14 April 2008 - The North Island

We landed in Auckland at 5.30 pm on Friday 3rd April. We were both knackered after a very sad and late last night with Lee and Kate. We had a motel booked for our first night and were due to pick up our wicked van the following morning. We arrived at the depot all excited wondering what picture the van would have on it. It was a black sabbath van!! Very cool (at least it wasn't as offensive as some of them!!). It was a toyota hiace super custom with power steering, electric windows, and air conditioning. A far cry from poor old Ernie but it was nice to have a few luxuries. Oh and we named him Bert!! What Else!!

We travelled up to Auckland city centre and visited mount Eden (a volcano) and got some great views over the city. We did the Takhari drive along Auckland's coast, it was a short scenic drive where we stopped at Kelly Tarlton's aquarium and saw loads of penguins. We played 18 holes of crazy golf on the way back and i got 2 holes in 1!! I still lost but hey i shocked us both!! We had a night out in the city which was lively. We called in at the minus 5 bar where everything is made of ice....the bar, chairs, tables even the glasses!! It was well cool!! Certainly an experience.

The next day we set off to Paihai to see the Bay of Islands. It was beautiful. Didn't get to see all 144 islands but we did a lovely boat trip around a few and visited the famous hole in the rock. On the way back down we visited the famous Kawakawa toilets that were designed by Hundertwasser. They were his last creation before he died and they were the most jazzy public toilets we had ever been in!!

Next was the limestone and glow worm caves in Kawiti. It was incredible. Pitch black in the cave and when you looked up it was like looking at the most starry sky you could imagine. Really is a wonder of nature. The stalagmites and stalagtites were pretty impressive as well.

We headed further south to a town called Tauranga where we spent the night. In the morning we went to Mount Maunganui. Karl climbed the mountain and got some fantastic views from the top.

Rotorua was the next stop. It has the thinnest layer of the earth's crust on the planet and has plenty of Geo-Thermal activity. The thermal village there was called Whakarewarewa. The peoples houses were surrounded by hot springs, mud pools and geyser's (where the water shoots out ground). The water temperature in the pools was 90 degrees, some pools were still and some bubbled and gurgled like mad. The ground was very warm. They certainly had there very own under floor heating!! The Maori people used the steam and boiling mineral water to cook with, it was certainly quicker than any conventional oven. The water was crystal clear and so pure. It had a slight oily feel to it apparently it is very good for the skin. The villagers put on a show for us doing some traditional dance and song. They did the famous Haka dance which they do at the rugby. It was a really interesting day the only downfall was the smell. The sulphur made the village smell like a giant fart and after a couple of hours we had smelt enough!!

While in Rotorua we went to have a look at Agroventures an adrenalin park. We weren't intending on doing anything but we did..................the Swoop. We were tied into a sleeping bag type harness pulled 40 m up in the air and on the count of 3 Karl pulled the cord attached to the release catch and we hurtled 130 kph down towards the ground in a huge swing motion. It was a real adrenalin rush and it was great to be able to do it together.

Once we had got over the excitement we went for a look at Huka falls on the way to Taupo. It was a small waterfall within some really stunning surroundings. the water was bright blue. It made a nice end to a lovely day.

Karl wanted to watch the Liverpool v Arsenal game in the champions league so we booked into a motel where 2 people had told us it would be on. The bars didn't stay open long enough to watch. Luckily for me the room we booked had a giant spa bath in it. I had just filled it up and got in when Karl realised they hadn't got the channel after all!! Gutted....well Karl was. The only good thing was that they won!!

Taupo was very backpacker orientated. We headed down the town the night we arrived and there were plenty of bars and hostels. We did a tour on the lake the following morning. the lake was formed 18,000 years ago after a huge volcanic eruption. It's the biggest lake in the southern hemisphere. A lot of Maori history went with it and we visited some Maori stone carvings when on the tour. There are 2 active volcano's that still surround the lake. It was very tranquil and scenic with the snowy topped mountain's surrounding it.

We set off for Wellington next our last stop on the North island. It took 6 hours to get there from Taupo because we took the scenic drive, which was stunning. When in Wellington we went up Mount Victoria to the lookout point where again we got some lovely views. The city isn't very big so we were able to have a good walk around without ever going too far out our way. We took a drive down oriental parade which is the road that runs along the sea front of the city. We had a saturday night out on the town which was like going back in time, they haven't quite caught up on the music front out here!!

We have really enjoyed the North Island and if the South Island is supposed to be even more beautiful we can't wait!!