Arrival North Island

In Wellington, we explored the city and then headed up to Whanganui. There we found a free campsite in the middle of a national park. When we arrived, we didn't think much of it and parked on the grass. There was no one else at the campsite. In the evening, when it started raining heavily and we had to go out again, we realized that the whole field had become soaked. We wanted to move to the gravel road so that we wouldn't get stuck the next day if it continued to rain all night! I tried to back up and immediately realized that one of the tires was stuck and wouldn't move! We spent an hour in the evening trying to find a solution to get out! We tried a lot, but it just didn't work. We went to sleep hoping that it would look better the next day. In the morning, when we got out, it was even worse! We spent 3 hours trying to get out ourselves! In the end, we were stuck on a small slope, next to a tree, and didn't know what else to do! We pulled out tree branches to pass with the car, tried everything possible to put under the tires, but nothing worked. Many cars drove by, but no one stopped. Until 2 cars with locals finally stopped and asked if we needed help! We were so happy that they wanted to help us. First, they tried to pull us out with a rope and a car, but the rope broke. Then they got a longer rope and pulled us out with 2 cars! We were completely wet, dirty, and exhausted, just got in the car and headed to the next decent campsite. Shower, food, and relax after this intense experience.

Today we were in Egmount National Park and did a 2-hour hike to Mount Taranaki. We went through the forest halfway up and then you could see the peak of the mountain. It's a huge volcano embedded in clouds. After that, we stopped in New Plymoth, where all the beaches had black sand.

The last stop was at the 3 Sisters. These were 2 large rocks in the middle of the sea, the 3rd one has already collapsed.

The next day we continued driving towards Mount Tongario. This is also a volcano where you can do various hikes. We drove to the information center to find out which hikes we could do! Since there are blue-colored lakes at Mount Tongario, we decided to do a hike to these lakes. Apparently, it's a 5-hour hike one way. Unfortunately, we took the wrong turn once and didn't end up at the lakes. But we still walked for a total of 4 and a half hours along Mount Tongario. Quite a beautiful route, with hopping over streams and climbing a bit. In the evening, we were just exhausted and fell into bed.