My trip to New Zealand morphed a bit over time, originally it was going to be a week stop over as I was moving back to the USA and I plotted out a week long bike ride on the South Island hitting some places I had been and new ones too. Between no takers on the bike adventure (I needed at least 2 more people to make the logistics work) and my role extended and I knew that I was returning to Australia – I shortened the trip and focused on the north island. I had still intended to do a lot of biking and tour on my own – but it was pointed out to me that I since I was returning for Alexandra and Pat’s wedding – I should avoid injuries (especially to walking or my face/head) and not be in a position to miss flights. So I de-risked my trip a bit by staying in Auckland the whole time (instead of moving each day like I typically do) and pivoted some of my downhill mountain biking plans and long isolated trail rides/hikes to guided tours. Worked out well as I ended up having to work more than expected and having the hotel room was good and it was raining/windy most of the time. My time in Auckland will be the subject of my next post.
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When I was looking at top things in the north island – most were as far away as you could get from Auckland. The two places I really wanted to see was the Bay of Islands/Cape Reinga coastal area in the very north and Mt Taranaki in the south – which would entail a 20 hour driving loop to see both. Looking at day trips – the three most common places were Waitomo Caves, Rotorua, and Hobbiton and two could be combined on a long day trip. Hobbiton, a celebration of all things related to Hobbits was third on my list (even though I wasn’t sure what the other two were).
Both Waitomo Caves and Rotorua have been long term holiday destinations in New Zealand – going back over 100 years. The Waitomo Caves are famous for glow worms and Rotorua is a geothermal hotspot.
Waitomo Caves
The Waitomo Caves are limestone caves – New Zealand is relatively new and limestone seabed was pushed up and erosion started. The entire cave is bright white and looks like marble – unfortunately no photos were allowed. At the bottom when the lights are turned out the glow worms can be seen – there is a river there and you take a short boat ride through the rest of the cave where the glow worms primarily reside. It was pretty impressive. Picture from the google attached.
Te Puia – Rotorua
A positive aspect of the caves is that we were out of the rain. The next stop was Te Puia geothermal park in Rotorua where the geysers are outside. The primary geyser is Pohutu which goes up a hundred feet every 20-30 minutes except when it doesn’t. Slightly lower eruption elevation than Old Faithful- and clearly less faithful. We waited 35 minutes and nothing – then our guide said he was leaving and sometimes it takes days (or he was tired of standing in the rain).
The park also had indigenous craft exhibits. One element that in New Zealand that is very different from Australia and New Zealand – the indigenous people in Australia came over 60,000 years ago from Indonesia and then were separated from everyone else and evolved isolated. The indigenous in New Zealand came from Polynesia 600 years ago and brought the Polynesian culture. So very different indigenous cultures.
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