Each year we try to plan at least one really nice vacation. Usually it’s somewhere we haven’t been before. Sometimes we head back to an old favorite. New Zealand has always been on our list of places to see some day, and Lord of the Rings only helped nudge it up to #1. Besides, we love the outdoors and there’s lots of that in NZ.
But hey, isn’t Hawaii kind of on the way to New Zealand? We really wanted to have another family trip to one of the islands, and also make it back to the Big Island to see the volcano eruption. Mauna Loa has been streaming lava for the past few years. We didn’t get to do it on our last Hawaii trip and swore we’d try again for this rare experience to see an eruption without being in the path of a pyroclastic cloud.
So we made our goal to tour New Zealand for two weeks (just Fran & I), then spend a week in Hawaii (joining up with the rest of the family) before returning home. Three weeks is long for a vacation, especially in the US. But we both were able to make it happen thanks to our very understanding employers and creative use of frequent flyer miles and other cost-saving tricks.
This trip required us to book 7 one-way flights:
- Los Angeles to Aukland
- Christchurch to Aukland
- Aukland to Honolulu
- Honolulu to Big Island
- Big Island to Maui
- Maui to Honolulu
- Honolulu to Los Angeles
Fri 6th/Sun 8th - Arriving in Aukland
This is the 1st of 7 one-way flights, Los Angeles to Aukland. We left on Friday, but due to the International Dateline, skipped Saturday and arrived in Aukland on Sunday. Don’t worry, we’ll have two Saturdays when we come back!
We picked up a rental car at the airport, along with several books listing B&B’s, hostels and activities. A car is a great way to get around, if you don’t mind driving on the “other” side of the road. Campervans (aka RV’s) are also popular.
As we arrived in Aukland, we consulted the BBH Guide and picked the Aspen Hotel. Aukland is a pretty upscale city- a far cry from the rest of NZ, which is mostly farmland.
Points of interested included Ponsonby, an area of town with trendy shops & restaurants. Victoria Market is another popular shopping area with an open-air theme. The Sky Tower is really touristy, but worth seeing. And there are some good restaurants inside.
Mon 9th - Devonport & Hamilton
We took a ferry to Devonport across the bay from Aukland. There used to be a military fort there, and you can walk around the remnants of bunkers and gun placements. Pretty cool.
My company has a customer in Aukland and since I’d heard so much about them, I couldn’t resist a visit. We took a tour of their recent installation at Berkeley Cinemas where they had movie trailers and showtimes on vertically mounted plasmas. Not an easy thing to do! (and that’s coming from an expert).
They were also helpful with advice on what to see and do in New Zealand, including recommending a great restaurant near Mt. Eden called Frasier’s. I had lamb (of course).
After that we were on our way to the next stop, but it was getting late so we pulled into a motel in Hamilton. Many, like this one, are privately operated and the owner greets you when you arrive, not just a manager.
Old military structure in Devonport.
At Devonport with Aukland in the background.
Tue 10th - Matamata & Rotorua
The next morning we continued on to our next destination, Hobbiton, otherwise known as Matamata. Matamata is the city by the farm where much of the first Lord of the Rings movie was filmed.
All of the Hobbit home scenes were shot on a portion of the Alexander family farm. The local story is that they had never heard of LOTR and figured it was just another b-rated New Zealand movie or TV show. But after the movie came out, they were swarmed by hundreds of fans, so they decided to keep the set in its current condition (not quite the state during filming, but close) and run tours through the part of the farm where the scenes were shot. We even got our photo taken in front of Bag End!
Two tourists in Hobbiton.
Hello, is Frodo home?
View from Bag End.
Our next stop after Matamata was Rotorua. This place shows off New Zealand’s status as a thermal hot spring hotspot. Every hotel in town has thermal pools where you can soak in naturally heated water from down below.
Steam comes fromthe ground in Rotorua.
We had dinner at a place with a funny name and awesome food: The Pig & Whistle. I had the Snout Dark Ale and a fish ‘n chips. Yum!
Wed 11th - Wai-o-Tapu & Tongariro
We continued with our thermal volcanic tour at Wai-o-Tapu park. This place also has hot springs, but also some really cool looking pools and dark pits with lots of steam rising out. The star attraction is a guyser that goes off every day at 10:30am (with a little help from the park staff), but there are some really amazing pools of water colored by the minerals that the superheated steam brings to the surface. Oh, and there are smells too!
That's a guyser!
Catchy names for everything at Wai-o-Tapo.
Incredible colors.
Us in front of a green lake.
More amazing colors.
We called this the Dr. Suess lake.
Throughout our trip, we stopped at the numerous visitors centers for advice on what to see and help making reservations. This is a brilliant way to make sure you make the most of your time.
One thing we were interested was the Tongariro Crossing in Tongariro National Park. It’s a hike that takes you between three volcanoes, with incredible views along the way. But at every visitor center, we were told “Oh, it’s too late in the season. The weather is really bad now. Too dangerous, etc. etc.”
However, partly because this is a once in a lifetime experience, and partly because we had been through probably the worst weather imaginable on a hike down from Mount Whitney (and partly because we are kind of stubborn when we get “no” for an answer), we continued to drive on anyway.
We arrived that night at the Tongariro Nat'l Park Backpackers lodge. The guy at the front desk said that two other parties had booked a ride to the trailhead for the Crossing, and were planning to go as long as the weather wasn’t too horrible. So we added our names on the list, had dinner at the tavern next door, and went to bed hoping for a good day.
Thu 12th - Tongariro Crossing
The next morning it was a bit cloudy and foggy, but no rain or wind. We decided to go for it. The bus from the lodge dropped us and the other two groups off at one end of the trail, and will pick us up at the other end later in the day. This is a one-way trip!
The route takes you between Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe, a total of 17km (about 10.5 miles). The highest point is 1886m (6187.7ft) at Red Crater. But unfortunately we didn’t see Red Crater or much of anything else. The fog was so dense, you could barely see 20 feet ahead. And as we went up the wind gusts grew so strong, you had to struggle just to stand up. It was like a hurricane up there!
We're going up into THAT?
Watch your step!
Eventually the fog did burn off as the sun started to shine through. But that was after we passed the two volcanoes. We did see some cool lakes and a view of the surrounding area. My camera battery ran out suddenly and someone commented it was the fumes from the volcanic activity that affected the battery.
There's supposed to be a crater here...
The fog cleared just in time to take this snapshot.
After passing through the volcanic zone, we paused at Ketetahi Hut for a rest, then started on the long winding path descending to the car park where our bus would be waiting for us in a couple hours.
Relaxing at Ketetahi Hut.
This side of Tongariro is much nicer.
By the way, in New Zealand, what we call “Hiking” is called “Tramping.”
Fri 13th - Whakapapa & Wellington
Before heading to our next major destination, we took a detour to Whakapapa Ski Resort, on Mt Ruapehu. No, we didn’t bring our skiis. There wasn’t much snow anyway, but we did see some more locations that were filmed in Lord of the Rings! Mead's Wall is a rocky outcropping where several scenes were shot, and a nearby parking lot (err “car park”) was the location of a major battle scene.
Mt Ngauruhoe.
Mt Ruapehu.
Mead's Wall.
After taking in the views, we began our drive to Wellington. We stayed at a B&B on the outskirts of town.
We're being watched... (On our way to Wellington)
Sat 14th - Wellington & South Island
After an evening in Wellington, the next day we explored Te Papa Museum. We found some very interesting and moving exhibits on the history of Maori culture and New Zealand.
Wellington at night.
Wellington in the day. Te Papa Museum on the right.
Maori buildings at Te Papa Museum.
In the afternoon we took a ferry to the South Island, docking at Picton. It was a beautiful trip with great views of the coastline and Marlborogh Sounds. When arrived at Picton we headed out to find our next place to stay, Anakiwa Backpackers. We picked it because of the location (away from the city, close to the water) and because the listing said they had a cat. (We missed our cat Misto!)
The ferry from North to South Island.
Our last pic before leaving North Island.
Sun 15th - South Island: Marlborogh Sounds & Nelson
Anakiwa is also conveniently located at the start of Queen Charlotte Track, a trail famous for its views of the mountains and coastline. The entire track is 71km (44 miles), but we only wanted to spend a few hours, so headed out towards Mistletoe Bay, only 12.9km (8 miles) from Anakiwa. We didn’t plan to reach the bay, but the weather was so nice we kept going and our few hours turned into an all-day excursion.
We were passed by quite a few bicycles, and met a few other fellow hikers and some cows. The cows weren’t as friendly as the hikers, and had left a lot of “obstacles” on the path. We arrived back at Anakiwa just before sunset, packed up and headed to our next destination.
Anakiwa Backpackers.
View from the Queen Charlotte Track.
These cows have it great.
We arrived in Nelson that evening and got a room at Tasman Bay Backpackers. This was a really cool and stylish place. To improve the look of their dorm-rooms, they painted fancy furniture and decorations on the walls.
While in Nelson, we enjoyed some great Thai food at a place called Sukhothai and had coffee at Robert Harris, a local NZ coffee shop. We really liked the people and overall vibe of the town.
Mon 16th - Abel Tasman National Park
Another great hike on our NZ list was the Abel Tasman track. One of New Zealand’s “Great Walks”, this coastal trail runs 51km (31 miles). But you can hike just part of it by taking a water taxi to a point, then hiking back.
Since we had to start out early in the morning, we booked a cabin with Southern Exposure, so we’d wake up close to the water taxi dock. But the weather had changed for the worse and the water taxi couldn’t stop anywhere on the coast. Defeated by Mother Nature, we had to abandon our trip. It wasn’t a total lost, on our way back we found a great place for dinner in Mapua called Flavour.
Even the sea lions think it's too cold!
Tue 17th - Return to Nelson
The next day we were back in Nelson, at Tasman Bay Backpackers again. We walked around town all day and had another great Thai dinner at Poppy Thai.
Wed 18th - Driving to Christchurch
Our next destination was Christchurch, but that a fair distance from Nelson, and there’s plenty to see along the way. So we planned an all-day drive to take us through a variety of landscapes. We headed to St. Ardaud, which rests among tall mountains and rolling green hills. Then to Blenheim and on to Kaikura. Kaikura had some interesting sightseeing opportunities, but the bad weather seemed to be following us, so we just continued to Christchurch. Along the way we stopped at Magpies Rest Café, a cool place with good sandwiches.
View from the side of the road.
Wicked clouds and fog rolling over hills.
On the outskirts of town we stopped at a gas station to fuel up. We asked one of the employees if he had heard of Occidental Backpackers, a place in the BBH guide that peaked our interest. It turns out he used to hang out there when he was younger (it used to be bar). He gave us directions and an enthusiastic recommendation. The bar is still there, attached to the lobby of the hotel. They have a great 6$ evening roast.
Occidental Backpackers.
Thu 19th - Christchurch
Thursday we had just one goal: See Star Wars. Episode III was premiering that day, and if we saw it then, we’d be seeing it hours before anyone in the US. The first theater we tried had a broken projector. So we walked across town to another, and got to see Anakin transform into Vader to an operatic soundtrack.
Fri 20th - Christchurch
Christchurch is an old style city with museums, parks and monuments. We took in Canterbury Museum, which has a variety of exhibits on nature, industry, art and culture. The weather was nice (for a change), so we strolled around the Botanic Gardens. At the Arts Centre, we visited Rutherford's Den, the place where Lord Rutherford did much of his research on atomic structure.
The Bridge of Remembrance.
Typical downtown Christchurch.
This is Cathedral Square. Yes, that's a Starbucks.
Two kids play in the Botanic Garden.
My High School Chemistry teacher would be proud.
Being our last night in NZ, we picked a restaurant called Pagoda Court. It turned out to be a raw food buffet where you cook your own food at your table. It was pretty cool to make our own prawns, mussels and other meat.
Sat 21st - Leaving Christchurch
Saturday we said goodbye to New Zealand and flew to the next major part of our vacation: Hawaii. We spent one night in Honolulu, then moved to the Big Island.
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