo where a nicer motel was waiting for me for that night.
The next morning I went to visit the Waitomo caves nearby. 3 caves are open to the public with the main one, called the Glowworm cave, being the most touristic, and you visit most of the cave on board of a small boat for about 30 min. I was not felling like going with the masses, so I opted to visit the second cave a bit futher way, the Ruakuri cave, which had the benefit to be visited walking in a small group, and for about 90 minutes. Glow worms are also present in the Ruakuri cave. The day I was there, it was not possible to visit the third cave, the Aranui cave (This one does not have glow worms due to the lack of water). Given the low light conditions in the cave, taking good pictures without a tripod is a bit of a challenge and I unfortunately was not able to take good pics of the glow worms (but google has plenty in stock for the ones interested !)
Waitomo main cave entrance
Inside the Ruakuri cave
I spent the rest of the day driving towards my next stop for the night, in the small town of Taupo, right along the lake fo the same name. I however stopped multiple times on the way for short nature walks, point of views as the opportunities were definitely there !
On the way to Taupo
Taupo lake
Taupo
Taupo is a relatively small town and the accomodation that day were extremely expensive or completely booked. For the first and only time of this 6-month trip, I booked a hostel instead of a hotel (but still booked a private room) and got to meet some interesting people there, the majority being the usually targetted population of hostels i.e guests in their early 20's, mostly Brits, Australian, French and German but also and more surprisingly this British couple of pensioners on a 2-month vacation in NZ with whom I was sharing the patio across my room...
After a restful night there, I had breakfast at the coolest McDonald's restaurant on earth (not only according to me, but also according to a survey) and visited the Huka falls nearby per the recommendations of the local touristic office and drove towards Rotorua where I stopped at a geothermal park on the way. New Zealand has became in the last several years a very popular touristic destination and the governement invested quite some money in developping the touristic facilities, including the information centers, called "i-sites" over there. Those i-sites can be found pretty much all across the country and on top of providing helpful tips and maps to organize your day and your trip, can also book tickets for day excursions, museum visits and cultural centers. I took this opportunity to book my entrance to the Wai-o-tapu geopark and a "Maori cultural experience in Rotorua (dinner included)".
Taupo lake
The world's coolest Mc Donald's ! A former DC3 converted in an eating room
Inside the former plane
Cockpit (you cannot access it)
Taupo
Huka falls
I read somewhere that there were only 4 places in the world where you could admire the geothermal wonders of the earth. Together with Iceland (Where the word Geyser comes from the Icelandic town of Geysir), the area of Yellowstone NP in the USA, and Kamtachka region in Russia, the region of Rororua is well known for it's geothermal activity and springs. You can visit a few different geothermal parks in the region but the Taupo i-site recommended me the Wai-o-Tapu center, on the way between Taupo and Rotorua. Different walking tours are recommended, and I opted for the full walking tour which took me a good 2 hours as far as I recall.
I was lucky to visit 3 out of the 4 places I mentioned before having similar geothermal activity (The Kamtchaka region in Russia is the one I miss), I have to say that this place was not the most impressive of the 3 I visited. From what I've seen I would rank Yellowstone
#1 without hesitation, although I haven't seen all the places in Iceland and NZ. But if you visit the region of Rotorua, this geothermal park is a good place to visit nonetheless.
After checking in at the Ibis hotel Rotorua, I walked around the deserted city (It was sunday) before the organized bus picked me up for my "Maori cultural experience - dinner included". The region or Rotorua is well known to be the heartland of the Maori culture, and with tourism rapidly devolping in the country, numeros cultural associations created touristic centers explaining with maybe more or less authenticity the history of the Maoris. I was interested in knowing more about it and asked the i-site in Taupo which one they would recommend. It was too late for me to book her first option (sorry, I cannot recall names) but one spot for her close second choice was available for that evening at the Tamaki Maori village.
The evening was nice as I met some fun people in the group I was in, but obviously I felt this was more a theme park with traditional shows rather than a real cultural experience. And the dinner was good too - sometimes it just feels good to take part in a "gringo-tour" once in a while !
Welcome in the Tamaki Maori Village !
After being splitted in different groups, different exhibits are presented about the traditional habitat, canoes, dances or crafts...
And of course dinner was cooked thanks to the geothermal activity of the region.
That is what I am calling a "gringo-tour".
I spent the next morning walking across Rotorua gardens (unfortunately the Rotorua museum inside the gardens were closed for renovation) before leaving towards Auckland airport.
There is some geothermal activity in the city center too !
Rotorua government gardens
Rotorua city museum (unfortunately closed for renovation, would have loved to see the inside of the building)