North Island New Zealand

Wellington - Tauranga (February 23 - March 2)

In the morning, we started our journey to the ferry! We had to check in 1 hour earlier than usual! We passed the waiting time with a hot chocolate on a coffee cart, speaking in Bernese German 😉. The ferry crossing experience took 3.5 hours! And let me tell you, I was very glad when it was over! The first hour was nice between the fjords, but then it got quite rough on the open sea for me! But luckily, the less desirable spots were not in high demand 😊. We arrived in Wellington, ready to explore the city in the camper! Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, so we had to stay on the ferry due to a door defect. Yes, nothing goes without a delay for us 😉. They kept us all entertained with free coffee/hot chocolate and free fries at Lune until they fixed the door and we were back on solid ground an hour later.
Jesus, we are not used to the traffic and the people here, so the first wrong turn was almost inevitable! But thanks to a daring move by me, we soon found our way back to the city center! Our goal was to find a parking spot where we could stay for 24 hours! Luckily, we were successful and there was a beautiful free spot waiting for us, right next to the Te Papa Museum. We started our Wellington discovery tour at the museum. It's about New Zealand and all its inhabitants, it's free and spans 6 floors. Really well done and highly recommended. After that, we headed to Cuba Street! A mix of different cultures and art, welcome to Wellington. On the way back, we stumbled upon another street parade! Music everywhere and thousands of people watching and singing along. It turned out that it was a show by the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. You can recognize them clearly by their darker skin, the pose, many tattoos, and their enthusiasm for singing!

But Wellington has something else to offer, the public toilet situation. Unfortunately, the ones we had in mind were completely unusable, so we had to urgently search for a toilet in the morning (for Ilse 😉). Don't fast food chains always have an open toilet? Thank you, Burger King, after buying a drink, we had to ask 3 times if we could use their toilet 😉. Strengthened, we continued our journey with the goal of Mt. Victoria, which rewarded us with fantastic views of the whole city. From there, we could also see the international airport! It's interesting that in the 1950s, they actually built a mountain and relocated about 550 houses for the airport.

Next, we headed north, from a 4-lane highway to single-lane bridges! Just to spice things up, we booked a spot in the middle of nowhere (Himatangi Beach). Unfortunately, it wasn't a success, as 95% of the campsite was occupied by seasonal campers who drank beer and partied all day and made us feel like we didn't belong there as tourists! Well, the night was still good 😉. We got lost and ended up on a beach where we almost got hit by a car! There was actually a sign saying "the beach is a road". But when you want to enjoy nature on the beach, cars are driving all around... not so great. But despite that, the sunset was amazing! We didn't feel sorry to leave and headed towards Taupo!

Slowly, the surroundings changed again and we felt better and better! Taupo turned out to be a beautiful town right on Lake Taupo, where, thanks to a tip from our American friends, we found a super cool campsite! We could also rent bikes there and went on a trail ride and visited a bike park. Wow... curves to the right, curves to the left, uphill, steep downhill... through the forest, along the beach, just super cool and we enjoyed it! And the highlight, of course, was the hot pools. We went into a rather cold river and as we got closer to the small stream that flowed over a rock into the river, it got hotter and hotter. The stream was so hot that we almost got burned! The combination of the natural setting and the fact that it was free made it an amazing experience! So we revived our tired legs with a natural spa 😊.

After a very good night's sleep, we headed to the dam in the morning. Every 2 hours, they release water to generate electricity. We watched this spectacle from the top viewpoint. It was different than expected, but still very interesting to see how it works. Then we went back to Lake Taupo. It is the largest volcanic crater in New Zealand, filled with water!

In the following days, we had to deal with Ilse's blocked nose. The smell in and around Rotorua is unique. Sulfur and rotten eggs...not for everyone. However, we stopped at Wai-o-Tapu, which was definitely worth it! It's a geothermal area, a natural wonder with many different colors and bubbling everywhere 😉.

Our next destination was Ohope Beach. Let's head to the coast! The campsite was amazing and the village of Whakatane was also very charming! Actually, we had planned to continue along the coast to the east, but unfortunately, it started pouring rain, so we ended up in Tauranga. What a beautiful place! Right next to an overgrown volcano, where we could hike all around or to the top. We did both, and it was incredibly beautiful! Of course, we couldn't miss the beach walks and watching the surfer boys! So we stayed there for two nights and enjoyed it! Hot pools, a delicious Italian dinner, and our own kitchen!
That gave us a bit of a South Island feeling again, which we have always missed! Luckily, we have been quite lucky with the rain so far, it has been announced every day, but practically never arrived! Unfortunately, we only have 1.5 weeks left with our camper friend and then 3 days in Auckland, and our adventure will be over! But first, we will enjoy Coromandel and the Bay of Islands!