Wellington - Auckland - Northland - Taupo
Surviving a three-hour ferry cruise between the South and North Islands, we arrived at Wellington. The capital of New Zealand even though Auckland is the larger city. This got us wondering why Wellington was chosen as the capital, so we did some research. New Zealand’s first capital was Okiato (Old Russel), one year later a more suitable location was chosen, and Auckland became the capital. But not everyone was happy with that, and after a long dispute and with the help of some Australians, they moved the capital again to Wellington, which has a more central location.
Following our hotel’s motto-“It’s all about you”-we took some time to recover and check in with our families. Afterwards, we visited the Te Papa Museum about the natural and cultural history of Wellington. And wow, what a museum! Interesting facts, beautiful images and videos, interactive elements for all of our senses.
The next day we went to a special bird sanctuary at the border of Wellington, Zealandia. This is a wildlife resort like it should be in our opinion. 225 hectares of forest protected from all intruders by a fence. This protects 40 kinds of birds and one specific kind of lizard. You are free to walk one or more hiking trails in the resort and look for different kinds of birds. You have to listen and look carefully to spot the birds because they are not in a cage, just flying or hopping around. Many New Zealand birds live close to the grounds and are easy prey for rats, foxes, dogs, possums… The fence protects them to thrive and reproduce peacefully. Some birds can just fly over the fence and come back when they want as well.
Wellington felt different from Christchurch and Queenstown. It is not a small town but doesn’t quite feel like a capital city. After exploring, we took an 11-hour bus ride to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city and former capital. Arriving early in the morning, totally broken from our night on the bus, we went directly to our hostel. We were allowed to leave our bags and sit in the lounge to eat.
Thinking about the rest of the day, we started to realise that it could be a long day. After all, it was Christmas Eve, so yeah let’s do this! Looking for some Christmas vibes we walked around the city centre. A bit disappointing, except for one big Christmas tree and three giant Christmas balls, we thought there was nothing. We are still confused if to us, it doesn’t feel like Christmas because of the sun, the absence of family or the lack of Christmas decorations and markets.
Luckily, our hostel organised a Christmas BBQ in the evening for all the guests. Nothing fancy but more than enough to get to know some people from around the world. Crazy to hear everybody’s story of why they’re here and what their plans are for the future. After dinner, there was the possibility of going bar hopping, but we decided not to join and look for some Christmas lights. Not far from the hostel was one street fully decorated for Christmas. Almost all the residents of the street decided together to decorate their houses. Amazing how one street can accomplish this! Remember there were no real decorations in the city centre? You can imagine how busy it was on that street.
To embrace the Kiwi Christmas spirit, we did something we were not used to: going to the midnight mass. Because we heard there was going to be a live choir, orchestra and orgel, we had to attend. Let’s say that it was an experience but not one for every year. Next to that, we have to say that the church was beautiful and modern. You can see that religion is more present here than in Belgium.
The next day was family time. Calling some people so we could be part of the Christmas parties. A quiet day was very much welcome after the long day and the uncertain days that would come. The next few days are dependent on our rental car. We rented a Subaru Outback or similar. Hoping for a vehicle that allows us to sleep in it for some nights. Travelling a little bit like a kiwi. We had luck and got a brand new Outback with only 75 km on it. Perfect! Now we only needed a bed. Some good advice we learned the hard way: don’t go to a shopping centre on the 26 of December, better known here as Boxing Day. We spent half an hour looking for parking, the stores were almost empty, and heaps of people. After 3 hours, we found what we needed to survive the next days (pump, mattress, blankets and cutlery). Ready to explore the upper north of New Zealand!
Travelling with a car that is also your room is different. It makes you feel even more free and closer to nature. Thanks to the different parking options and all the public toilets, it is quite easy to travel this way through New Zealand. We drove up north to get overwhelmed by some massive big and old trees. The kauri is a special native tree in New Zealand. Some of them are over 2,000 years old and grow well over 25 meters high. If you are thinking “Yeah yeah, again a tree” you are wrong. Believe us, we weren’t sure if it would be worth it, but it was unreal to stand near those trees.
We left the trees behind us and went east to the Bay of Islands. It is the perfect place to go and explore some of the islands or have a beach day. But that’s not the reason why we went there. It all started in 1840 when the British and the Māori signed the Treaty of Waitangi. An act of commitment from both sides, which wasn’t completely fair towards the Māori people because the English version was different than the one in Māori. This was the beginning of years of fighting and wars across New Zealand. A lot of Māori people lost their lives, and others lost their land. Years later, after WWI and WWII, there was a rewriting of the treaty. A historical moment that made peace and was the beginning of the rebuilding of the Māori culture. A difficult and unique history that we explained way too short. It is a big part of New Zealand and is still evolving every day. This museum gave us better knowledge about the Māori culture and its connection with the land and interaction with the British crown.
The Māori culture values their ancestors, gods, and nature deeply, passing knowledge through stories. Throughout New Zealand, many places are linked to Māori legends, including Mount Manaia, a mountain with five peaks named after Manaia and his family. We climbed the stairs to the viewpoint between the peaks, rewarded with breathtaking views. We thought about climbing higher up one of the peaks but decided to not take the risk.
Back down, we searched for a place to park our car and stay the night. No better place than on the beach in the shadow, right? Just half a day relaxing on the beach, taking some photos and doing some research for our next route and stops. Unexpectedly, we found a cave on our way to our next hosts. The cave was bigger than the previous one we visited and should have stalactites, stalagmites and a lot of glowworms. The perfect stop to stretch our legs. The cave was impressive and indeed bigger than the other one. At the end of the main route was an open space with hundreds of glowworms. Magical when all the lights were out, and the light of the worms reflected on the water. A few people went through the water further into the cave. Curious about what was further away, we put our Crocs on and walked (almost crawled) further into the cave. We saw more glowworms along the way and had a moment alone to admire them.
Satisfied, we went back on the road to our stay for the next few days. We booked a place not far from the festival we are attending to. Little did we know we would arrive at the house of two amazing people, Mark and Christine, in the middle of nowhere. After a little chat, we found that he was an ex-policeman and interested to hear and share police stories. They prepared an amazing breakfast, drove us to the festival the first night, took us to a little farm close by, did a small sightseeing tour in the neighbourhood and invited us to join a delicious homemade meal. We couldn’t imagine a better place to spend New Year’s Eve and could talk with the couple for hours.
Ah, and of course, the festival. That was amazing too! We saw amazing DJ sets and got to experience a festival the Kiwi way. The festival itself was bigger than we first imagined and by that, we mean in space. The amount of space they had for three stages and a food corner was absurd. We even had to walk for ten minutes to reach a stage that was placed on top of a small hill. The DJ set leading up to midnight was a bit calmer and made us almost fall asleep, but the countdown, fireworks and definitely the set afterwards kept us dancing for the next couple of hours. New Year felt different than we are used to, but to be the first people on earth that got into the new year was a fun experience. Definitely after sending messages to friends and family who were waking up or getting everything ready for the evening.
To those who didn’t receive a message from us, Happy New Year and our best wishes for 2025!
On January 2nd, we had to say goodbye to Mark and Christine and were going South to the volcanic mountains. We were prepared to sleep in our car for the next few days until we arrived at the next family in Opotiki, but Mark decided to show us the strength of the police network in New Zealand and many people offered to let us stay for the night. Getting to know the country is equal to getting to know the locals, so we were excited to meet new people. We stayed for one night close to Tongariro National Park, where the volcanic mountains are located. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t good enough to cross the mountains. Although we had some hope of doing it anyway, we were told off by the guy-who gave us an amazing place to sleep-because he’s a rescuer in that area and was certain he would need to retrieve us with a helicopter. We visited the information centre instead and are hoping for better weather in the next weeks so we can return and do the crossing. Driving up to the higher mountain for a small bit gave us already a nice view of the volcanic landscape.
But no need to cry because there are enough volcanos on the North Island of New Zealand, some are just better in hiding than others. So we made our way to Lake Taupō, an enormous lake that was formed because of a volcanic eruption 25 thousand years ago. One of the world’s largest eruptions, if not the largest, formed ash clouds that travelled the whole earth and caused more than a hundred square kilometres of land to collapse. Later on, this collapsed land was filled with water to form the lake as we know it today. There is still a lot of thermal activity around and North of the lake. This means the lake is a bit warmer than usual, and you can find natural hot springs everywhere. For two days we stayed again with wonderful people who gave us more insights about the country and what to do in the neighbourhood.
At Taupō, we enjoyed the views of the lake and the warm water. We did a hike from the impressive Huka Falls to the dam, also known as the Aratiatia Rapids, that releases water every two hours and fills the canyon. Damn cool to see how much water can flow through the canyon and how quickly it gets filled. But it makes all total sense when there is more than 200 cubic meters per second of water passing over the Huka Falls. This means that you could fill up five Olympic pools in less than 2 minutes.
We also visited Thermal Wonderland to see the underground volcanos a bit in action. A huge park with lots of thermal pools, collapsed craters, mud pools and warm water creeks. A true paradise which is pleasing to the eye and has a lot of scientific value.
An interesting and very enjoyable couple of days passed, and we have now made it to a family where we will stay longer. Enough travelling and seeing places, it’s time to get our hands dirty and help them on their small farm.
Street art
Oo yeah, we are still seeing street art everywhere! Our collection keeps growing.
