New Zealand: North Island

By a stroke of luck we got to fly business class to New Zealand.  Initially we were scheduled to fly directly to Christchurch and were going to do a circuit around the South Island.  Plans changed when JetStar kindly changed our flight from one arriving in Christchurch midafternoon to the middle of the night.  We weren't thrilled with arriving at 12:50am.  After some back and forth with JetStar, we cancelled the flight and booked a new one through Aerolineas Argentinas to Auckland.  What started out as an annoyance ended up working out well as we got to see a bit of the North Island and, as a bonus, we were upgraded for the three hour flight.

We only spent one night and the next morning in Auckland but did not feel like we missed much.  Our impression was that it might be a nice place to live, but is not that exciting for visitors.  It may not have helped that it rained while we were there and the hostel we stayed in had the dirtiest bathroom of anywhere we stayed in all of Australia and New Zealand.  We did have a walk down to the harbor and also took a look at the famous Sky Tower, the tallest man made structure in New Zealand.

Sky Tower

On day two we picked up our rental car - a bright blue Subaru Legacy ("Blue Sue")- and started our road trip.  Throughout our journey, Simon drove and I navigated the maps.  Neither was too taxing since there was hardly anyone else on the road except right in the cities and for the most part, the only navigated needed was just just getting us headed in the right direction.  At times we would go more than half an hour without  seeing another car.

Simon with "Blue Sue"

Our first stop was the Waitomo Glowworm Caves.  Local Maori people give guided tours of the cave every half hour daily.  Since it was low season, and I suppose we were a bit lucky, we were the only ones who happened to show up at the particular time and so enjoyed a private tour.   We were told the caves can have hundreds of people in them during the busy season, so we really appreciated the rare opportunity to view them on our own.  Obviously, the main attraction of the caves are the glowworms.  The glowworms are only about an inch long and just their back end lights up.   One part of the tour consisted of a boat ride through the "glowworm grotto" in complete darkness.  Thousands of the glowworms could be seen throughout the cave, mostly on the ceiling above.  It reminded me of fake stars on an amusement park ride - just thousands of tiny lights dotting the "sky."

Outside the Glowworm Grotto

Glowworm Caves Brochure (No pictures are allowed inside so this gives and idea of what it looked like.)

From Waitomo we continued on to Taupo, where we spent the night.  Lake Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand. In the summer, it is apparently full of activity, but at the end of May, winter was approaching and It wasn't exactly "lake weather" so we mostly just had a walk by the lake.  We also managed to find the spot along the lakeshore where the water is boiling hot due to geothermal activity.

On the shore of Lake Taupo

Me as a honeybee

On the way out of Taupo, we stopped at Huka Falls and The Huka Honey Hive.  Huka Falls is a beautiful set of waterfalls on the Waikato River.  The volume of water often reaches 220,000 litres per second.  The Huka Honey Hive, a store based entirely on honey products, is just minutes away.  It has an educational center as well as a working hive.  We sampled more varieties of honey than I knew existed, as well as treated ourselves to some samples of some nice honey skin care products.  My hands smelled like honey for the rest of the day.
 

Huka Falls

After our night in Taupo, we journeyed to Napier.  Napier is known for its art deco architecture.  In 1931, an earthquake destroyed most of the city center.  It was rebuilt in the art deco style of the time and beginning in the 1990s many of the historical buildings were protected and restored.

Municipal Theatre

Soundshell Stage

Pretty Pink Bike

Our last stop on the North Island was Wellington.  Again, we had just one night in Wellington.  Wellington is known for being very windy, but we were greeted with a calm, brisk day.  We spent a few hours in the Te Papa Museum (Museum of New Zealand) and then walked along the harbor before heading to the pedestrianized Cuba St. for some savory pies for dinner.  Aside from the quite cold room we were in, we enjoyed our quick visit to Wellington.  In the morning, we scraped the ice from the windshield, drove to the ferry terminal, and got in line to board.  Another calm, clear day brought some beautiful views as we crossed Cook Strait to Picton on the South Island.

Wellington Harbour

Wellington Sunrise

View from the ferry