New Zealand. Te Ika-a-Māui

Leaving Asia behind, we packed our things and headed to Auckland, New Zealand. It was touch and go whether we’d make it – between the floods and our weight limit, there were a few nervous moments at the airport. But Auckland welcomed us well and my godmother kindly picked us up at the airport. Beverley hosted us for several wonderful days and we got the true Auckland experience – complete with a visit to Tiritiri Mantangi island! This was our first foray into bird watching and we kept our eyes pealed for several types of rare bird on this predator free island. 

Somehow we bought a car in rapid time (second day in NZ!) and headed up further north to visit Piaria and Poor Knights Islands for some diving. We’d heard that it was a unique diving area and worth the trip up – it didn’t disappoint! Despite the floods and stormy weather, the visibility was excellent and we experienced a completely different dive to the warmer seas of the Andaman. We chose to dive the Rainbow Wreck and explored a beautifully preserved ship with very different fish (lovingly named Big Blue Fish). We even spotted several Eagle Rays! Sitting at 26m, we were able to swim along the deck of the sunken Greenpeace boat and get up close to the underwater algae and coral. Our next dive at Poor Knights Islands, we swam through bull kelp whilst spotting huge Crayfish and schools of little blue fish. It was truly magical. 

A quick stop in at the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail (a must-do), we headed down towards Matamata to hang out with my friend Sarah on her dairy farm. Sarah was the fine example of the classic expat story – a traveller that fell in love with the country and never left. Visiting NZ 6 years ago, Sarah pivoted into diary farming and now enjoys her best life on the farm. It was lovely to hear about her work and show us around the farm. Her passion for cows and the industry really shone through. During our stay we raced over to Rotorua to luge down the famous race tracks and explore the giant redwood trees from the night time board walk. Then with the perfect weather window opening up we all dashed down to Lake Taupo to complete our first Great Walk – The Tongariro Crossing. 

What struck me with this 1 day crossing was the variety in landscape you experience throughout the walk. It's not to be underestimated - the crossing takes between 5-7 hours and travels up to the base of Mount Doom (LOTR ref, apologies) and along the 3 emerald lakes. We hiked through shrub, up the ‘Devil’s staircase’, across sandy plains and battled uphill in shingle. The view of Mount Doom was impressive, with the top glowing a deep shade of crimson, thanks to the pigment in the rock! It gave the volcano quite an ominous feel. Finishing in a respectable time we headed home for dinner, grabbing a takeaway and preparing ourselves for the imminent cyclone. My first experience of a proper cyclone and I thought the house would blow away overnight. The winds were so powerful, I wondered if our car would escape the fall of trees. It continued to howl away until well into the morning. At this point we had to move on and we took the chance that the road would be clear, packed the car (and supplies!) and headed on over to Waitomo. 

Despite the cyclone and the rising wind gusts, our Black Water Rafting experience was still on. So at 4pm we headed on down deep into the caves to explore the caverns that lay ahead. Equipped with what looks like a tractor inner tube, you throw yourself into the icy cold water to bob along the water running inside the caves. Thrilling and exciting, we were deep underground and learning about glowworms – spoiler alert, they’re gross. However, they do give off a pretty light and we admired their luminescence whilst we drifted through the, frankly, quite tight space. 

After the glowworm experience, we continued to run away from the cyclone, heading south west to New Plymouth where we had hoped to cycle around the base of Mount Taranaki. Unfortunately with the wind gusting away, there was no chance we would be able to stay on our bikes so they stayed stubbornly in the car. We opted instead to hike up the volcano and explore the national park. This volcano was a prominent feature of the surrounding area, with it’s conical shape visible for miles. We were able to keep it in our sights way after we travelled on, down the coast and towards Wellington. 

The home of Weta Studios, craft beer and good times, Wellington had a lot to offer. I hiked to the top of Mount Victoria, watched airplanes take off and viewed the whole city. Down on the waterfront we enjoyed the hum of lively, modern restaurants and tiny pop up bars selling alcoholic lemonade (delicious). We visited the phenomenal WWII exhibition with larger-than-life models created by Weta (over 3m tall) and learned about New Zealand’s experience of the war. We played corn-hole and caught up on life admin in the artisan coffee shops. Unfortunately we were to spend longer in Wellington than planned as our ferry got cancelled at short notice. This made for quite a stressful end to our north island tour as we scrambled to find a solution. 

Camping out in the ferry terminal car park we used our stubborn determination to woo our way onto a waiting list and luckily managed to secure a space on the next ferry. This ferry however was incredibly delayed and left at 9pm, creating a domino of issues as we arrived on the South Island at 12.30am. As you would imagine, most hotels and campsites were either full or closed so we hunted around for a spot to wild camp. After driving for an hour, we managed to tuck ourselves into a small rest area, pitching our tent for a quick few hours before continuing on to Nelson in the morning. A wild start to the South Island!