NORTH ISLAND – New Zealand 2016

We had a very late flight leaving Melbourne so it was oh dawn thirty when we arrived in Wellington, North Island, New Zealand. We were lucky and the car rental place was open so we got our car and ventured forth onto North Island. Of the two Islands that make up New Zealand, North Island is the most populated and, for those of you who haven’t memorized all the capitols of the world, Wellington is the Federal Capitol of New Zealand.

Because it was so early nearly everything was closed, but because it was in the middle of their Summer, it was already daylight. We saw this big hill in the center of the city and we decided to drive up and see what we could see from it.

It was very windy, and as it was so early, quite cool. The days were all very pleasant and warm. We took a few pictures from the hill and then went down into the city and toured around a bit, spent the night there and left the next morning.

We left Wellington the next day and drove up though the center of North Island to Napier. We stopped several times along the way at points of interest.

This stop is at a vey large geothermal area much like Yellowstone National Park. There were a number of trails that wound around whatever was featured and we did most of them.

We diverted to the Kiwi capitol of the world. Most people think all the people from NZ are called “Kiwi’s” but that is not true. The indigenous people are call Maori’s and they actually come from the south pacific Islands like Tahiti, Samoa, and even Hawaii. Kiwi’s are the English settlers who came to New Zealand and took the land for themselves. Here are some pictures of real Kiwi’s.

We left the Kiwi Capitol of the world and headed west to the ocean coast. We elected not to go all the way north to Auckland. It is a big city and we were not into big cities and it was so far out of the way we decided to skip it for now. You just have to choose what you are going to make an effort or spend time to see and everythng else will need to wait for the next trip.

So, we drove west to a town name Katikati. It is known as New Zealand’s Mural town and lives up to that name. There are over 70 buildings in town with murals on the side of them. The amazing thing is the quality of the art and history the murals depict. Here are some of them.

Okay … enough murals. We spent several hours walking the streets admiring the artwork and historical aspects of the murals. We even had a Latte in a nice little coffee house.

Moving right along, we next came to an area that featured Glow worms. Yep … just like it says … worms that glow. They live deep in caves and attract food by glowing … kinda like lightning bugs but these guys hang from the ceiling of a cave and don’t fly around. Here are some pictures of our tour of the Glow Worm Caves. Please keep in mind I have a little pocket camera and it does not do real well in the dark.

Okay then. From here we traveled west all the way to the South Ocean. (In Australia and New Zealand there is another ocean. They call it the South Ocean. It is actually the waters around the islands of Australia and New Zealand. Guess they can have their own ocean if they want to. They area is actually The Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea with the Coral Sea just reaching the northern part of NZ. When we got to the ocean we saw a sign for “The Three Sisters” so we headed over that way to have a look. Here is our journey all the way to Plymouth on the western coast of North Island where we spent the night.

When we left Plymouth the next morning it was quite foggy. We decided we wanted to see the tallest mountain in NZ so we cut inland to go past the east side of it. We actually drove up to the top of it (pictures later). From there we took the Forgotten Highway to the center of NZ, then cut south to catch the coast again. Check the map.

Here’s the story on the Forgotten Hghway:

Forgotten World Highway is one of the most scenic drives in New Zealand. This highly memorable driving journey is remote and mysterious to the extreme. This scenic route winds alongside the spectacular Tangarakau Gorge and passes through the 180-metre-long, single lane, Moki tunnel. It’s one of the most scenic drives in the world.

The route winds its way across some seriously crinkly landscape, through gorges, tunnels and dense forest. Built on colonial bridle paths formed in the late 19th century. The highway goes through some rugged, beautiful countryside. It climbs three saddles, including the Strathmore Saddle, the Whangamomona Saddle and the Tahora Saddle. If you’re up for a challenge, the Forgotten World Highway is a drive to remember. It’s a leisurely drive through numerous different types of environment.

The journey is so called due to the fact that it’s New Zealand’s oldest heritage trail. It includes some narrow sections. State Highway 43 has been ranked as one of the 10 worst roads in New Zealand by the Police. This bad record is because of the slippery gravel surface in the Tangarakau Gorge, however this is not scheduled to be sealed because of the low traffic volume.

From Lake Taupo we went south, higher into the mountains, where there was a large ski resort. Being the middle of summer there was no snow but we took the lifts up to the top and walked around a bit.

From here we drove South until we reached the ocean again and continued south back to Wellington. We spent another evening in Wellington enjoying the sites and town. We were not permitted to take our rental across to South Island so the morning that we left Wellington and North Island we turned it in and a guy gave us a ride to our ferry that was going to take us to South Island. Here are pictures of our trip along the coast to Wellington and some of the places we visited in Wellington. Very nice city. Clean, well kept, friendly people.

This completes the North Island. Hope you liked it. The South Island had much to offer as well. All different, all interesting. If you are interested, go to the South Island post. Bye now.