We loaded up in the caravan, aka The Beast, and set out. We had a bit of a delay due to a nasty skin infection Caden had on his hand. With his history of MRSA, we decided to stop at a local family practice office and have it checked out. One hour and ten dollars later, we had seen the nurse practioner, the physician, had a culture of the wound, received a prescription of antibiotics, and were on our way. (It’s baffling to me why Americans are so against making the USA healthcare more efficient and cheaper.)
We set out for our first location: Hot Water Beach. The drive there was stunning. I never expected any landscape could be more beautiful than Switzerland, but I was wrong. The mountain passes in the caravan were a little treacherous, but Scott handled it like a pro. He didn’t have a choice since I refused to drive The Beast and its manual tranny.
The first night we stayed in a camper van park. I expected it to be… not nice. It was absolutely amazing! There were tons of kids activities (playground, pools, bouncing pillows, pedal tractors, etc).
Fun and games in campgrounds
Staying at the camping ground made me better appreciate how so many folks can camp. The next morning, we were off to hot water beach. It looks like a regular beach, but there are spots where you can dig down one small shovel full of sand to find hot water coming up from underground.
If you dig in the wrong spot, you find scalding hot water. The trick is to find the perfect location where the water has been cooled on its trip to the surface and/or it gets mixed with the cold water washing up from the ocean.
Another fantastic spot we hit was White Island. Our first trip to Whakatane was a bust as high waves and gale force winds caused our trip out to the island to be canceled. Our second trip there was a go. We loaded up on a large ferry and headed out the hour and a half to the island.
Almost there, we were treated to seals playing in the ocean. They were playful and curious and would allow the boat to get right up beside them before diving under the water. Once we arrived to White Island (with the smoke and sulfur gases), we put on our hardhats, gasmasks, and climbed onto an inflatable boat.
The gasses would burn the throat and nose without the masks.
That boat took us to the island and dropped us off on the shore that was covered with large boulders that we climbed over to get to the walking paths. The tour was amazing. We learned so much about volcanoes, sililica content and its effects, the earthquakes and changing landscapes, and the acidity of the water that runs off the volcano.
Standing on an active volcano
Next, we headed to Rotorua. We spent one day at Te Puia.
That’s a mouthful.
This place was unbelievable. We were able to get a tour by a local member of the Maori’s. We learned even more about the Maoris and even were able to observe several of them making their art. Te Puia is one of the only (perhaps the only?) place in New Zealand where Maori people can actually go to school to learn more about their culture and arts. The place also boasts of having some amazing geysers.
Of course we had to spend an afternoon luging down a volcano.
While the luging was mostly fun (until I saw someone crash and get hurt), the views were stunning.
We made the obligatory stop at Hobbitton and were able to see where the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit series were filmed. We loved hearing how they would have two different hobbit holes for one scene so that the size of various actors was taken into effect.
Bilbo’s digs
Hobbit holes!
It was also interesting to hear how people would visit the site in hobbit gear, or to hear how some might even sneak in and sleep in a hobbit hole overnight as a “bucket list”. While I’m not a huge fan of the movies (or books), the area where the films were shot was stunning. New Zealand became the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
Beautiful even in winter
The last really notable event we were able to take part in was seeing the glow worm caves. NatGeo had already taught Keali enough that she gave us all a little debrief on the glow worms before going into the caves. It turns out they aren’t actually worms, but rather larvae that have puked silky stands like spider webs that hang down.
Death traps!
The larvae then “glow” to attract bugs that subsequently get caught in the strand and become food. Once our eyes become adjusted to the almost complete darkness, we could see hundreds of thousands of the glow worms. It was beautiful.
Once we made it back to Auckland to turn in The Beast, Scott went directly to the airport to fly back to Houston for work. The kids and I checked into a hotel and spent two days waiting on our flight to Chile. We did manage to find a cat cafe which was brilliant.
Fourteen cats stay at this cafe
All in all, the tour of the North Island of New Zealand was too short. We did love seeing it all in a moving home though, to the degree that once we get back to Texas, we may tour the USA in the same manner.
Honorable mention:
We stopped off to finally spot a real, live kiwi. The bird park also had river eels. Keali and Caden fed them. I’m still grossed out by them. They can be up to eight feet long, can live out of the water for hours and hours, can climb up water falls, and eat ducks or even small deer or sheep. Nasty.
Video highlights: