Arrival North Island, Wellington

Upon arriving on the North Island, we visited the city of Wellington and then headed north to Whanganui. There, we found a campsite in the middle of a national park. When we arrived, we didn't think much of it and parked in the field. No one else was at the campsite. As it started to rain heavily in the evening and we had to go out again, we realized that the whole field was soaked. We wanted to move to the gravel road, just in case we couldn't get out the next day if it continued to rain all night! We tried to move in the evening, but we were already stuck. We spent an hour trying to find a solution to get out! We tried many things, but it just didn't work. We went to sleep and hoped that it would look better the next day. When we woke up in the morning, it was even worse...

We spent 3 hours trying to get out ourselves! In the end, we got stuck on a small slope next to a tree and didn't know what else to do! We pulled out tree parts to get the car past, tried putting everything we could under the tires, but nothing worked. Many cars drove by and looked, but no one stopped. Until 3 cars with locals finally stopped and asked if we needed help! We were overjoyed that they wanted to help us. First, they tried to tow us out with a rope and a car, but the rope broke. Then they got a longer rope and pulled us out of our mess with 3 cars! We were completely wet, dirty, and exhausted, just ready to go to the next proper campsite. Showering, eating, and relaxing from this crazy experience.

The next day, we were in Egmount National Park and did a 2-hour hike to Mount Taranaki. It went through half of the forest and then you could see the peak of the mountain. It's a huge volcano embedded in clouds. After that, we made a stop in New Plymouth, 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, unfortunately, the 3rd one had already collapsed...

The next day, we continued our journey towards Mount Tongariro. It's also a volcano where you can do various hikes. We went to the information center to find out which hikes we could do. We hiked along Mount Tongariro for a total of 4 and a half hours. It was a beautiful route, with jumping over streams and some climbing. In the evening, we just fell into bed exhausted.