New Zealand: Part 1

On arriving in Auckland we quickly set about washing / drying all of our clothes in our room’s combie washer dryer… with mixed success… regardless we headed into Auckland for a look around! After a good nights sleep, we engaged our automatic Mitsubishi Lancer into drive mode and headed North to Stony bay, a campsite near the tip of the Coromandel peninsula (full route map can be found at the bottom of the page / or you can follow this link!).

We heard that the North island was full of geothermal activity, so decided to try and scope some of it out. Hot Water Beach was a short drive down the peninsula so we headed in its direction! On arrival we discovered that the hot, jacuzzi-like, pool could only be dug in low tide… and we were sitting on high tide. We weren’t able to interact with the internal heat of the earth this time, but foresight tells me that this won’t be our only geothermal experience of the trip!

Heading further South, we drove through some (more) beautiful scenery. This stretch reminded me most of Hobbiton… the Lord of the Rings classic.

Finally, after a long day driving, we arrived at our resting spot for the evening. The campsite, Ash Pit Road, was situated next to a lake… and had very affordable rates. After registering, I’m forever haunted by paperwork, we set up camp and enjoyed the view across the lake as the sun set.

Here is a time-lapse of us setting up camp, and preparing a quick pasta dish!

Still keen (desperate) to see some geothermal activity, and in need of a good clean, we headed South (theme for parts 1 & 2) to a geothermal river between Rotorua and Taupo.

The thermal pools of Waikite Valley were fantastic. There were six in total, all varying in size and temperature. Water was pumped from the river to a cooling reservoir, before being distributed to the six pools at a temperature of between 35-38ºC. Not only was the water naturally heated, but it was full of (fun) minerals. Here is the data sheet to the cocktail of vitamins we were bathing in.

We drove on to Taupo in the direction of, unbeknown to us, Huka Falls; the most brutal 100m horizontal waterfall I have ever witnessed. Averaging a flow rate of 220,000 litres per second, the Huka could fill an Olympic sized swimming pool in eleven seconds. In awe, and slightly shaken by the movement in the bridge that crossed the falls, we took a walk around the neighbouring reserve.

After a quick pit stop at Lake Taupo – to fill up on vegetables, butane and peanut butter – we continued on our way to the camp we had bookmarked for this evening.

As we approached the campsite we were greeted by more glorious scenes.

We had a little hick-up with the hire car, but more on that in the next post.

On reaching the campsite, a nice quiet spot nestled between the scene above and a stream / forest combo.

Join Hatti in Part 2, when we continue on to Napier and weave down to Wellington! Below is the route we took to Wellington, the final camping spot in Part 1 is located just North-West of Taupo.

James