New Zealand
Size: 268,680 sqkm
Population: 4,213,400
Capital: Wellington
Time Zone: GMT +12
A land of extemes in nature and activity
Use the navigation bar on the left or the map-links to select a place. Alternatively scroll down to see all the entries. Click on photos to enlarge. See all New Zealand photos here.
Wellington
It was a windy Friday afternoon when myself and Heather arrived Wellington. We were met by our friends Patricia and Chris, also ex-Sapporo residents, who live along the coast from Wellington in the lovely town of Paekakariki - New Zealand specialises in hard to pronounce place names.
The town has a great view of the sea and is close the small island of Kapiti, the destination for out first day. Kapiti Island is special because over the last hundred years continued efforts have removed all non-native animals such as cats and rats.
This has allowed the indigenous New Zealand birds to survive, and the island is a thriving habitat for species close to extinction elsewhere. We followed the trail to the island peak which provided great views back to the mainland as well as over to South Island and along the way saw a good number of birds. On the way back down we met a native parrot known as a Kaka. These are impressive brown coloured birds with large
beaks that are very clever and sociable.
Long ago they learned that food is kept in rucksacks, so they now jump onto unsuspecting tourists and use their beaks to open zips in their hunt for an easy meal. Once one rucksack has been tested the bird systematically moves to the next which is a little daunting due to their size and confidence to climb all over us.
On the Sunday we went to the some of the parkland surrounding Paekakariki and then went to see some of the sights of Wellington. The following day we had another wander around town, and then picked up our hire car to allow us to see some of the rest of the North Island. Chris and Patricia have a great garden and so we were treated to a lot of good food with home grown vegetables and plenty of homebrewed beer, so it was a shame to be moving on, but New Zealand has so many beautiful places and there is so little time to see everything.
Taupo
Leaving Wellington we drove north towards the town of Taupo. It is around 350 Km, only slightly hampered by the fact that I hadn't really driven a car in 10 years, and only then to pass my test. But the roads in New Zealand are quiet, especially in the off season, so it didn't matter and the scenery was amazing (I'm told, I mostly had to concentrate on the roads as they do take a very meandering route requiring constant attention). We stopped in the town of Bulls (where the milk is made of course) and then near Taihape where a gorge cuts through the land. There are all manner of attractions to amuse the tourists here, I opted out of the bungee but went for the 160Km per hour flying fox that drops straight down the canyon, which was fun and upon being winched back up gave a great view of the gorge.Many winding miles later, past the mountains and lakes we made it to the town of Taupo. We stayed in a convenient motel
- Taupo is a major tourist town, so is full of hotels and is very quiet in the off season,
and went and ate at an nice Thai restaurant. The following morning we headed out of town to Huka falls. This is not so much a waterfall as a very narrow gorge filled with white water. While the falls are impressive from the side it is much better to take a jet boat up to the very bottom of them, and as a bonus the boat is designed to be quick and agile, providing a more exhilarating ride, as to be expected of something kiwi. Following on from this we headed up stream a little further to another gorge. At 12 o'clock the flood gates on the dam are opened to give an impression of what the river looked like before the construction of the reservoir, and it is quite a sight to see so much water flooding through the ravines.
From here we continued to drive on what I think are some of the nicest roads I've ever seen, if rather winding, to the geothermal area of Orakei Korako, or the hidden valley. The lonely planet rates this as the best thermal area in New Zealand, and that says something for a country specialising in geothermal activity - from one area close by the hot water is used to produce over 15 percent of the countries power. Orakei Korako has a number of attractions from a hot spring in a cave to bubbling mud, geysers (small ones) and lots of steam. Again we were mostly lucky with the weather as the showers managed to be mainly while driving and in between we had bright sunshine. From here we moved on to Rotorua which is another hot spring town which smells rather of sulphur but has some excellent restaurants and cafes. Lamb is a speciality of New Zealand, and they can really cook it well, giving excellent flavour and keeping it really tender. The following morning we had an early start and drove to the caves of Waitomo.
Waitomo
The Waitomo caves are one of the must see attractions of North Island, a massive complex of caves where a variety of activities are put on to cater for everyone. We started with the walking tour where a guide shows some of the larger caves and then takes you on a boat to see the thousands of glow worms that the caves are famous for. In the dark the glow worms look amazing so it is nice to know that they are basically a form of maggot that lets down a sticky web to catch flies, removes the romance a tad, but even considering that the sight of so many is quite stunning.While taking a boat over the icy black water is nice, a more exciting tour is to take car inner tubes and go caving and tubing into the dark interior of the earth. We were lucky to miss the large tour group so there were 6 of us on the tour and we not only saw the glow worms up close to see their webs but were taken to a really impressive hall of stalactites and stalagmites.
However the best bits where splashing through the dark water and jumping off the little waterfalls.
That evening we went to another excellent restaurant that did tapas using a fusion of Maori and westerns ingredients and recipes, then stayed in a very interesting place that specialises in odd buildings. It is possible to sleep in a converted plane, train or ship, but the star attractions are the hobbit holes. These are really nicely furnished and the furniture is specially built to make you feel small (like a hobbit, not insecure).
Auckland
On first impressions Auckland is quite a generic city; it has the international feel of Sydney and much of the same shops and buildings; that is not to say it is a bad place, just nothing of great substance to write about. The excitement of having more that one lane to drive in was over all too quickly over as we ditched the car at the airport and headed into town. To make the most of our time we had decided to spend our final day dolphin watching so this gave us the Friday afternoon free. After wandering around the centre and harbour we headed out to the aquarium which specialises in having a polar ride where you can see lots of penguins and then a big aquarium with a glass tunnel so you can walk below sharks and other exciting fish. We finished the day at a steak house, then the following day headed down the harbour to take a boat to go whale and dolphin watching.
This was run by some very knowledgeable people,
and we saw a large pod of bottle nose dolphins which had a great time playing with the boat of 30 minutes. We then crossed the path of hundreds of small dolphins. They were not interested in the boat and the skipper though maybe they were swimming away from a killer whale, these are seen regularly in the area but unfortunately we did get to find any. That all but completed our New Zealand trip, but South Island beckons.