Central Northisland - a change between the flat Münsterland, the Alps, volcanoes and bubbling ponds

It was a difficult farewell to let my parents go again. But as they say: always look forward! It was only 2 months until I had them all back. Niklas' girlfriend was here now for the next four weeks. An exciting time.

Together with Caro, Niklas' girlfriend, we set off towards Central North Island. The journey there was already varied. From Auckland, the million city right by the water, we continued to Hamilton, well what does Hamilton have? Exactly nothing! A city of 150 thousand inhabitants that has nothing to offer except flat land. At least we could watch a rugby game that evening. The Highlanders played against the Chiefs in Hamilton. Unfortunately, there was as little atmosphere in the stadium as there was in the city...

We then went from Hamilton to Rotorua.

Rotorua is centrally located on the North Island on the eponymous lake. Rotorua is also located in the center of the volcanic zone that runs from Tongariro National Park to White Island, across the North Island of New Zealand. That's why the earth's crust is very thin around Rotorua and there are thermal activities in many places. It constantly boils out of holes or steams from sewers and it smells extremely of sulfur.

It was impossible to miss the right spots. So we drove around Rotorua from spring to spring. One was prepared as a bath. You could sit in a basin and enjoy the hot water. The closer you came to the source, the more it boiled and the hotter it got. A very relaxing bath even if it smelled strongly of sulfur. When you got out of the water, you looked as if you had been tanning in the sun for hours. The whole body was full of iron, as the water is very iron-rich. But it couldn't be washed off the body anymore, only from the clothes... But the most exciting bath we took was in a river. It flows through the forest and carries hot water. So you sit in smaller and larger basins that the river forms, right in the middle of the forest. It felt a bit silly, but it was a lot of fun to bathe in this warm water in the river.

Other great activities included the Maori quarter in Rotorua. The area around Rotorua is also known for its still very lively Maori culture. The quarter in Rotorua used to be the former city center. It clearly illustrates how nowadays the Maori integrate into European culture. When you stroll through the quarter, you can see meeting houses, churches and other cultural sites. Impressive (for New Zealand) is the church. The mixture of Maori culture and the Christian faith (the Maori are Christians) makes this church very special. What makes the quarter so special is that it was built on the hot springs. That's why it's steaming and boiling out of every other backyard and it smells extremely of sulfur. One wonders why the Maori chose this place back then.

Our tour then took us to Taupo. Lake Taupo was formed in a former volcanic crater and is the largest lake in New Zealand. When you stand on the edge of the lake in Taupo, you have a brilliant view of the lake to Tongariro National Park with Mt Ruapehu, the highest volcano in New Zealand at 2797m. But if you didn't want action sports and didn't want to spend a lot of money, Taupo had nothing to offer. So we quickly made our way back!

On our way back, we made a detour to Matamata. I think Matamata doesn't mean much to most people, but if I talk about Hobbiton, more people will be interested. The village of Hobbiton is located about 10 minutes from Matamata. For those who can't do anything with it: Hobbiton is one of the filming locations for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. More precisely, the main filming location, the Hobbit village. It is incredible to see how much effort is made there to preserve everything as it was in the movies. These little hobbit holes are really cute.

After Hobbiton, we had to make our way back to Auckland. Caro and Niklas flew to the South Island the next day for a week. And me? I had a nice time, but definitely not a quiet one. Because over the weekend my sister accompanied me. We went back to Rotorua for 2 ½ days. I wanted to show my sister this amazing part of the North Island. Another detour took us to the coast to Tauranga where we went surfing for a day. A great weekend that I personally enjoyed very much! The rest of the time until Caro and Niklas came back, I spent with friends in Auckland. So no time for boredom.

When Niklas and Caro joined me again, there wasn't much time left with our car. We planned to sell it around mid/late April. I had already posted the first ads online that weekend. Time suddenly started running. But we still enjoyed it. Before we sold the car, we wanted to head towards Northland again and that's exactly what I'm going to tell you about in the next post. I will also tell you how it went with selling the car. So get ready for an eventful time.

Until then

Your Luca