After driving around the South-Island for three weeks we returned our first car in Wellington and decided to spend a couple nights in the capital. We stayed in a nice AirBnB walking distance from everywhere and our host was a strange but funny man. He took us for a little walk around the neighbourhood pointing out some good restaurants and bars and giving us loads of tips on what to do in the little time we had in town. The first afternoon we walked down to the harbour to look at the colourful boat houses and soak in some of the Wellington city life. The next morning we walked to the Cable Car that took us up to the botanical gardens. We had lunch over looking the city and then walked down through the beautiful gardens stopping for a drink at the rose garden. After our walk we still had some time to check out the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand which was great but unfortunately about to close so we had to rush through. Wellington is known as the craft beer capital of New Zealand so it was Oliver’s duty to try out a couple of the craft beer bars. After two days of no driving it was time for us to pick up our second rental car and set of on our exploration of the North Island.
Colourful boat sheds
Wellington street art
In the botanic gardens
Look at me, I can tell time
Wellington skyline
Rose Gardens
Te Papa museum
Lovely lovely craft beer
Our great AirBnB + cold water and chocolate almonds prepared by our host
Turangi, Mount Doom (Ngauruhoe) and Tongariro national park
Our next destination was Turangi and the World Heritage site Tongariro national park. The park is known for the active volcano Mount Tongariro as well as the Mt. Ngauruhoe aka Mt. Doom from Lord Of The Rings. We spent a day walking and exploring the park trying to catch a glimpse of the mountain but unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our side and it stayed covered by clouds all day. We stopped to have lunch at another LOTR filming location Tawhai Falls or Gollum’s Pool. We decided not to do the famous 19,4 km walk called Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which takes you through the park and is supposed to have amazing scenery, since the views would have not been good because of the foggy weather and honestly, we just had had enough of trekking :D Next day we headed to Waitomo to do some black water rafting in the glow worm caves they have there. This was something we had heard of from people we met already in Australia and so we had been looking forward to it for a while. The rafting was done in tubes and wearing full wetsuits as the water was pretty chilly in temperature. We really enjoyed jumping off small underground waterfalls and gliding along in silence looking at the beautiful glow worms that as a matter of fact are maggots. Glow maggots are a bit hard to sell hence glow worms.
A stop at Oliver's favourite brewery
Tongariro national park
The amazing flora
Gollum's pool
Mt. Doom
Rotorua and Hobbiton
The main reason we wanted to stop in Rotorua was to visit Hobbiton that was close by. But while there we were told about all this amazing geothermal activity around the area. Rotorua is also known for its great Maori influence hence the town was filled with beautiful Maori architecture. So after spending the afternoon in Hobbiton, which was great though quite expensive, we spent the evening walking around town looking at the hot springs and mud baths. The same night we went to do a treetop walk in the close by Redwood forrest which was a great experience. They had lit the whole walk by lanterns and it was quite beautiful actually. We had never before been in a pitch dark forest with giant trees so to our surprise it wasn't scary at all.
At the Hobbiton Movie Set
Greetings from two wannabe hobbits!
Views over Hobbiton
Holes, holes, holes
Entrance to Bag End
Bag End and the fake tree on top of it
Sam's house and the party tree
Complimentary drinks at the The Green Dragon
Beautiful Hobbiton lake
Thermal activity right in the middle of Rotorua town
A mistery woman
A steamy pond
Steaming pond right on Lake Rotorua
Maori church and grave yard
Amazing Maori achitecture
Redwood trees
Up in the trees
Also worth mentioning is another great AirBnB experience. While in Rotorua we stayed with a lovely half Swiss family. They were really nice and their girls were very much interested in Finland and Finnish culture. They also gave us a lot of advice on what to do in and around Rotorua. AND they had a pet rabbit Smokey which was the biggest selling point when choosing to stay there ;)
Lovely Smokey with only 1,5 ears
The chicken want in
We spent the next day still in Rotorua driving around the close by lakes and looking at some more mud baths and one geyser that to our disappointment didn't erupt. We also went for a swim in two rivers where the river water gets mixed with water from a hot spring which made it into a nice hot flowing bath :)
Lake Tikitapu aka Green lake
Lake Tarawera
A traditional Maori boat rowed by local students
Mud pools
The nasty side of mud pools
A geyser that never erupted
Quick stop in Tauranga and Mt Maunganui
After Rotorua we stopped in Tauranga for the night and next day we climbed Mt. Maunganui to look at the views from the top. And what great views they were! We also had time to go for a refreshing swim after the sweaty climb. It was the first time swimming in the sea since leaving Australia. After lunch we headed on towards our next stop. We arrived in Whitianga in the evening and checked in to our AirBnB. The host was an awfully cute and friendly old man, who in no time had shared his life story with us :)
Tauranga beach
On the top
Not bad views
Hot water beach and Hahei
The next morning we headed to the nearby Hot Water Beach. It's quite a strange place to walk up to with loads of people sitting in holes they've dug in the sand. How it works is that there's a hot spring flowing under the sand. You dig a hole close enough to the sea so that you get a nice mixture of hot water from the spring and cold water from the sea, then you lie in your hole for how ever long you want to before the tide comes in. Weird but quite fun! :)
Next we headed to Hahei to look at the views from the start of the Cathedral Cove walk (we again couldn't be bothered to do the whole walk down to the cave) before having lunch at the Hahei beach. The beaches in New Zealand are every bit as good as the ones we saw in Australia they just don't have the climate for them ;)
Digging is serious business
Rival diggers
Great success!
Our lunch spot
Poor Knight islands
We decided quite on a whim to include visiting the Poor Knight Islands and doing some scuba diving to our NZ adventure. Lucky we did, as the diving was absolutely amazing and surely one of the best things we did in NZ. We booked our accommodation in Whangarei for two nights since it is located quite close to Tutukaka, a coastal town where our dive tour started from. Whangarei also had a couple of sights we wished to visit while there.
What we didn't know in advance was that Poor Knight Islands is regarded as one of the best dive spots in the world due to its unique biodiversity. The islands are located in the crossroads of two ocean currents; one warm and one cold, providing a one-of-a-kind environment and selection of species. Around and below the islands is a marine reserve and on the islands themselves is a nature reserve.
Onboard the dive boat we did two dives as well as visited one of the biggest sea caves in the world. We loved diving in the kelp forest spotting numerous eels, rays, stone fish, nudibranch and huge schools of fish. On both dives we entered caves, and in one of them we even surfaced into the cave's air bubble! Very unique dives indeed. The water temperature was 18 celsius, which was very different to the Great Barrier Reef where we had last dived at. Luckily it was quite a sunny and warm day plus we head thick wetsuits to shield us from the cold water.
A huge flock of terns following a school of fish on our way to the islands
While still in Whangarei we visited the Kiwi North kiwi house, where one can see the endangered Kiwi birds as well as Tuatara lizards. Tuataras also happen to be older than dinosaurus! Both species have been nearly wiped out of NZ and it is very hard to spot them in the wild. There are some tuataras living on Poor Knights islands but they were impossible to spot from the boat. We were happy to see these weird but very cute birds and lizards, even though in captivity, and were also happy to support the centre's conservation work.
A bird or a dinosaur?
Second farm stay in Kaukapakapa
After staying in Whangarei we headed to Kaukapakapa, where we had booked our second farm stay. We were working and staying on a small farm of a couple, whose better half is half Finnish and half kiwi. Saara had contacted us through HelpX after coming across our profile since she was eager to have some Finnish people staying with them. We happily agreed to come and definitely didn't regret our decision. The first full day at the farm we did a bit of work before heading down to the beach to jet ski. Neither of us had ever jet skied before so it was quite a special thing for us to do! Scary as well we have to admit. The location was quite special too, a 50 kilometre long black-sand beach called Muriwai.
Maori Bay
Muriwai Beach
Getting ready to jetski
While there we mainly helped with painting their balcony and the fence of one of the paddocks as well as spraying the weeds around the house. The work was pretty easy and we were very lucky with the weather so that we were able to catch a bit of sun while working.
Hard at work
First coat done
And done!
One evening after work we headed to a close by waterfall for a little swim. It was a beautiful hidden spot that we had all to our selves. Another evening we went to a close by brewery to try out their brews. And on our second to last evening Saara took Rosanna riding to a rather beautiful spot with a view over the Auckland harbour and Simon took Oliver to play cricket. Oliver even got to bowl and bat!
Omeru waterfall
Hallertau Brewery
Cricket with an excellent local brew or few
The farm had quite a few animals; two goats, two horses, a pony, cat, dog and a rabbit. All so friendly and nice!
Dusty the rabbit
Bruce the dog
Benji the cat
We really enjoyed our second farm stay. Saara and Simon were a lovely couple and very welcoming. One day Saara came home with some treats for us and on another evening, actually the 100th Finnish Independence day on 6th of December, she even made the traditional carrot casserole for us!
Oh, how we've missed rye bread
Excellent carrot casserole ala Saara
Happy Independence Day Finland!!
Auckland
We left our lovely farm stay to spend the last days of NZ in Auckland, the biggest city. We had once again booked an AirBnB accommodation quite in the city center and were greeted by yet another set of great hosts. On our first night staying with them they took us sailing on their boat, which was such a great surprise! Afterwards we went for dinner with them and their friends and had quite a lovely evening.
Auckland Harbour
Two very happy sailers
Auckland from the bay
Enjoying a craft beer after sailing
During our two full days in Auckland we went sightseeing around the city center as well as visited the Waiheke island right across from Auckland. Waiheke is known for its unique wineries and a chill vibe. We bought a ticket for a hop-on hop-off bus tour around the island and visited five wineries. Not all the wines were to our taste but nevertheless we had a really fun day on the beautiful island. We had some local Te Matuku oysters for lunch and have to say that they were quite nice (even though we normally don't enjoy oysters one bit). The funniest thing was the local Christmas parade; it still felt very strange to be celebrating Christmas in the sun shine.
Views from Albert Park, Sky Tower in the background
Getting into the Christmas spirit
Walking the streets of Auckland
Our first stop on Waiheke
Great views but not so good white wine
Second stop: Tantalus Estate
Third stop: Batch Winery with Thomas Bach wines
Some Te Matuku oysters for lunch
Christmas parade in the town centre
Wine tasting is serious business
Or maybe not
Views from Cable Bay
On our way to the last winery
Last stop: Mudbrick
On our final evening in NZ we went to a Thai restaurant and opened the last of our wines we bought from our favourite Kiwi winery Bladen in Marlborough. It went excellently with the food just like they suggested.
Last dinner in New Zealand
We absolutely loved New Zealand and felt sad leaving. It was a tiring six weeks with a lot of driving and an overwhelming amount of beautiful places to be seen. The whole country felt like a postcard, it was hard to comprehend that it was real. We are grateful to have met a few Kiwis and gotten to know their culture more. But in the end we felt like we didn't have enough time to see even half of what New Zealand has to offer. Hopefully we'll have the chance to come back and see more of the nature and meet more of the lovely people. Kia ora Aotearoa you were good to us!
In Finland we have this thing called 'MORO' when we say goodbye, so MORO New Zealand
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