North island New Zealand

Right so…New Zealand! We landed at Aukland airport which is at the top of the North Island, collected the car and headed to Rotorua!

First word that springs to mind when I think of Rotorua…EGG. The town smells eggy, but for a good reason – the town has a large amount of geothermal activity! Which meant that we could soak in a really hot geothermal pool after our flight.

During our stay in Rotorua we also visited a geothermal valley which had 30 metre high exploding geysers, bubbling mud pools and boiling geothermal pools ( you wouldn’t want to soak in these though as your skin would probably go all melty). We also experienced some maori culture while we were there (haka haka!)

Next stop was Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand. To get a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains we walked up Mount Tauhara and we were not disappointed. On the way down the hill I fell over and Phil just so happened to have the camera to hand…

During our stay in Lake Taupo we also visited the Haka Falls and the Aratiatia Rapids = very impressive blue fast moving water.

Next stop: river rafting in Turangi! This was an amazing experience. We rafted over 50 rapids, saw amazing scenery and the river water was so fresh you could drink it. Apparently we were the first group of the year to go on the river when there was snow on the ground. However we still opted to do a cliff jump into the water which was worth doing… mainly because it made all the small splashes seem less cold after that!

Next stop Napier, the art deco town. after an earthquake in the 30’s the whole town was rebuilt in an art deco style so we thought we would take a look. Next to Napier is Te Mata peak which has amazing views.

Our final stop in the North Island was Wellington! It’s a really nice city! We had a look round the city and visited the Te Papa museum before catching the ferry to the south island the next day…

Wellington harbour

…Unfortunately there are less pictures for places I mention in New Zealand as Phil’s phone, which had a lot of pictures on, is sadly no longer with us!