The first days on the North Island of New Zealand

17.01.2017 - 21.01.2017

DAY 74 - 78

WELLINGTON / TAUPO / ROTORUA

Wellington

For us, the time on the South Island was over, and we took the ferry to the North Island. We were able to take our car with us, which saved us a lot of stress! The good weather has finally arrived in New Zealand in the last few days, so we hope it stays that way - the North Island is supposed to be warmer. 

We were fortunate to have good weather on the day of the ferry crossing. Since Jozy got a little seasick, I couldn't imagine what the trip would have been like in bad weather. The journey from Picton to Wellington took about 4 hours, so we didn't see much of Wellington on the first day.

So the next day it was time to explore the capital of New Zealand, unfortunately in bad weather. Since we initially wanted to avoid it, we only visited the Te Papa Tongarewa - the National Museum of New Zealand. Unfortunately, the weather didn't improve during the day and we only took a look at the city and took the Cable Car. 

Storm with 160 km/h was announced for the evening, so we preferred to go to our campground early and I came up with the glorious idea of ​​having Jozy dye my hair, after all, I wanted to save money on an expensive visit to the hair salon. Unfortunately, the result of gray/blue/green hair was not quite what I had imagined, so I immediately made an appointment with a hairdresser for the next day at 9 am ... so the expensive option after all. Well, I could have done that right away, but well ... Now I hope that the hairdresser can fix the spectacle on my head. Keep the fingers crossed!

Taupo

Actually, we had a tight schedule and wanted to leave in the morning to go to Taupo, but now my hair appointment comes first. What has to be done has to be done. And the 3 hour delay was really worth it! My hair looks somewhat normal again and the rest will be managed by the sun in Australia. Note to myself: let's not do the dyeing ourselves again. We finally started driving to Taupo around noon - 5 hours of driving ahead of us. 

Therefore, we couldn't see much on this day since we arrived in Taupo only in the late afternoon. Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand. Anyway, we still made use of the day and cooked for the next few days and did the laundry - a little household work certainly doesn't do itself ;).

Taupo / Rotorua

Today we had a full program for us. We had to get up early because in the morning we went to the "Wai-O-Tapu - Thermal Wonderland". There we could see the Lady Knox Geyser erupt at 10:15 a.m. The whole thing wasn't too spectacular, as it was triggered to erupt with soap flakes - all artificial.

Otherwise, the visit to Wai-O-Tapu was really beautiful. The thermal area is littered with collapsed craters, hot and cold lakes, mud pools and steaming fumaroles. The different colors are due to the different minerals such as sulfur for the yellow color.

Sulfur is also the reason why I'm glad we only stayed in Rotorua for 2 days - the whole area smells of it! A really terrible smell, which I imagine gives me headaches. I wonder how people can live here. In the afternoon we went to Whakarewarewa, a Maori community in Rotorua.

 First, we watched a cultural performance by the Maoris before being guided through the village by a Maori. It was really very interesting, especially because the community is located on a geothermal field. There are no bathrooms or kitchens in the Maori houses. They use the thermal pools collectively for washing and cooking. A very economical and interesting lifestyle, definitely.