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April 10-17: Auckland, Matamata & Raglan

The first days in Auckland

I arrived in Auckland on April 10th in the evening. And the first impression I had of the New Zealanders (the Kiwis) was already very pleasant - the airport staff was extremely friendly! At passport control, the officer wanted to know what I was doing here. I thought it was a control question, but he was just asking out of interest. The customs officer immediately started chatting with me in German when he read in my passport that I am from Austria. Very unusual for people working at an airport. Most of them are annoyed and unfriendly... After all of my luggage went through a bio-security scanner and was sniffed by cute customs dogs (in NZ they are very strict when it comes to the import of food or other organic material. Even the shoes have to be clean!), I took a bus into the city and checked into my hostel.

I didn't do much in Auckland because the weather wasn't great. Rain and the cyclone 'Cook' were forecasted, but it never arrived in Auckland.

Still, I took a little walk through the city, visited the Auckland Art Gallery, and went to the War Memorial Museum.

And then the day of Jan's arrival came - woohoo! He got off the bus at 7 am in the morning and I was waiting for him at the station. I was really excited :)

Jan was pretty exhausted from the long flight and slept a lot for the rest of the day.

We also rented our campervan - well, actually we were lucky to even get one haha. What we hadn't considered was the Easter weekend and all the cheap campervans were already booked out.

The campervan we finally managed to get was the last one available. It cost a bit more than we had planned, but it was better equipped. We were just happy that we managed to get one because we wanted to travel New Zealand this way.

The next day, we picked up our campervan - a VW from 2007. And we immediately fell in love with it :)

Matamata and the Shire

We drove straight to Matamata. Olivia and Jana were already waiting for us there (for those who don't know them - two friends from Kreuzstetten, Olivia has been in NZ for half a year and Jana is here for three weeks).

It was a funny coincidence - 4 people from a small community in Lower Austria meeting at the other end of the world.

The next day, we had a highlight I had been looking forward to: We visited the Shire!

Together, we visited Hobbiton, the original movie set of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit". And it was amazing! The landscape was incredible, almost surreal. You simply can't believe that such well-formed, lush green hills really exist. And then there were the 39 Hobbit holes and the many little loving details that transported you to a real fairy-tale world. We couldn't enter the Hobbit houses because all the indoor scenes were filmed in the studio. But at the end of the tour, we enjoyed a beer at the "Green Dragon," the pub of the Hobbits. A really fantastic experience!

After a shared lunch, we said goodbye to Olivia and Jana.

Surfing in Raglan

We then made our way to Raglan - a well-known surf town on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Since Jan had always wanted to try surfing, we decided to visit this place.

At 10 am in the morning, we met the surf instructor and two other participants from England at the surf school at the campground. After learning the basics on land, we stored the boards and wetsuits in a van and drove to the nearby beach (Ngarunui Beach). There, we went into the water with the boards. And on my second try, I actually caught a wave, stood up, and surfed to the shore - it was an amazing feeling! But then it took a while until I managed to do it again haha. The instructor was always watching us and giving us tips and help. Jan really enjoyed it. I found it very fun too, but it was still a bit too wild for me. Even though the waves weren't really big, they were sometimes quite intense and you constantly have to watch out not to get hit by your own board or another surfer's board. When you're in the water with a surfboard, you really feel the power of the sea.

After our 3-hour lesson, we were pretty exhausted. Surfing is damn tiring! After a good curry and a warm shower, we took a nap in the campervan.

We've already made ourselves at home in our little bus and we already know how to make the most out of the small space.

New Zealand + Campervan = the best combination

So far, we're thrilled with New Zealand and we haven't seen much yet. We're excited to see what else awaits us!