NZ North Island road trip

Drakecula · Oct 16, 2018

We're in Wellington! Our holiday kicked off yesterday as we headed to Sydney for a night before our flight this morning. We went to Mjolner for dinner in Sydney, which was fantastic. It's Viking styled, with the opportunity to drink from horns if you're having beer. I ordered a coughtail which came in a dwarven tiki cup!

We had an easy morning with a quick visit to the Amex lounge for some brekkie before our AirNZ flight. Just a quick jaunt in Y, forgot to snap a pic of the food. It was a beef casserole with a chocolate raspberry cake for sweets. Not bad actually. And I'd been warned about the wind and hard landings that Wellington can provide but we were lucky and it was very smooth. Lovely sunny day with not much wind at all.

After checking in to our hotel, we met up with a friend of mine who has recently moved to Wellington for dinner near the bay. Afterwards we went to a place called The Library. It had caught my eye in a tourist brochure. Lovely bar full of books and quite happily we discovered they do two for one desserts on Tuesdays. Score! Delicious, and the coughtails were great too.

Tomorrow we plan on checking out Te Papa before getting the hire car and heading on out on our road trip adventure.

Denali · Oct 16, 2018

If youre still in Wellington, we really liked Apache near the waterfront/Te Papa, Home

Must make bookings but so good

Cossie · Oct 16, 2018

So many good places to go in NZ, if you get the chance and aren't venturing north of Auckland then the Coromandel peninsular is a must, imo!

VPS · Oct 16, 2018

Love TheLibrary and the 2:1 coughtails. Except when you get evacuated because of the fire alarm

Major · Oct 17, 2018

Landing at WLG can be adventurous at times

Drakecula · Oct 17, 2018

Road trip commenced in earnest today. We picked up our hire car which smelled of wet mustiness, asked if we could have a nicer smelling one instead, then had a quick peek in at Te Papa before leaving Wellington for Taupo via Napier. Saw the 'beehive' on the way out of Wellington as well as the National Library, didn't stop in though.

We stopped in at Rivendell along the way, yes the actual film location, they built an elven archway after filming was done. It's half size compared to the one in the film. And the creek nearby reminded me of the river Arwen crosses with Frodo with the Nazgul chasing them.

(I hope this isn't sideways for you, it is on my phone and not sure why, or how to fix it...)

Napier was great, lots of cool art deco buildings. We had some fush n chups by the waterfront for dinner.

Then off to Taupo where we found somewhere to stay right by the lake. It's 'rustic' and reminds me of the line from Rocky Horror: 'a hunting lodge for rich weirdos'.

Drakecula · Oct 17, 2018

Cossie said:
So many good places to go in NZ, if you get the chance and aren't venturing north of Auckland then the Coromandel peninsular is a must, imo!

Coromandel is on the list

Denali · Oct 17, 2018

On the way, near Auckland, is Hunua Falls. Worth a quick visit for a good waterfall photo op.

Drakecula · Oct 18, 2018

Today we explored some thermal activity near Taupo. Mmm, steamy stinky thermal activity. There were steam vents and craters and mud pools!

Then we checked out Huka Falls and a honey place where we bought some mead/brandy stuff which is pretty darn good.

After lunch we went to a thermal pool/spa place to soak in the hot waters. So good! It was a bit Goldilocks in that one pool was too hot, one was too cool and one just right. Very relaxing.

Then on to Rotorua where we had some troubles finding accommodation. Lots of places with no vacancy. Headed to the i-Site (tourist info/help spots around NZ) and discovered it's a long weekend this weekend. D'oh! They helped us find a reasonably priced motel for the next few nights. Rocked up and the owner is fantastic. Super friendly and had good tips on places to visit. There's a motel cat called Happy and mineral pools too. Room is great too of course.

There's a night market tonight so we're gonna check that out in just a little while.

jb747 · Oct 18, 2018

We’re planning a trip there in February 19. I hear what you’re saying about accommodation at Rotorua...it’s surprisingly difficult even this far out.

Milboo · Oct 18, 2018

Yeah. Don’t turn up in Rotorua or Taupo on a long weekend and hope to find accomodation easily!

I was born in Rotorua and my parents lived in Taupo as they worked in the big forest there. Even these days Dad can point out all the trees he planted as you head north from Taupo near Huka Falls!

kermatu · Oct 19, 2018

Enjoying this trip.

Drakecula · Oct 19, 2018

This morning we embraced our inner hamsters and went to Ogo. You get into a big plastic ball with some water and then go rolling down a hill. So much fun. We were a bit sceptical as it is quite expensive, and the hill seemed quite steep, but once we started rolling we laughed ourselves silly.

We found a very good deal online, so good that I got the feeling they're going to follow it up and get that page taken down. But while I can't recall the exact link it was on a newzealand dot com webpage.

Afterwards we tried out the mineral pool at the motel (nice and hot!) and headed out for more exploring. I'd heard of a blueberry wine place, which was a little underwhelming to visit, but the blueberry wine was delicious.

We also had a look at more thermal spots in a nearby park. It's everywhere, including through this fence!

And I couldn't help but have a giggle at this.

Denali · Oct 19, 2018

The zorb thing! Hubby loved that and I really enjoyed Rotorua, love the photos

Drakecula · Oct 19, 2018

We visited the Redwoods Treewalk this evening after getting a tip from the motel owner. He said we should go just before dusk (we got there about 7pm) so we could see the trees during the daylight and as the light faded get the benefit of the lights they have on display at night.

Very good tip. Also, if you do a loop and want to go again because it's not quite dark enough you can. Just don't go back down to the ground and you can loop around as much as you like.