In the morning we drove to the docks, loaded our car on and boarded the ferry. I was slightly anxious that I would get sea sick, especially after our friends told us that a few days beforehand everyone on board was being sick because of the wind. We sat at the back of the boat in a nice viewing gallery inside where I could look out, and I was pleasantly surprised with no sickness (granted that it was quite a calm journey). We went out on the deck and looked as we went through the Marlborough Sounds which looked amazing. We arrived in Picton, and we had booked to stay a couple extra days in the “Tombstone Backpackers” as we really wanted to do this swimming with dolphins experience. Eager to see what our first experience of the South Island would be, we went to explore Picton. We later came back to the hostel gutted and disappointed. There was not much going on at all, it was very quiet, old looking shops and not really much to look at either. To add to the negatives towards Picton, we had our first encounter with bad roommates that evening. In the night one guy snored so loudly for hours, and left at around 5am, and on the bed beneath him was a very strange old lady making weird noises in her sleep.

The next day we didn’t have anything planned, so we decided to use the day as a day to recuperate and relax for a bit round the hostel and do some planning (however, I did sneak in a bit of time to play some basketball). That evening we intended on having an early night but we found ourself playing “darts killer” with a English couple who worked at the hostel, and ended up playing some cards and having some drinks with them after.

The following morning we walked to the docks to start the swimming with dolphins, on the way a car beeped at us and when we looked there was the guy (Eoin) we met in Auckland and again in Whitianga! After a quick chat he told us that he was on his way to Kaikoura and we would probably be staying in the same hostel. Once we got to the docks we were handed wet suits and shown a video about the different types of species of dolphins that we might see. The company guarantees no see sickness due to the calm waters, so I was interested to see how I would cope. Whilst we was searching in the Marlborough Sounds we came across some Hector Dolphins, they are only about a metre big but unfortunately they are on a protected species list so we was unable to swim with them. I didn’t get any sea sickness but sadly we didn’t see any other dolphins so we didn’t get to swim with any, but we did get to snorkel and see some fish, and also a partial refund.

We happily left Picton and drove to Kaikoura, stopping on the way to see some seals on the coast. When we arrived at our hostel the owner said he would upgrade us to a private room for free as he had one spare, so that was a little win after our failed trip to Picton. We hadn’t really anything planned to do for the one night we were there, mainly just using it as a stopover to break up the drive. Although, the town is really well known for whale spotting, but unfortunately we didn’t really allow any time to join any tours; plus we had already spent a fair bit on the swimming with dolphins so we thought we would do one or the other. We stopped for a drink in a funky bar and Eoin came and met us which was great to catch up and hear what he had been up to. That night we just chilled and had a beer with Eoin and this elder man, he seemed to have done everything under the sun but it was interesting to hear his crazy stories. In the morning we said goodbye to Eoin (for the last time I think?!) and wished him good luck for the rest of his trips.

After Taupo was our final stop of the north island – Wellington. Unfortunately to get there meant another 5 hour drive. Due to the lack of hostel availability we opted to stay in an Air BnB for a change, a private room in Dale’s home. When we arrived we were greeted by a cheerful middle age women, and her cat and dog (later introduced as Crystal and Frankie). As it was getting late we just stayed in and cooked that night. After being woken up by Dale’s chickens, she had put out a selection of breakfast food which was a pleasant change from the breakfasts we had been having in hostels. We then headed into Wellington town straight to the Te Papa museum which many people had recommended we go to. The museum has various exhibits which they rotate, mostly relating to New Zealand but not all, whilst we were there they had a very large exhibit on the Gallipoli campaign in World War 1. Having no expectations of what we would see in the museum, and certainly very little knowledge about the Gallipoli, we were both blown away by the exhibit. The amount of detail and technology used was extraordinary: 3D videos, interactive stations, anecdotes and real pieces such as weapons and tools. However the show stopper was the various dark rooms, each with a narrative of an individual round the wall being read out on the speaker, and giant lifelike statues in the middle of the room. These statues were like nothing I had seen before, the amount of detail gone into these was incredible! I looked it up and they all took 24,000 hours to make, I could see why as you could see hairs on the arms/hands and sweat dripping from the heads. Once we left the museum we finally experienced Wellington’s nickname of “Windy Welly” as we were nearly blown away walking around. The next morning we said goodbye to Dale and headed to the ferry to start our trip to the South Island.

Upon arrival in Taupo we checked into the Haka Lodge. The reason we came to Taupo was to attempt the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which is a 19km hike through mountains and volcanoes; however the previous couple of days the crossing had been closed off due to bad weather, this meant that the hostel was packed with people extending their stays to do the hike. In the night there was very strong winds, so we were anxious whether we would be able to do the hike as we had only allowed one day in our schedule to do it. In the morning we hadn’t been told that it was cancelled so me, Laura, our friend Sophie and her two friends drove to the car park and jumped on the shuttle which takes you to the start.

The hike started with a very tame flat stretch, until it reached “The Devil’s Staircase” which was about 30 minutes of steep stairs. Once we reached the top of the stairs we were greeted with “Mount Doom”, the name of the volcano from The Lord of the Rings. It is possible to climb the volcano but it isn’t advised, and none of us really had suitable footwear so we chose not to. The hike was scenic throughout so we all agreed that we would take it slow and have plenty of breaks to take it all in (and get our breath back). Luckily the wind wasn’t too much of an issue, although we were constantly taking hoodies off when we were hot from climbing and then when the wind picked up we had to put them back on because it was freezing. I have to say, the hike wasn’t a walk in the park but it was definitely manageable; however the worst part was when we started the long descent and thought we were nearly at the bottom and saw a sign “10km to go”. Once it was all over and we relaxed at the hostel for a bit we agreed we should go out to eat by the lake. As we were walked to the lake we walked past a McDonald’s, which I believe is the only McDonald’s in the world that has a branded plane outside it (no idea why?!). We had a really great meal overlooking the lake, which is actually the biggest lake in New Zealand – so big it looks like your next to the sea!

Once we left Waitomo our next stop was Rotorua. If you look up Rotorua online you will probably see comments that the province has a distinctive egg-like smell, due to the sulphur in the geothermal locations. We had also received jokey comments from other backpackers of how much it smelt, but for some reason we were still sceptical; surely it couldn’t be that potent? Once we arrived at our hostel we stepped out of our nice air conditioned car and was smacked with this smell of rotten egg. Unfortunately the stench was there for most of our time in Rotorua.

We had quite a lot that we wanted to do whilst here, the first of which was an authentic Maori experience for the first evening. I believe there is a couple of companies that offer this kind of experience, ours was by the company Tamaki. At around 6.30pm we were picked up from our hostel on a coach, to be taken to the village. We had a very enthusiastic and funny driver called JR, who briefed us on what our evening would bring and taught us a few key words. He explained that there will be many different groups on the experience, each would be considered a “tribe” to the local Maori people. JR then went onto say that it is tradition that there would be a welcoming ritual, for the Maori people to interpret whether we came in peace, or wanted to declare war on their tribe. However a key part of this ritual involves having a “chief” represent their tribe, so our coach needed to elect a chief. I think the time between JR asking for any volunteers and me being “volunteered” through Laura was probably about half of a second. For the ritual I had to stand forward with the other chiefs, whilst the tribesman tried to intimidate us by using large spears and various dances; whilst maintaining a straight face (as it is very disrespectful to smirk or laugh). I then had to accept a peace offering in the form of a fern leaf. After the ritual was over we were told that that was the most formal part of the evening, and to enjoy the rest of the night. We then went inside and spent time at various stations each providing something different. This included some games, and some lessons about how the Maori people believe they came into existence, and the meaning behind their face tattoos. Although I have to say… the most memorable station was were the men learnt the famous Haka dance (hilarious video available upon request). We were then taken inside to a stage where the people performed for us with some songs, then finishing off with a much more impressive interpretation of the Haka dance. The evening then ended with a feast, a traditional Hangi meal. This is the method the Maori people use for cooking, it is essentially a hole in the ground and some very hot rocks and the food is then smoked inside; and I have to say, the food tasted amazing. After experiencing the glow worm caves in Waitomo I didn’t think I would have another great experience like that in New Zealand, but to have one the night after was insane. I don’t want to compare the two because they are so different, but I think so far if I was to recommend one thing to do in New Zealand it would be the Maori experience. The evening was definitely a memorable one.

The next morning we woke up early to do some Zorbing. If you do not know what Zorbing is, it basically consists of a large ball filled with water, with you inside, pummelling down a hill. The second track we did we were both inside the ball, which was hilarious being rolled down with arms and legs flying everywhere. After some lunch at the hostel, we then went drove to the Redwoods to start one of the walks. We chose the 7.5km walk as it was late in the day. The woods were really pretty to walk around, with ginormous trees with a red tint on the bark, giving it the name Redwoods. Although, by accident we unknowingly chose the trail which kind of ventured away from the woods after a while, so that was disappointing.

The next day we had planned to leave Rotorua a little later in the day, so we walked into the town for a coffee. On our way to find one we stumbled across a cat cafe, so undoubtedly Laura wanted to see how much it was. It was a pretty reasonable price and a coffee was included so we spent some time with some fluffy cats. A couple of days earlier we had booked to do an escape room in Rotorua before we left, so after the cat cafe we went off to do that which great fun. If that wasn’t enough activities for Rotorua, we then started to regret that we hadn’t fit time in to see the geothermal features (the most famous one being the champagne pools). We checked the closing time of the Wai o Tapu experience and also the last time we could check into our next hostel, and came to the conclusion we just about had enough time to see it. It was pretty interesting to see and read about them, even though the egg-like smell was intensified by being there. Finally after seeing most of what Rotorua had to over, we left and headed for Tauranga.

Once we left the Coromandel we drove to Hobbiton, where you can do a tour around the movie set from The Hobbit films. Neither of us had actually seen the films, but we were surprised to find out that around half the people on the tours go without seeing any of them. The weather was good and although we did not have much context for what we were looking at it was still fun to see, and we there was a free beer included so no complaints there.

Once we left Hobbiton we drove to Tauranga. There was limited choice for hostels here, so we ended up staying in a very quirky and arty place. There was a very strict no alcohol policy, and there was a very big mixture of ages; not that that’s a particularly bad thing at all, but the whole experience of staying here was very strange in a way that’s hard to explain. With that being said, we had only planned to stay here for one night, and for one reason: to walk up Mount Maunganui and see the sunrise. So the next morning we woke up at 4am (which we would later find out was way too early), and set off. The walk up was good in that the pathway was very well maintained, but it was very windy and steep; plus we found the glare from the sheep’s eyes quite creepy in pitch black. Once we reached the top we probably sat there for nearly an hour before sunrise… However, the silver lining was that we got to see the city lights in the nighttime, and the sunrise was worth the wait. You had the sea either side of the city, with a pretty clear blue sky as the sun poked through the horizon. The 4am wake up wasn’t so bad after all as the view was spectacular.

After a well deserved breakfast and lots of coffee, we didn’t have long until we had to move on; we had a busy schedule and there’s no rest for the weary. Back into our little blue car, and google maps now set for Waitomo we took off. With Waitomo, people only come here for one reason and one reason only: to see glow worms. We had originally only paid for a quick boat tour into a cave to see some glow worms, and even though we had shrugged off about 3 separate people recommending we upgrade the tour, once the receptionist at our hostel told us there was hardly any point doing the boat tour, we rang up to enquire. They managed to fit us in to do the tubing an hour later than we was going to go on the boat, which was ideal because we only had one day and the abseiling was too expensive. Once we arrived at the Black Labyrinth tour, we had to put on a wet suit and a helmet with a headlight, then our tour of about 10 people were driven to a small river, we were told this was our training. We were shown how to sit in the tube in convoy, and how to jump off backwards into the tube safely. Once training had finished, we were then driven further up the road to a cave entrance. This is going to sound cheesy and also quite obvious, but from the get-go we were both in awe of how natural everything was. By that, what I mean is when you hear ‘guided tour’ you would expect something like a quite organised and built pathway to follow, but it wasn’t like that at all. We were literally climbing through these untouched caves, with loose rocks and water flowing through. We had to climb up big boulders, through some tight crevices, along some more rocks until we reached a small-ish waterfall. Ordered to remember what we were told in training, I jumped off the waterfall first creating a huge thud into the water as I landed in the ring. Once the convoy formed, which the tour guides named ‘the centipede’, I was at the front and dragged by my boot by the guide. We were then told to turn our head torches off and look up, to what was probably thousands of glow worms. We learnt that glow worms are actually maggots, and they glow because of the poop inside them, so not so cute once you know. Despite this, it really was breathtaking to see as we floated through the remainder of the cave. All you could hear was the noise of the rushing water, and you could barely see a thing except all these glowing dots on the ceiling and the sides of the cave. We weren’t allowed to bring our own camera unfortunately, but we paid a small price for the pictures the guide took, and we received the promo pictures of the glow worms too. Needless to say, we were so happy we upgraded. Not only do I think this will be in my top experiences whilst travelling, but I really would say it is a bucket-list type thing.

So I have realised that writing a blog consistently is proving difficult with the amount we are doing, so for now I am writing these retrospectively until I catch up.

Once we left Paihia and after an exhausting 6 hour drive, through dozens of bendy roads through the hills, we arrived at the Turtle Cove hostel. Once we arrived we quickly checked in so we could stretch our legs and go for a wander to the beach, in which we then decided to stop at a sports bar on the way back. Whilst we were minding our own business having a drink, we were approached by a women who asked if it would be okay to twist our table round so more of their group could sit together; also insisting that we join them for drinks. We ended up talking with this group of locals for ages, mostly a similar age to us. It was really funny to watch them interact with each other, it’s typical Kiwi dialect. Although the best part was that they suggested we go to this certain ‘hidden’ beach, called “New Chums Beach’, they stated that it is apparently on some bucket list of places to see, although we think that might just be local bias. As it was getting late we said goodbye to the locals and headed back, once we got back to the kitchen we recognised a man from the hostel we stayed in Auckland; bearing in mind how far Auckland was and that we had been to places in-between we were quite surprised to see him. We talked with him all night, and as he was travelling on his own it was very interesting to hear his stories.

The next day we had a lot to get through. In the morning we went to the Hot Water Beach before the tide came in, here you can rent some shovels and dig in the sand until you hit water, and in certain spots the water is surprisingly hot. Tonnes of people were laying in it, or dipping there feet in to make use out of the free makeshift hot tubs before the tide washed all their efforts away! Next we went to Cathedral Cove, this is another popular tourist spot which consists of a scenic 45 minute walk ending at a passageway to a small beach. Once we got there we took some pictures and quickly hurried back to the car as we were hoping that we would later see a much more impressive beach; as we wanted to take the local’s suggestion and visit New Chums Beach before the day was over.

We put the directions into google maps, and drove about an hour. However, to actually get there you had to first walk through a completely different beach which to be fair was pretty nice itself. You then had to walk over rocks going across the shoreline and round the corner, to then walk about 30 minutes through some woods. Once we got there I instantly realised why we were told we had to go here, and also why it wouldn’t be a surprise if it actually was on some type of bucket list. The beach stretched far with white sand and not one piece of litter ruining it, the sea was a clear blue with big waves, and the whole beach was hidden away by trees. To top this all of, there were only about another 10 people on the entire beach. I was so glad we chose to come, it felt like an adventure to get there and we were rewarded with the best (to date) beach that I have seen. All I can say is that pictures definitely do not do it justice.

On 12th January we packed our bags and said goodbye to Auckland, and began the long drive northward. This would be our first real experience of driving through what you would expect New Zealand to look like; huge hills, tall trees and ferns all creating a very green landscape as we drove through a single road highway. If the views weren’t already great, this would then be contrasted by the odd glimpse of the sea which really made the 3 hour drive go quick. On the way we stopped at a bird sanctuary/museum to see a kiwi bird, this is something we really wanted to see whilst in New Zealand and just by chance we found one along the way; as they are nocturnal this was the best chance we had, and it really was a great experience.

We arrived at Saltwater Lodge in Paihia which was spitting distance to the beach. Shortly after we arrived I played some basketball in a church car park with some other backpackers. On our first full day we then departed for another long drive north to Cape Reinga. This spot draws many tourists because it is the most northern point of New Zealand, and it also features an iconic lighthouse. I really enjoyed walking around this landmark, other notable viewpoints were a sign which showed the directions of cities such as London and Japan, and also the point where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea to create a crash of waves down the middle. After that went to Te Paki sand dunes. For a small price you could pay a typical kiwi dude for a board and go sand boarding down the dunes; aside from the face-full of sand it was fun.

On our final day it rained really hard so we stayed in, unsure what we would do for the day. Fortunately it eventually cleared up so we decided to make the most of the time we had left and walk to Haruru Falls as our roommate Sophie had suggested it. Even though we accidentally walked on the path along the highway instead of the scenic route through the trees, we saw the falls and it felt good that we hadn’t wasted the day. Later that evening we learnt some new card games in a big group, and I experienced “around the world” table tennis for the first time which was a laugh.

Unfortunately saying goodbye to the Northland meant another long drive, this time a 6 hour drive to Whittianga.

After about 24 hours of flying, today Laura and I finally arrived into New Zealand. The two flights were draining but could have been worse, the latter was mostly filled by conversation with a South African women moving to New Zealand to start a new career in teaching; so it was fun to share the excitement between the three of us.

Our initial thoughts upon arrival were that the air had a distinct cleanliness, and that it felt hotter than a mid 20 degree heat should. As expected, today was mostly just getting settled into our hostel, which is only a 20 minute walk into the town. However we did take some time to briefly explore the surrounding areas, mostly the local parks. The parks are not too busy and full of greenery, with some enormous roots filling the sidewalks.

Tomorrow I expect will bring similar, we do not have much plans for Auckland but the following day we will be heading north.