My parents and I spent a few weeks in New Zealand-North and South Island.We flew into Auckland and we rented a campervan to drive all round north and south island and we were able to leave the van at a location in the South island where our trip ended.
We saw the Auckland Sky Tower which is very impressive by night when it is all lit up! There's lovely views from the top also.
From there we went further north to the most Northern tip of NZ-Cape Reinga, where two seas meet:Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean. It is a pretty impressive sight and on a windy day the waves look phenomenal!
Near Auckland is a village called Matakohe and this village contains the 'Kauri Museum' and is worth a look if you're up around the kauri area, which you should be! The Kauri is the largest tree in New Zealand and is around 3rd on the list of tallest trees in the world. The largest kauri around to date is Tane Mahuta and is in the Waipoua forest. This is definitely worth a visit as these trees are gigantic!
<---- This is me standing on a stump of a Kauri tree. That's one tree you defo could not hug!
In the North we drove through many interesting places- one specific place we visited was Rotorua, a lovely but really smelly town. It's smelly because of the sulphur from the volcanic activity. I was not impressed by the smell, especially when we decided to park up for the night right beside the geothermal village called 'waiotapu'. There were gases rising up from bubbling mud just beside our van-really nasty! Once inside the village the next morning, I kind of forgot about the smell because the geysers, the baths and the general atmosphere in the village was deadly! The locals were demonstrating how they cook in deep pits in the earth, just like what I remember learning about Irish ancestors doing except slightly different due to the lack of volcanic activity in Ireland.
We drove all the way down to Wellington where we got the ferry over to the South Island to meet our relatives for Christmas on a typical NZ farm.
<---- Dad chilling on the farm on xmas day!
I was and still am not a keen walker but we all did a really thrilling one day hike through Volcanic terrain 'The Tongariro Crossing'. It was breathtaking, there were such contrasts: minty blue pools high up in the mountainous area called the 'emerald lakes',snow on some peaks, desert sands and red craters around. It was an amazing experience!
This is not my pic but I will soon add some of mine to the mix-technical difficulties!
I may think of more but for now I will leave it at that and post the information links on the info page!
