I started my day out in Rotorua with a crater walk around
the Waimangu Valley. A supposedly 2-hour walk through the past, down by a
crater lake which is alive with steam blowing over the surface, bubbling around
the edges, and small streams coming off it all bubbling away. The volcano was
last active around 1907 and was a popular attraction then as people gathered to
view and enormous geyser erupting regularly from one of the craters. The walk
then took me up over the side of another crater with cracking views of the rest
of the area all the way down to the lake, with patches of steam puffing out
from various parts of the landscape and steep slopes drawing the eye down into
the depths of the craters. At the end of the walk the small pool at the base
was alive with frogs calling and birds feeding from the many fresh mosses and lichens
that grow in this geothermal wonderlands. The walk took me half the time as was
advertised so I walked back up to the top again and got to enjoy all the
wonderful scenes all over again. I then headed to a 3D maze which I had
promised to visit, an amazing creation of wooden fences containing around 1.7km
of walking to get through the instructions, you must visit each corner of the
maze and then do it all in reverse in order to get back out again. What a fun
hour, at least it was great fun at first though it wasn’t long before I was
cursing every single time I met a dead end, convinced I might actually have to
shoot red stars from my wand in order for Dumbledore to rescue me! I was so
impressed with the creation, this man had built this by himself and it would be
amazing fun for a group of people to entertain themselves. On my way out of
Rotorua I went to see a lovely bubbling mud pool, a small lake of hot mud! It
was great, the noises, the unexpected explosions every few minutes – fantastic
spectator sport!!
I headed on down to Lake Taupo next and spent a couple of
nights there. Another crater walk was on the cards and this was quite different
but still really interesting and enjoyable but 1/6th of the price! I
really like hanging out here and I began to unwind a little and relax around
the lake and rivers in the area, although the exception to this would be my
visit to Huka Falls which is an exceptional amount of water rushing furiously
down a very small channel! It’s one of the more memorable of the waterfalls I
have visited in New Zealand so far, though not for beauty, it’s memorable due
to its ferocity.
From here I drove on to the Taranaki region which is centred
around the 6000ft volcano, Mount Taranaki. Other than this one mountain the
landscape is pretty flat stretching out to the coast. There are loads of really
good walking treks here and I took the chance to cover a few miles on the
mountain, in among lots of trees and ferns I had ample opportunity to let my
imagination get a little carried away. One of the villages here is a funny
little place, called Stratford, where all the streets are named after
Shakespeare and his works. There’s Broadway, Lear St, Juliet St, Miranda,
Sylvia and a whole lot more, a very strange little place. Though it is also
home to one of the coolest activities I have ever seen as you can go touring
the train tracks on your own while driving your own little converted golf buggy
which has been made rail-friendly and there are different routes you can do out
on the tracks, I thought it was a great idea!
From here I was heading north, back towards Auckland but via
the lovely little surfing town of Raglan. There’s a lot happening in this little
corner, a really nice place to just enjoy. There’s also a tiny little airport/
field in the area which seemed to be hosting some form of light aircraft event
as there were around 60 small planes lined up along the edge of the field, as
well as 4 gyrocopters which were open topped and looked a little like a
motorbike come helicopter! Interesting! These planes spent all afternoon going
for little spins and I was hooked watching them. The following morning one of
the tiny little ones took it upon himself to go up and entertain me with lots
of tricks and it was fascinating watching this little toy plane looping de
loop, plunging into death spirals and twirling around, I imagine whoever was in
there has a fairly sturdy stomach!
Around the Taranaki area I stayed in one of my favourite
campsites so far, it was situated 14kms into the forest; it was free and was
just a big clearing in the woods with perfect night time sky viewing. I was
late getting in so my car bonnet was still pretty warm after darkness fell and
I spent a good couple of hours lying on the bonnet, leaning against the
windscreen watching the stars, it’s so magical and mesmerising. I definitely
spotted the Southern Cross here while gazing aimlessly, lazily watching
shooting stars and dreaming about life’s beauty. Once it was too cold to stay
out I peeled myself away and tucked myself up in my sleeping bag.
Back in Auckland I was incredibly lucky to stay with family
friends who looked after me really well, despite being home to a lovely little
4 month old, Joe. Together we visited the local beauty spots of Peha beach and
the surrounding area, it’s such a wonderful place to have on the edge of a city
I can see why people are happy to move to Auckland, it’s a lovely mixture of
being in the middle of nowhere (in that NZ is a million miles from everywhere)
and also in the centre of something very much alive. I then spent a couple of
nights in Wellington, another gorgeous wee city, wee being the operative word!
It’s hard to believe this little place is the capital city, a great wee place
to soak up some culture, visit the national museum, wonder the harbour, and
venture up small hills to take in nice views. I like Wellington, it’s yet
another reminder of Canada whose capital city of Ottawa is so small in context
with the country and the other cities it competes with. This is where my North
Island adventure ends; next stop is the South Island and meeting up with people
from home for new adventures in the final part of this trip.
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