New Zealand: Week 2, 3 & 4

Our travels kept us so busy over the last month, I hardly found any time to even contemplate writing a blog post. Each step of our journey through New Zealand was so jam-packed full of amazing experiences that to fully do it justice would involve writing something at least the length of a dissertation. Buuuuuut I don't want to write another dissertation and so instead, I've resolved to just summing up some of my favourite parts of the trip while trying to keep it as brief as possible. 

The Glaciers

The west coast of the south island boasts two incredible glaciers for tourists to visit. The first for us was the Fox Glacier followed by the Franz Josef Glacier. As you'd expect, both places are very similar and offer practically the same experiences for visitors. 

At Fox Glacier, we headed up to a viewpoint to get a closer look. 

Having never seen anything quite like it before, I was pretty amazed. Seeing the glacier in person sparked our interest and so we decided to book a heli-hike for the following day. This included a scenic helicopter ride around Franz Joseph Glacier, as well as an opportunity to hike across the ice, checking out caves and crevasses and all that sort of stuff. Sounded amazing, I was pumped. Then, the next day came around and with it came the bad weather. These sorts of tours can't go a ahead unless it's clear skies and so all of the heli-hikes for the day were a no go. We were totally gutted. With our plans for the day cancelled, we decided to take a walk up to the glacier ourselves hoping that the weather might clear up enough to at least see it from a distance. Luckily, the clouds gave way just long enough for us to catch a glimpse as we arrived at the viewpoint.

One more thing, some of the surrounding area was used in The Lord of the Rings as the White Mountains during the scene where the beacons are being lit.

GONDOR CALLS FOR AID!

South Island West Coast

As we headed up the west coast, we passed through the Paparoa National Park where we visited the Pancake Rocks. These are unique natural rock formations which can viewed from various spots along a short walking trail.

Abel Tasman

Named after the first European explorer to lay eyes on New Zealand, Abel Tasman is a beautifully scenic area at the northern tip of the South Island. Here, we spent an evening trekking along a coastal trail and enjoying the views.

Nelson

Home of the first craft beer brewery in New Zealand, as well as Jens Hansen, the jewellers who made the one ring for use in The Lord of the Rings movies.

Our trip to McCashin's brewery was last minute but totally worth it. Our guide, Dave, was just about the nicest guy you could meet. He was very knowledgeable and did everything he could to make sure we had a completely enjoyable experience (even changing up the usual taster board so that Siwan could have ciders instead).

Wellington

There's plenty to do around Wellington, particularly if you are a LotR fan as many of the filming locations are close to the city. As you can imagine, Siwan was positively thrilled at the prospect of visiting all of these places! She almost couldn't contain her excitement as I listed off the itinerary for our first day in the capital. 

Our first stop was Harcourt Park (Isengard).

Next, we ventured over to Kaitoke Regional Park (Rivendell) to see the elves! 

Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch before heading down to the Putangirua Pinnacles. This location was used for the Dimholt Road where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli searched for the army of the dead.

The next day, I booked myself onto a tour through the Weta Workshop, the studio where pretty much all the props, costumes and creatures were designed and created for The Lord of the Rings (as well as a whole load of other films). Co-founded by Peter Jackson, it was high on my list of things to do in Wellington. 

The tour did not disappoint. We were introduced to the inner workings of the studio and got to see how they went about making all sorts of interesting things for the movies. 

In some of the rooms, the walls were lined with swords and other similar sharp, shiny things: Sting, Orcrist, Glamdring, Anduril, the lot! It was just a shame we weren't allowed to take any pictures during this part of the tour as it was a pretty impressive display (and who doesn't love a sword?) Speaking of which, I should definitely have picked up my very own Sting from the gift shop. At only 699 dollars, how did I pass up that bargain?!

After the tour, I met back up with Siw and together we drove over to Mt. Victoria. On our way up, we stopped at a walking trail which led to Hobbit Hideaway. This short path was the filming location for the scene where the hobbits hide from one of the black riders on the outskirts of the Shire. 

From the top of Mt. Victoria, we were able to get one of the best views of the city. It was also where Siwan suggested we give the LotR stuff a rest for a little. I reluctantly agreed.

Mt. Taranaki

Mt. Taranaki looks exactly like what you'd get if you asked a primary school child to draw a mountain. With that said, it is stunningly beautiful. To get a good look at it, we hiked up about a gazillion steps to reach the Pouakai track which then took us past some reflective pools. This was the perfect place to snap a picture of the volcano (when the clouds eventually moved out of the way).

Tongariro Crossing

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 20km track which guides hikers through some incredible mountainous terrain. The track passes by some of the most famous natural landmarks in the area, including Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom).

The day before the hike, we met up with Jordan along with his girlfriend, Mikayla, and her friend, Kelli. For those of you that don't know, Jord is a childhood friend of mine who went off travelling a long time ago and now lives out in Auckland.

The day of the hike arrived and the mountains were completely shrouded in mist and cloud. This, coupled with the 40kmph winds at the top, made some parts of the trek a little more treacherous than we had initially anticipated. Still, the overall experience was amazing and luckily mother nature was kind enough to grant us some nice weather by the end of the walk. Also, none of the volcanoes erupted while we were up there so that's a bonus!

Taupo

Lake Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand, situated in the centre of the North Island just north of the Tongariro Crossing. While in the area, we went up the Waikato River to check out the stunning Huka Falls. 

Rotorua

We had two main things we wanted to do in Rotorua: Rainbow Mountain and the Skyline Luge. 

The walk up to the top of Rainbow Mountain took about an hour and wasn't too strenuous (especially compared to the Tongariro hike). Upon reaching the summit, we were greeted with yet another fantastic view of New Zealand's beautiful landscape. 

The Skyline Luge was alot of fun. It's essentially a go-kart/toboggan type thing which uses gravity to rocket you down the mountain. 

Hobbiton 

Nestled within the rolling hills of sunny Matamata is the place I'd been looking forward to the most throughout our journey across New Zealand.

Jordan and I were left to explore this little part of the Shire on our own as the girls, being total heathens, didn't want to come along.

Visiting Hobbiton was an absolute joy. I'd hyped it up so much in my head, I was worried it wasn't going to live up to my high expectations. Luckily, it very much did. From the moment we stepped foot on the set, I was spellbound. 

I felt like a child again as I bounced over the hills from hobbit-hole to hobbit-hole, making sure to snap a picture of practically everything I saw along the way. I was completely transported to the land Tolkien had imagined years ago. 

I. Loved. It.

To top off this excellent day, we headed over to the Green Dragon to knock back a couple of Southfarthing beers. Cheers, pal!

Coromandel

One of my favourite places we visited in Coromandel was the Hot Water Beach. Visitors to this beach rent shovels from the nearby shops and dig themselves makeshift hot tubs in the sand. The water is heated from underneath the ground by two volcanic springs making it a very popular location.

After visiting the beach, we headed on down to Cathedral Cove to get even sandier. 

Auckland

This was our final destination in New Zealand! Thankfully, Jordan has a place in the city and so was able to put us up for a few days. No more camping!

During our stay, we went to visit the Waipu glow worm cave. To begin with, we had to wade through some shallow water until we reached the chamber where the glow worms were all going about their busy lives. Unfortunately, my camera's night mode wasn't good enough to take any decent pictures in the total darkness of the cave.

The next day, we joined a free walking tour around the city which was great for learning a bit more about the history of New Zealand. 

Afterwards, we hopped on a bus and headed down to Auckland Zoo as I didn't feel it would be right to leave NZ without seeing a kiwi at least once!

Wow, that still turned into a bit of an essay. I guess the short version would be: New Zealand is amazing and more than worth a visit :)