Our first long trip together (North Island)

After an amazing time on the amazing and beautiful South Island we took the ferry to the North Island. We had to hop on board in the afternoon and in about 2,5 hours we arrived at Wellington's Harbor.

Before Jens came I had already been to Welly with my Dutch friend Maartje. We had celebrated my 20th birthday over there and had an amazing time! I was so excited to explore the city again, but this time with Jens. We booked a super cute Airbnb in a lovely suburb of the city. The host woman was so welcoming and she gave us many tips and advices about New Zealand's capital! We had a few amazing days in Wellington and we enjoyed some good food and drinks! We went to some cool Art Galleries, climbed Mount Victoria, had a beautiful view over the city and we took a few cool photos. Wellington is definitely a bit smaller than it's bigger brother Auckland, but it is so much more beautiful, cozy and cute than Auckland in our opinion. This city is so much worth a visit!

After Welly we drove up North to Palmerston North, normally nothing really special but we we're lucky there was a big event going on at that time! We didn't know about the event and we only planned to make a stop there for some lunch. When we arrived we immediately saw that it was really busy with people. There was a sports event going on in the middle of the city and the city was full of cool food trucks and happy people! After spending the afternoon at the event in Palmerston North we went further to the West to New Plymouth. This city is so vibrant and modern, a lovely place to live. There is a beautiful coastal walk, a futuristic museum and a cool city center. But the most well-known sight of New Plymouth is definitely the huge volcano crater of Mount Taranaki, so beautiful! You can do plenty of hikes here and enjoy some amazing views over the volcano crater.

We made a quick stop at the huge Whanganui NP before we headed to the world famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This national park is New Zealand's biggest and it has some beautiful sceneries. I already visited this park with Maartje and did a few hikes, but this time with Jens we decided to only drive through the park. It takes you a few hours to cross the park because the only road there is, is a gravel road..! Nevertheless it was all worth it, what a breathtaking park! After driving for many hours we arrived at late noon / beginning of the evening at Tongariro National Park. We managed to get the last cabin at a campsite close to the Alpine Crossing. We were super lucky because we saw many others arriving after us who had to leave again because the whole campsite was fully booked. We made a reservation for the bus the next morning to bring us to the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We started our hike at 6:30 in the morning and after walking for about 8 hours we finished the crossing! This crossing is so famous because of the Lord of the Rings movies, if you have ever seen these movies you will definitely know what I am talking about (if not.. just like me, just look it up on the internet haha). During the hike you walk over a volcanic area and you have some amazing views over Mount Doom (Lord of the Rings), over the volcano craters and you can even see lake Taupo from the top! Definitely the most spectacular hike in NZ in our opinion, the only thing you need for this is a wind/rain jacket, some good hiking shoes and a basic condition.

After Tongariro we drove further North to Taupo. Another beautiful town next to an old volcano. Lake Taupo is the crater of a super old volcano and nowadays it is the country's biggest lake. Taupo is a small city full of amazing Asian food (especially Thai and Indian!) and there are a few nice Hot Pools and spas. After our visit to the Hot Pools we continued our trip to Rotorua. The geothermal capital of the country! We stayed at a beautiful campground next to a lake, so quiet and so peaceful and it only costed 7 dollars a night. Rotorua's city center is nothing really special, but all that is out of the city center is so special! This city is full of geothermal zones and it smells like rotten eggs everywhere (sulfur). The most well-known one is Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal wonderland! You can get yourself some entrance tickets to this park and see an amazing Geiser (and it erupts a few times a day!) and geothermal pools in all colors of the rainbow, an absolute once in a lifetime experience! Besides the geothermal zones Rotorua has a beautiful Red Woods forest full of huge trees that can become about 72 meters in length. There is a tree walk in the forest and you can walk ON the trees, sounds pretty surreal maybe but there are no words to describe this... What an experience! We did the hike at night and that made it even more special, the whole forest was full of lights. 

We continued our trip further and drove to the East coast, to Tauranga. We found ourselves a campsite next to the beach and spend some quality time in the city! We went to the cinema and spend a lot of time at the beach! Tauranga is a lovely city with some amazing people and beautiful beaches. We had some take-away Indian at the beach, watched sunrise and sunset at the beach and enjoyed the hot pools at our campsite. We even tried surfing a few times, what a cool sport!

From Tauranga it was only a few hours to the Coromandel, our next destination! The coromandel is a beautiful area with some super famous sights! The first sight we visited was Hot Water Beach in Hahei, a beach where people are digging holes to find some natural hot pools, an absolute cool experience! You can chill in your own little hot pool at the beach. After a quick stop at hot water beach we drove to the world famous Cathedral Cove, beautiful! We found ourselves a cool campsite on Campermate (NZ's number 1 campsite app) in Whangapoua. The campsite was called Earl's Paradise, the owner, Earl, was such a laid back, friendly and welcoming guy! He showed us a lot of the area and invited us for some beers in the evening. We did a hike through a forest and we had a beautiful view over New Chums beach from there, after that we went to Kennedy Bay, so peaceful and quiet. We had some amazing days and nights at Earl's place but decided to explore more of the Coromandel area. We found a campground in Colville, a bit further north. We explored the area around Colville, did some hikes at the far North of the Coromandel, visited Coromandel town and we got invited for a neighborhood BBQ, we had the times of our lives!

On our way to Auckland we made a stop at Hunua Ranges Regional Park. A beautiful forest with some stunning waterfalls, definitely worth a visit! We passed Auckland towards the Bay of Islands. A beautiful farmers and wine region where I had worked for about a month together with Maartje before Jens came. We visited Paihia and Russel (the first capital of NZ), two beautiful towns.

We continued our travels further North and after a very long trip we made it to the most Northern point of the country: Cape Reinga! This is absolutely one of the highlights of the country. We got up early to watch the sunrise at the world famous lighthouse and we saw the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea collide. We felt like we were at the end of the world, what a feeling!

After seeing the beautiful Cape Reinga and Spirits Bay we had to drive back to Auckland again. Our trip was coming to an end.. But not before we had seen 90-mile beach! A stunning beach where you can even drive by car, 90 miles full of freedom. We saw pink beaches and amazing sand dunes, this is a beautiful piece of NZ. After months of traveling and working in one of the most beautiful and friendly countries in the world the time was there to say goodbye. We drove to Auckland to finish our adventure there. We enjoyed our last moments in New Zealand and then started our 36 hour flight back to the Netherlands. It was a wonderful trip and we will never forget what we saw and did there!'

THANK YOU NEW ZEALAND!