North Island, New Zealand
If you have the time and flexibility to do so, I highly suggest that your trip to New Zealand be undertaken through renting a car and driving the length of both islands so you can customize all the places you want to see at the pace you want. As you know, the country has become renowned for its breathtaking, untamed vistas, and these views are not all congregated in one city. No, if you want to see them, you will need to go cross-country and hit up multiple of multiple points. Even then, you may not have the time to see them all comfortably without a solid month here!
We began our trip by landing in Auckland towards the north of the North Island. Upon landing, we immediately picked up a rental car at the airport, and began making our way down. Our first stop was Mata Mata for my huge bucket list item, Hobbiton, which I wrote about in a separate post and will not repeat here. After spending an euphoric day there, we moved onto the next item on my bucket list, Waitomo caves.
Waitomo Caves
I learned years ago, during a trip to the Yucatan peninsula, that I was drawn to caves. Since then, I have had the opportunity to explore quite a few cave systems and the fascination continues as strong as ever.
Waitomo is world renowned for its glowworm caves. Here in these underground caves, thousands of glowworms, found only in New Zealand, hang all along the stalactites. The tour is relatively short, but fascinating to learn that the limestone in the walkways were formed 30 million years ago. To put things into perspective, one cubic centimeter of limestone takes 100 years to develop. During the initial part of the tour, the light of the glowworms are relatively unimpressive.
This changes when you get on the boat ride, where you are shrouded in silence and pitch blackness. At this point, the darkness above you slowly recedes as the ceiling begins to glow with the light of thousands of glowworms, like stars illuminating the night sky.
Ruakuri Caves
My favorite cave in this area was actually Ruakuri because this cave system was vastly larger than the Waitomo cave. Interestingly enough, this cave system is also wheelchair accessible - I learned this because I had suffered an appendicits just prior to this trip, and reserved a wheelchair for Ruakuri. Thankfully, I ended up recovering sufficiently not to need a wheelchair in there. The tour for the Ruakuri cave lasted around 1.5-2 hours, and started with a journey down a long spiral ramp deep into the earth. From then on, your journey deeper in, and areas that are so dark you don't know what lies beyond except your imagination.
There are many coral like formations on the limestone in Ruakuri that reminded me of the writhing bodies of eels.
As you walked further in, you will hear the sound of water, which belongs to underground rivers and waterfalls. The sound of the water is significantly amplified in the echoing off the chamber walls. The experience is both exciting, haunting, creepy, and marvelous. It is inspiring because even this deep into the earth, the glowworms have managed to find sustenance, reproduce, and live.
Okere Falls
Going south on our journey towards Wellington, we stopped by the Okere Falls track, along the Okere River, which is also known as Kaituna (meaning food eel). Below the main waterfalls are numerous eel holes. Whitebait fish are abundant further down the river. The Okere Falls track is a well formed bush trail with scenic lookouts over the fast flowing current and waterfalls.
From the main lookout, we watched in relative safety as the adrenaline junkies below battled through the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world.
The Okere Falls track is a total of 2 miles roundtrip, and the trout pool at the north end of the track is a popular fishing spot, where trout are often seen swimming against the current. Simply gorgeous where ever you look.
Rotorua and Waimangu Volcanic Valley
Rotorua is famous for its mud pools and hot springs. These hot springs rise up all over the city, so it is definitely bizarre driving around urban streets in the evening and seeing pools of steam rising up in the distance. However, the mud pools found in the main park were very pungent, to the point where I could no longer breathe through my nose.
Waimangu was by far the top 2 of my favorite sights on my North Island trip. Since I had not heard of it before, I had no expectations, which made it all the better, because it absolutely blew me away. Just 20 minutes south of Rotorua, this is a must-see, self-guided geothermal wonderland. It is 2.5 miles one-way from entrance to the lake. Plan for an unforgettable 2 hours. Once you reach the lake, you can hop on a bus that takes you back to the entrance. I highly recommend taking the bus because the walk to the lake is mainly down-hill, so the walk back will be physically challenging. Make sure to check the bus schedule, as you do not want to find that you've missed the last bus of the day!
Upon paying about $27 USD at the visitor center, you will immediately be greeted by jungle-like panoramic vistas of the valley, as far as the eye can see. Make sure to pick up the self-guide pamphlet from the visitor center, as there are numbered sign posts along the walk which are explained in further detail in the pamphlet.
The absolute gem of Waimangu is Frying Pan Lake, one of the world's largest hot pools. Pictures do not do the scene justice.
The acidic water along the entire lake is steaming, which explains the murkiness of the water in these photos.
Not much further down is the equally stunning Inferno Crater Lake and its vivid sky blue color, which needs no photoshop to look that piercing shade of blue.
Along the walk you will be treated to chocolatey boiling mud pools.
When you reach Lake Rotomahana, you've reached seventh heaven, and this is where the journey ends.
It's time to leave these shores for the gray havens. Cheers to those who know the reference.
Huka Falls
About halfway down the length of the North Island, Huka Falls is a little gem which requires hardly any effort to visit. The parking lot is located a short distance from the bridge to the falls.
Huka Falls are waterfalls on the Waikato River, New Zealand's longest river. The falls are 36 feet high and one of the most photographed attractions of the country. For thrill seekers, you can take a Huka Falls Jet Boat.
Not to be taken lightly, the waterfall flows at a thundering 58,000 gallons per second, enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool in 11 seconds.
Wellington
Unfortunately, I did not take any photos in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, because we arrived in the evening and spent only one night there. If I did have time though, I would have loved to visit the Weta workshop. From Wellington, we hopped aboard a quick flight to Queenstown, South Island, where we began the next leg of our journey, in beautiful South Island. Stay tuned for the next post!
