NZ Roadtrip north island day 1-6
Door: Eelco
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Eelco
11 Januari 2013 | Nieuw Zeeland, National Park
Interisland ferry, Wellington, Mount Taranaki, New Plymouth, Waitomo glowworm caves and Tongariro national park.
Day 1: On the 6th of January, after having lunch with Axel and his sister, Michael and me dragged our baggage to the ferry terminal. I think I came to New Zealand with about 30kgs but I think I have added another 15kg to that. So the dragging was not so much fun. After checking in the suitcases we found a place at the window on the observation deck. The views during the three hour trip were very nice and the traverse was quite comfortable. After arrival in Wellington, we took the bus to the YHA hostel where we would spend the next three nights. From the sixth floor we had a nice view of the coast.
Day 2: We found out that our hostel is right around the corner from the theatre where The Hobbit was released. A giant hobbit door and a giant Gandalf marked the front of the building. A short walk brought us to the Te Papa museum. This is a really awesome museum as it has pretty much everything to show about New Zealand: Culture, history, nature, volcanoes and the three trolls from The Hobbit movie. It is also very interactive. We spent a couple of hours there before we picked up our new roadtrip car, a Nissan Sunny. In the late afternoon we walked the coastline to the government buildings with the beehive shape. A walk around brought us up to the botanical gardens from where we had a nice view of the city.
Day 3: In the morning we drove to Upper Hutt north of Wellington. In Harcourt park they shot part of the LOTR movie when they show Isengard. We walked around for a bit but couldn’t recognize the place. Then we found a group that was doing a LOTR tour. We stalked them for a bit to see where the guide was pointing them. It is a nice park but I think they put so much CGI in it that the place is unrecognizable. On the way back I got me a hat for sun protection and we got a cassette that plays music from a normal music plug to fit in our car that only has a cassette player.
In the afternoon we went back to the Te Papa museum. There was a separate exhibition called Game Masters about videogames which we wanted to check out. It is divided in three sections: Original arcade games, game changers and indies. In the first section they had arcade machines with classics, such as pacman and space invaders, to play. In the second section they showed how some games, gameplay and consoles have evolved. In the third section games from independent developers with totally new ideas could be played. Most of the games and consoles were playable so we had some good fun.
Day 4: We woke up early to drive to New Plymouth on the west coast. From afar we could make up the cone-shaped volcano Mount Taranaki which looks very nice with a snowy top. We checked out a nice waterfall in the area and then drove around the mountain to New Plymouth. We stopped at cape Egmont to look at the lighthouse and to see the volcanic rocks on the beach. New Plymouth looks like a nice city for students and younger people, but there were no people there, which made it look a bit desolate. At dinner we found out we had left one of our food bags with all the sauces and marinades in Wellington. On such a long trip this was bound to happen I guess.
Day 5: This day we drove to the Waitomo (Which means water going through a hole in the ground) glowworm caves. These caves are full of green-glowing maggots (they’re not actual worms) of the glowworm insect which light up the caves beautifully. We took a blackwater rafting trip through the caves, which meant crawling through the limestone caves and floating in the underground cave-river in a rubber inflated tire and a wetsuit. It was really awesome to do and check out the glowworms in the meantime. After a welcome shower we walked around the limestone caves a bit. The final trip of the day was a drive to the Tongariro National park in the centre of the north island. This volcanic area holds three big volcanic craters: Mt Tongariro (which recently had a small eruption), Mt Ngauruhoe and, the biggest, Mt Raupehu. A cool one day walk the “Tongariro Alpine Crossing” goes over these volcanoes and should give awesome views of the craters and the crater lakes. We intend to do this walk on Saturday. In the evening we had Kumara (a sweet potato from New Zealand). It tastes a bit like a mixture of potato and carrot and on the inside it has the same centre structure as a potato. This (and the earlier experience with broccoliflower) leads me to believe that this is a crossing between potato and carrot and that the New Zealand people like to experiment with crossing vegetables. It looks weird on the outside though. Its taste is not too bad, but potato and carrot are not that bad either.
Day 6: It’s raining pretty bad outside so we sleep in. The trip makes us lose track of days, but it turns out to be Friday 11th of January. We wanted to do a short walk but the rain messed that up. We hang out inside our hostel a bit and I decide to update my blog. Maybe we can go outside later. We need to get some supplies for the walk tomorrow (it should be very nice weather) and our hostel has an indoor climbing wall which could entertain us as well.
Day 1: On the 6th of January, after having lunch with Axel and his sister, Michael and me dragged our baggage to the ferry terminal. I think I came to New Zealand with about 30kgs but I think I have added another 15kg to that. So the dragging was not so much fun. After checking in the suitcases we found a place at the window on the observation deck. The views during the three hour trip were very nice and the traverse was quite comfortable. After arrival in Wellington, we took the bus to the YHA hostel where we would spend the next three nights. From the sixth floor we had a nice view of the coast.
Day 2: We found out that our hostel is right around the corner from the theatre where The Hobbit was released. A giant hobbit door and a giant Gandalf marked the front of the building. A short walk brought us to the Te Papa museum. This is a really awesome museum as it has pretty much everything to show about New Zealand: Culture, history, nature, volcanoes and the three trolls from The Hobbit movie. It is also very interactive. We spent a couple of hours there before we picked up our new roadtrip car, a Nissan Sunny. In the late afternoon we walked the coastline to the government buildings with the beehive shape. A walk around brought us up to the botanical gardens from where we had a nice view of the city.
Day 3: In the morning we drove to Upper Hutt north of Wellington. In Harcourt park they shot part of the LOTR movie when they show Isengard. We walked around for a bit but couldn’t recognize the place. Then we found a group that was doing a LOTR tour. We stalked them for a bit to see where the guide was pointing them. It is a nice park but I think they put so much CGI in it that the place is unrecognizable. On the way back I got me a hat for sun protection and we got a cassette that plays music from a normal music plug to fit in our car that only has a cassette player.
In the afternoon we went back to the Te Papa museum. There was a separate exhibition called Game Masters about videogames which we wanted to check out. It is divided in three sections: Original arcade games, game changers and indies. In the first section they had arcade machines with classics, such as pacman and space invaders, to play. In the second section they showed how some games, gameplay and consoles have evolved. In the third section games from independent developers with totally new ideas could be played. Most of the games and consoles were playable so we had some good fun.
Day 4: We woke up early to drive to New Plymouth on the west coast. From afar we could make up the cone-shaped volcano Mount Taranaki which looks very nice with a snowy top. We checked out a nice waterfall in the area and then drove around the mountain to New Plymouth. We stopped at cape Egmont to look at the lighthouse and to see the volcanic rocks on the beach. New Plymouth looks like a nice city for students and younger people, but there were no people there, which made it look a bit desolate. At dinner we found out we had left one of our food bags with all the sauces and marinades in Wellington. On such a long trip this was bound to happen I guess.
Day 5: This day we drove to the Waitomo (Which means water going through a hole in the ground) glowworm caves. These caves are full of green-glowing maggots (they’re not actual worms) of the glowworm insect which light up the caves beautifully. We took a blackwater rafting trip through the caves, which meant crawling through the limestone caves and floating in the underground cave-river in a rubber inflated tire and a wetsuit. It was really awesome to do and check out the glowworms in the meantime. After a welcome shower we walked around the limestone caves a bit. The final trip of the day was a drive to the Tongariro National park in the centre of the north island. This volcanic area holds three big volcanic craters: Mt Tongariro (which recently had a small eruption), Mt Ngauruhoe and, the biggest, Mt Raupehu. A cool one day walk the “Tongariro Alpine Crossing” goes over these volcanoes and should give awesome views of the craters and the crater lakes. We intend to do this walk on Saturday. In the evening we had Kumara (a sweet potato from New Zealand). It tastes a bit like a mixture of potato and carrot and on the inside it has the same centre structure as a potato. This (and the earlier experience with broccoliflower) leads me to believe that this is a crossing between potato and carrot and that the New Zealand people like to experiment with crossing vegetables. It looks weird on the outside though. Its taste is not too bad, but potato and carrot are not that bad either.
Day 6: It’s raining pretty bad outside so we sleep in. The trip makes us lose track of days, but it turns out to be Friday 11th of January. We wanted to do a short walk but the rain messed that up. We hang out inside our hostel a bit and I decide to update my blog. Maybe we can go outside later. We need to get some supplies for the walk tomorrow (it should be very nice weather) and our hostel has an indoor climbing wall which could entertain us as well.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
