New Zealand, Part 3 : North Island highlights

This is part 3 of a multi part blog on NZ. Earlier parts are here and here.

We have family in the North Island, so we traveled with them wherever they took us :) We spent our 1st day in the country checking out Auckland and hanging out at some really nice beaches, and set out to travel through the north the next morning. The 4.5 day itinerary there included a fair bit of north island natural wonders, some Maori history and an equal measure of kid friendly fun.

Day 1: Auckland to Taupo: We left Auckland early AM(~9ish) and headed towards Taupo. Stopped for lunch at the beautiful Hamilton Gardens (great lunch stop, plus easily worthy of an hour for strolling through) and ended up at the Waitamo glowworm caves. Here you walk about 15-20 minutes deep inside the cave with a Maori tour guide who talks through the stalactite/stalagmite formations, and then take a ~7-10 minute boat ride where you see thousands of glow worms on the cave ceilings. Feels pretty short overall, but a fascinating experience. The boat ride is in pitch darkness so the glow worms aren’t disturbed, the boatmen use ropes tied to the cave walls to help them navigate. Eerie, powerful, natural, and beautiful. A few different options for the tours, the cost for the cave tour + boat ride we did was about ~$100 USD pp. I highly recommend doing this. After this, we drove further to Lake Taupo, stopped for a brief sighting of the lake, and settled in for the night at Taupo. Pictures are not allowed/possible within the glowworm cave, so here's a fake one for you - I assure you this does no justice to the real one.

                                                               Simulated picture of the glowworm experience

Stepping out from the glowworm cave boat ride

Day 2: Taupo and Rotorua highlights: We started the morning with the Huka Jet. This is a reasonable speed jet boat ride, where they take you through the erstwhile Huka river, leading up close to the Huka falls. There’s definitely a mild commercial feel to this experience, although the falls themselves are quite pretty. The jet was a nice 30 min thrill ride for the kids, with the driver doing a few 360’ spins in the water. Both my kids kept hollering for more and more spins, and the very pleasant driver kept obliging (and I held on tighter and tighter to the seat). The falls weren’t terribly huge when we went, but definitely a pleasant experience overall. Small hikes in the vicinity to explore the region a bit, and if you’re up for it, you can walk up to the place where the Lake Taupo control gate bridge controls the level of the Waikato River - feels similar to watching dam gates open. The Waikato is the longest river in NZ at ~250 miles, its confluence with Lake Taupo feeds the falls - you do get quite a sense of the majesty of the river from up here. Cost: ~$100 USD pp. 

We took a break for lunch - choosing to eat lakeside admiring the quiet calm and serenity of Lake Taupo , and then headed to the Orakei Korako geothermal park. A truly unique NZ experience - bubbling mud pools, gushing geysers, a multitude of colors amongst all the formations and a strong, strong scent of sulphur through it all. Plenty of flexibility here on how much of the park you want to see, we ended up walking through most of it - about 2 hours. It was incredibly hot though (being a hydro thermal power station), and we really felt the need to hydrate ourselves multiple times over - make sure you carry plenty water if you are doing this. Another unique aspect of this park was the thermal Ruatapu cave. The cave extends quite a distance down to a hot pool at the bottom (It had a fancy name which now escapes me). It's apparently one of the few caves in the world located in a geothermal field. Access to the pool at the bottom of the cave itself was unfortunately not allowed, but there’s a decent viewing platform that provides a safe location for viewing. 

This was an interesting tour, but there are several other geothermal attractions in the neighborhood that may be more awe inducing if you were up for it. Hellsgate, in particular, came up a lot, as did Waimangu. I’d probably trade Orakei Korako in favor of any of the other ones if I could do it over. Cost of the tour: $25 USD pp. 

We then headed to our hotel in Rotorua, with a brief stopover at the lake and playground where the kids got to burn off some energy. We also stopped at Rotorua’s famous Lady Jane's ice cream where we more than sufficiently made up for all the walking we had done earlier. Highly recommend the ice cream here - multitude of flavors, and mind boggling options for making your own sundaes. I have to admit, I really, really had trouble picking just one, so I nudged all the little ones into sharing theirs with me :)

Day 3: Rotorua highlights. This morning, we headed bright and early to Rotorua’s famous luge. Think of this as a scooter ride (similar to what kids do), but seated at ground level. There are 3 courses that take you through different levels of twists and turns down a mountain slope, and then you come back up on a ski lift. Rinse and repeat. The kids enjoyed this tremendously, it was quite an effort to rip them from this and move on to the next activity. I was mildly apprehensive at first (so easy to lose control and go crashing into a tree!), but on subsequent runs this ended up being quite fun. We also felt brave enough to go on 2 beginner rounds, and 1 intermediate - spectacular views of the lake/hill side if you can convince yourself to be brave enough and take your eyes off the road. Cost: variable, ~$35 USD pp for 3 rides.

Next up was an agrofarm, about an hour away. An operational farm of about 350 acres, this was a nice break from the adrenalin high of the morning. We took a tractor ride through through the farm - driving through fruit orchards and sipping kiwi juice, and saw several ostriches, sheep, cattle, sheep, deer, sheep, llamas, sheep, ostrich, sheep, pigs, sheep, alpaca, ducks, and did i mention, sheep? Seriously, tons of sheep, amongst other animals - all in an utterly natural home setting for the animals. The farm itself is massive, and seeing these animals at home in this setting was a humbling experience (and a true taste of what was to come in the South). We also got to get off the tractor and feed them all - expect lots of high pitched squealing for this part if you are traveling with kids. (Err, I might have done a fair bit of that squealing myself too) Following this, we did a farm show at the same farm, where we got a demo of sheep shearing, and an intro to the 19+ types of sheep at the farm - I really wasn’t kidding about all that sheep! Mild, relaxing fun, about 2-3 hours worth of time. Cost: ~$50 USD pp.

We wound down the day with a visit to a nature park. We got to tour through a gallery to see the iconic kiwi birds of NZ, see other rare/unique birds of NZ and feed fish. There were 3 kiwis in the nocturnally set up gallery, and it took us a good 10 minutes to spot them all. The beautiful and intelligent kea bird was one of my favorites, but overall quite fun to see the diversity of animals and birds we don't normally get to see in typical zoos. They also had several tuataras - a lizard reptile, one of the last remains from the dinosaur family. Yours truly, of course, saw most of this with 1.5 eyes closed in fear, but highly recommend this for kids, especially since you might not get to see such creatures anywhere else. The park also has a mild roller coaster that splashes in the water, and several play zones in the park for little ones to burn off all the ice creams from earlier in the day. 

Cost: variable, $25 USD pp for entry, additional activities extra.

Day 4:  Maori village and geysers. We started Day 4 with a visit to a Maori village at Whakarewarewa. This was another of my favorite experiences in the North. Here you get to experience a rather authentic, functional Maori village, where the residents predominantly use the natural geothermal resources around them for most daily needs. Very easy for something like this to feel orchestrated and/or commercial, but this really didn't. The entire experience was very natural - with a formal invite into the Maori home by very traditionally dressed Maori men and women, some excellent narration about life back in the day, and a performance - starting with soulful Maori songs and dances, culminating in the famously high energy Haka. Totally enjoyable. 

The traditional haka dance performed by the Maoris

Our kids got to do the haka too!

Whakarewarewa is also unique because it houses several impressive geothermal features within the park area. We took a long, relaxed walk through the village, where we saw several Maori huts, how they hung up meat to dry for days/months (!!), their communal baths and cooking stations, all beautifully interspersed with incredible geysers and bubbling mud pools. The Pohutu geyser (apparently meaning "big splash") in particular was spell binding - shooting up a height of a 100ft or more consistently, non-stop. I kept thinking it would take a break for a bit and come back up, but on and on and on it went - pretty awesome. The mudpools are fascinating in their own way too - thick, gooey, dark mud that keeps bubbling, I half expected some giant prehistoric creature to make a sudden appearance from its depths. Thankfully, no such drama and all was well :) Cost: Variable, ~35USD pp for 2 experiences.

The impressively incessant Pohutu geyser

Touring the Maori hut

After 4 days of exciting and enriching experiences, we then got back in the car and headed back to Auckland.

Day 5: A bit of Auckland city. We had a flight this evening to Christchurch to begin our tour of the South island, so wanted to keep this day fairly light. We caught up on laundry and sundry chores, and then took a public bus to tour a bit of Auckland coastline. The city is beautiful - being one of the largest urban areas in NZ, it's fairly densely populated, has a nice 'city' feel with it's variety of stores, restaurants and suchlike, but being situated on an isthmus, it has a glorious coastline that's just spectacular to walk alongside. Several tens of boats out sailing, a mild breeze all along, and warm, blue waters on one side of the street for as far as you can see. Near magical. We went to an underground aquarium, which I was pleasantly surprised by the size of - looked quite small from outside, but a really interesting mix of animals within - penguins, manta rays, sharks et al. We then went to another park (the city has several lovely parks), hung out as the kids tried some long, long ziplines, got freshly churned ice cream from a food truck and took several deep breaths enjoying the beauty of the city. Late evening, we took a plane to Christchurch, where our gracious AirBnb host picked us up from the airport, drove us to dinner, and all around set our expectations on just how lovely the people down south were going to be.

South island details next.

New Zealand, Part 2 : Overall itinerary

       
        This is part-2 of a multi-part blog on our travel to NZ. Part 1 is here.     

         So, the country itself is fairly small. Total square footage across both islands is about 2/3rds the square footage of the state of CA. Let that sink in a bit. That said, you can’t expect to cover too much distance too quickly (see previous post on speed limits, for one). Our research led us to split our time 1:2 across the North and South islands, I’d say this is perhaps roughly the right ratio. We spent 17 days in the country total: 5 in the north, and ~12ish in the south (including travel days etc.). That felt a reasonable length of time for a first trip. We did have to compromise on a few things we originally thought we’d have time for, but that’s likely true of any first time trip to a new country.

We started with an initial list of things we wanted to see and do, and quickly had to whittle that down:

• Beaches  - we’ve seen some of the best of these around the world, and in CA.
• Glaciers
• Rainforests/waterfalls
• Hobbiton/LOTR  - the kids are not familiar enough with it to enjoy
• Geothermal areas
• Rivers and lakes (NZ has several gorgeous ones)
• Coastline  - CA residents, so can skip, yada yada...
• Mountain ranges
• Wineries -  Not big wine drinkers, plus there's Napa etc...

Couple that with a few NZ staples, we ended up with the below.

• Day 1:     Arrive at AKL, settle down, explore local sights and beaches.
• Day 2:     Drive AKL -> Taupo. Night at Taupo.
• Day 3:     Taupo highlights. Night at Rotorua
• Day 4:     Rotorua highlights. Night at Rotorua.
• Day 5:     Rotorua highlights. Drive back to AKL, night at AKL.
• Day 6:     AKL city in the AM, fly out to Christchurch in PM. Night at CHC
• Day 7:     TranzAlpine train to Greymouth. Pick up car, drive to Franz. Night at                            Franz.
• Day 8:      Lake Matheson, Fox Glacier. Night at Franz.
• Day 9:      Franz Josef glacier, rainforest walk. Night at Franz.
• Day 10:    Drive from Franz -> Haast Pass -> Wanaka -> Queenstown. Night at                             Queenstown.
• Day 11:    Queenstown.
• Day 12:    Queenstown -> Te Anau. Night at Te Anau.
• Day 13:    Te Anau -> Milford Sound. Night at Te Anau.
• Day 14:    Te Anau -> Dunedin -> Fairlie. Night at Fairlie.
• Day 15:    Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, Mt. Cook. Night at Fairlie
• Day 16:    Fairlie -> Christchurch. Fly back to AKL via Wellington. Night at                                     Auckland.
• Day 17:    AKL city. Night at Auckland.
• Day 18:    Fly AKL -> SFO via Fiji (An extra night at Fiji!)

Details on each of these in subsequent posts. North Island details are here.

New Zealand, Dec 2017. Part 1: Practical matters

             We just got back from an excellent 2.5 week trip to New Zealand and have been raving about it to anyone who’ll listen. Given that it’s been a good few weeks and the raving hasn’t subsided, I figured I should write things down a bit: both for potential future travelers, as well as posterity for ourselves. So here goes.

This travelogue is in 6 parts(!): this first post practical matters pertaining to a vacation in NZ, overall itinerary here, North Island details here, South Island details here and here, and some shopping do's and dont's here.

Practical matters first:

• Weather: By virtue of being deep in the southern hemisphere, NZ’s seasons are the inverse of North America’s. We traveled mid Dec to early Jan, which is peak summer for the Kiwis. Sunlight abounds well until about 10:30pm (depending on where in the country you are), and temperatures are mostly CA-springlike. There’s a fair bit of variability in temperature across different parts of the country though, specifically in the South Island, so you’ll need a minimum of a light jacket or two to feel comfortable. We also encountered occasional, sudden showers (apparently typical for the region), so a couple of travel umbrellas or ponchos are worthwhile.


• Entry: If you’re a citizen of the USA, entry is a breeze. Visas are issued upon arrival; immigration, visa, baggage were all done for us in a matter of minutes when we landed at Auckland. The only caveat: you want to be very careful with what you bring into the country. The Kiwis are extremely careful about what they let in, for both ecological and economic reasons - you’ll have questionnaires to fill out, interviews to do, baggage examined and a sniffer dog sniffing out violating items. Err on the side of declaring everything you’ve got, it’ll help you avoid rather painful fines. Especially avoid: any dairy products (fresh or frozen/dried), honey or other animal products, dried fruit - even the preserved variety. A good source is here.


• Currency: NZ dollar, about 0.7 of the USD. Frankly, this won’t matter - every nook and cranny of a store accepts international credit cards. We loaded up our cards on to the iWatch and didn’t need to whip out the wallet even once. We got some NZD on the very last day of the trip just so we could see what the currency looked like.
  


• Cost: This is an expensive country. Expect to spend at least as much as you would in a typical, cosmopolitan US city for most daily/essential matters. For more remote touristy locations, add 10-20% more. Gifts/souvenirs are expensive - I’ll cover this in a later post.
  


• Driving: We rented a car for our entire trip in the South (we had family in the north), and drove from one end of the island to the other. Keep in mind you’ll be driving on the left - this takes some getting used to. Speed limits here are very, very strict. Clearly posted, they vary from 50km/hour to 100km/hour tops. There is tolerance for up to 2-3 kms beyond the posted limit maybe, but not more. Definitely not like in the US where you might cruise at 90 in an 80 mph zone. Officers are aplenty and are quick to flag you down and fine you hard. Most highways also take you through smallish towns, expect the speed limit to go 100 - 50 - 70 - 100 within a 3 km stretch. Most highways are also single lane most of the way with occasional, brief 2 lane stretches, so prepare to be driving much slower than you might be used to.
  


• Connectivity: I had international roaming on my phone, the husband took a local SIM card on his - both work fine. Connectivity is great in large cities and towns, but expect that entire large swaths of the remote interior will have no Internet whatsoever. We had a GPS in our rented car, and backed it up with paper printouts of routes. Came in handy, when we were traveling to one of the more remote areas - did not have Internet, and the GPS gave up too. Also keep in mind that there’s far more sheep in the country than humans, so having backups for directions isn’t a bad thing - especially coz’ just as cute as the sheep are, they don’t really help with directions. (More on sheep later).
  


• Temperature: I alluded to temperature earlier, but I’ll reinforce here. It changes quickly, and  even though it feels springlike and pleasant, it burns your skin pretty quick in the summer. Our younger son did a fairly hasty job of dabbing on the sunscreen, and paid the price with stinging burns on his face and ears. They are not fun, so layer up on the protection. The NZ skies also have some of the largest gaps in the ozone layer, so make sure you stock up on sunscreen. I also found sunscreen more expensive locally, so carry it from home if you can.
  


• Food: Decent number of options, pretty good quality. NZ’s dairy is pretty darned famous, we simply couldn’t get enough of their milk, cream, butter and ice cream. Fruit was plentiful and fresh - we ate several every day. We didn’t try very much NZ cuisine itself, but found that at least Indian and Thai food were fairly consistently available at most places. They are both expensive - Thai, in particular was 1.5x to 2x what we are used to paying in CA, but decent portion sizes and plenty vegetarian options.
  


• Units: Former British territory, so all units are in the metric system: kms, liters etc. This also took some getting used to on the road, and in stores.

That’s it for this section! Itinerary is next and is here!