4 Days in New Zealand
...IS NOT ENOUGH. I repeat, is not enough, but we loved every minute of it! After traveling Australia solo for a week then reuniting with my study abroad homies in their hometown (!!!), I got to meet up with my best friend from home (!!!) to travel just a little more-- but we had only a few days left before starting grad school. So, we did what all good travelers do: researched then went for it any way!
Coming from Melbourne, we booked quick roundtrip tickets to Auckland and stuck to the Northern Island. We also prearranged a trip through Trip Advisor- Viatour for about $200 each to get us from Auckland to Rotorua, since we didn't have time for any mishaps (though almost missing our bus should count as one!). Here's the 6 things we recommend doing in NZ!
1. Explore Auckland
We found Auckland to be pretty walkable, finding our way to our hotel (Auckland City Hotel: very nice) from the airport bus drop off spot in the city center easily. I will forever advise citymaps or similar offline maps! Aotea Square was worth checking out on the way, since you can snap a picture of the Town Hall and Civic Center, as well as some great art installations in the plaza itself. While we didn't go up in the Sky Tower, it's a beautiful part of the city skyline and there are a slew of restaurants right underneath it, some with reasonable prices. Coming from China, I was still gorging on Western food so we ended up trying Canadian poutine and Irish-style sandwiches instead of local cuisine--but don't worry, we got into some pretty exotic stuff later! (NZ style bangers and mash is not for the faint of heart).
We also snuck over to Giapo Ice Cream, aka the nicest ice cream I have ever eaten in my entire life. If you're in Auckland you MUST try it; it's insane!
2. Get out in the Countryside (and see some Sheep!)
While the city was nice, I was definitely more excited to see the NZ countryside! Again, we left the city by a tour bus, but I've heard amazing stories from other travelers about renting a car to drive through the islands. You just have to be prepared to drive on the other side of the road, and get an international driving permit from a AAA office before you leave. Honestly, the transition to left-side-driving is not too bad, and the roads here were pretty wide open! We really enjoyed the downtime of taking a bus route, and the views along the way. We even stopped to take pictures! #tourists 3. Visit the Shire
3. Visit the Shire
I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan, but even our friend who had never even watched the movies enjoyed this stop! You can only enter the sprawling set via tour bus, so the day package worked well for us--or you can book a spot on a bus on arrival if you're driving. "Hobbiton" was just adorable! We spent two hours wandering: each hobbit hole has different unique details, and you can see some movie-making magic, like the different sized homes to fit different sizes actors and characters. Even if you aren't losing your mind with nostalgia about childhood reading (or a future as a librarian) they chose to film here for a reason: you can see miles of beautiful countryside in every direction.
(Careful: the doors do open). They also give you a free cider or beer in the tavern with the tour price!
4. Row through the Waitomo Caves
Our tour took us straight on through to this stop, which we knew less about going in--other than that the brochure said "Waitomo" means "stars in the sky," and glow worms were involved... These caves were absolutely incredible! The guide gave a talk about stalagmite formation and you can wander through the complex of cave "cathedrals" before all lights are shut out and everyone must be silent to avoid frightening the glow worms. Pictures are also not allowed, which we were grumpy about at first, but the experience ended up being incredible--walking silently through the almost pitch black caves, and filing into a small boat in the black-ink water. Once we rowed around the corner however, the worms filling the cavern ceiling were just like glowing blue stars! It was beautiful and amazing and worth the bus ride to get all the way out to these caves. The ride was only a few minutes, but seeing thousands of the small lights was magical.
(what its really looked like!)
5. Experience New Zealand's thriving Maori Culture and Arts
Our tour through the first stops included the option to ride on to Rotorua, which saved us travel time (and we had the whole bus to ourselves and two other passengers). Rotorua is best known for its geysers, geothermal activity and sulphur smell, but it is also home to several centers for Maori arts and culture. There are several geothermal parks in Rotorua to chose from, like Wai-O-Tapu with the vibrant Champagne pools or Tikitere with Hell's Gate, but due to our limited time, we chose the park with both geothermal activity and cultural arts: Whakarewarewa! (Say that three times fast). We taxied from our hotel and spent all day enjoying this park, with a fairly reasonable entrance fee of around $35 to see a "cultural show" as well.
More than just a tourist trap, this park is home to an arts center that trains Maori teenagers in traditional arts like wood carving and weaving, which you can see and ask the students about, as well as daily shows that showcase Maori culture to tourists and celebrate its history and survival. One of the things that really struck me about New Zealand was its celebration of indigenous cultures, but also how upfront several tour guides were about colonial past: pretty awesome in contrast to the American approach of talking about Native American history. The park also has a Maori "village" and boats on display! Here my friend is peeking out of a decorated food storage house. You can also see kiwi birds living in a darkened sanctuary: this park really has it all.
6. Get stinky in Rotorua
But in Rotorua you have to see those geysers! And see we did: the park is filled with hundreds of spouts, colorful steaming pools and bubbling mud pits. The town itself is also bubbling with geothermal activity, with steam rising up from man holes in the streets (and it really does smell like rotten eggs, everywhere), but the way to really see it is to go to one of these protected parks. You can spend hours wandering through, and sitting on geo-thermal heated rocks waiting on that one giant geyser to go off (travel tip: it will go off the second you walk away, but it's worth the run back!). The mud pools really are funny as well, and make some terrible sounds. You can purchase mud bath mixes and mud masks for pretty cheap in the gift shop, if you're not down to spend the money/day on a mud spa day elsewhere in the city.
The colors were beautiful, and I had no idea all these crazy things could happen naturally! Definitely worth the day on your trip.
7. Take a Hike
Hiking in New Zealand was quite high on my bucketlist, so I dragged my travek buddy up the most convient mountain: Mt. Eden right outside Auckland. While the suburbs reach right to the foot of the hill, if you take a trail (that you found on an offline map) rather than the walking the main road, it can be a little strenous! The view of the city was beautiful and worth it.
While it's easy to bus there as well (a bus picks up in the city center and takes you pretty much straight there) getting BACK can be a bit of a challenge. Luckily we ran into the nicest older couple that got us back via a hospital bus loop!
7. Take Your Time
Coming straight from a wild last week in China to a jam-packed two weeks in Australia, we were pretty much running on fumes by this point. New Zealand was so nice to slow down and enjoy! We spent lots of time catching up, goofing off in the hotel (check out those Rotorua mud masks) and checking out cafes (NZ is cold in our equivalent of summer!) and I wouldn't trade any of it. Can't wait to reunion in SE Asia!
I'm sure there is infinitely more to do even on the North Island, but this was our experience! I would love to head back to NZ at some point--comment below if you have suggestions for our next trip!