Getting from the Barrier to the South Island

After our amazing 5 week stay on Great Barrier Island, we left with amazing memories, photos, and information, but we also left exhausted. We decided to take a break from wwoofing and just tour around for a few weeks, and regenerate some energy. 

After a short stop back in Auckland, we rented a car to tour the West Coast. When we first arrived in NZ, we travelled down the East Coast, and made some pit stops in central towns, but we had not seen any of the West Coast at all. 

We were both really excited to have a car for the first time during our trip, however, there were definitely some nerves about driving on the left for the first time. Luckily, our car provided some helpful advice; 

We survived our first drive on the left, and everything went really well. Our first stop was just a day trip to a beach just north of Auckland called Piha. The West Coast beaches around Auckland are known for having black sand because of all of the volcanoes. Kyle loved the drive up to the beach through the hills, and the beach was well worth the drive. 

We enjoyed lunch on the beach, and Kyle spent some time regretting that he did not have Kiwi feet (Kiwi kids go everywhere barefoot, often even to school), and Kyle burnt his feet on the beach. 

We did stop in Raglan (the surfing capital of NZ), hoping to enjoy a day on the beach, but as we were not surfing, the weather was much too windy for the reading on the beach day that we had intended. It is a nice little beach town though, and we still enjoyed a walk on the beach after our ebooks were covered in sand, effectively putting an end to reading time. 

Just an hour south of Raglan is Waitomo. It is another small tourist town, known almost exclusively for its numerous caves. There are over 300, and multiple different tour companies running activities through them. 

The cave experience we chose started with an abseil 27m down into the cave. 

 

Once in the cave, we explored the ‘glow worms’ cave. It was incredible. We turned off the headlights on our helmets, and the ceiling of the cave was covered in small blue dots. 

 

The next part of the tour was called ‘squeezing’ [This is the part that you were saying would have made you so claustrophobic Maureen!] which involved crawling and literally squeezing through tight spaces in the cave. Michelle was not sure that she would be able to do this, because she does not like confined spaces, but as she was the shortest one on the tour, it was relatively easy. Poor tall Kyle had a much harder time of it! 

We then got to do some black water rafting on inner tubes. Black water rafting is unlike white water, because it is slow, but with all of the sharp edges in the cave, you are happy that the tide doesn’t take you any faster! 

The tour ends with a rock climb up and out of the cave.

A few days later, we drove down to Mt. Taranaki which is the largest mountain in the North Island. On a good day, it is supposed to look like this,

 

Unfortunately, the day that we went was cold and rainy, and instead looked like this; 

But, weather aside, we were still able to enjoy some beautiful mountain hikes. 

We had to return the car to Auckland (NZ’s one way car drop off fees are outrageous). Because we finally had a car, we were able to visit one tree hill. The park where one tree hill is located is well outside the city centre, and unfortunately, no longer has a tree at the top, but the views were fantastic!

When we left Auckland, we started to head south toward Wellington. We stopped half way, in Hastings. This is where we had our first wwoofing spot on the asparagus farm. Our hosts invited us to come back just as their guests (asparagus season is now over), and graciously toured us around the area for a few days. 

After spending a few days in Hastings, we continued onto Wellington which is the capital of NZ. We both really took to Wellington [Windy Welly] reminding us a lot of Ottawa but on with the Toronto Harbour Front – best of both worlds! We spent a day just touring, visiting parliament, walking the water front, etc. On our second day, we spent the whole day at Te Papa, which is NZ’s national museum. It is absolutely huge, and amazingly, free! It has six stories, and we were there from open to close, and didn’t make it to the sixth floor. It was difficult dragging Kyle away from the marine life exhibit, which showcases the only colossal squid in any museum in the world. 

Our final full day in Wellington was picked out by Kyle. It was Lord of the Rings themed. We went on a 8 1/2 hour movie tour around Wellington which highlighted filming locations from the LOTR movies. The guide was fantastic, and brought props along to recreate scenes. We had lunch in Rivendell, which was beautiful but slightly underwhelming without all of the CGI magic. The crew also had to return the forest back to its original form once filming was complete. 

The tour ended with a visit to the Weta Cave. Weta is the production company responsible for the special FX from the LOTR movies. Kyle was in heaven. 

After our 8.5 hour LOTR tour, the logical thing to do next was to go and see the new hobbit movie. It was pretty cool though, because we were able to see it in the theatre in Wellington where previous LOTR world premiers have taken place. 

So after around 11.5 hours of LOTR themed action, it was a pretty fun filled day. 

We left Wellington the next day [on a much larger ferry than we took to Great Barrier, which seemed to be a bit better for Kyle’s sea sickness] and arrived on the South Island, in a small town called Picton. 

Picton is small, with not too much to see, but it is still beautiful, and our hostel was amazing [free chocolate pudding and ice cream every night].

 

We spent two nights in Picton before bussing to another small town Seddon, where we are now, wwoofing with a young family. They have a 3 year old and a 7 month old so the house is full of energy. It is a beautiful area, and we will talk more about it in the next post! 

Love to everyone!