New Zealand - North Island
Walking on a chilly day in Tongariro
Lower Tama Lake
Lake Taupo
Our Ride
2010
Waitomo, Coromandel and Northlands
We drove to Waitomo where we had booked to do a Black Water Rafting trip with ‘The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co.’ After kitting up in some uncomfortable and soggy wetsuits, we took a minibus to the Ruakuri cave where we descended via the ‘wet entrance’. It was quite good fun, although I think a little bit less adventurous than Pete was hoping for! We jumped off quite a few waterfalls underground and cruised along the underwater passages on our tubes (big rubber rings) viewing the glow worms which live up on the roofs of the passages. After the trip we had a much needed hot shower and soup and bagels! It was quite good fun, although rather pricey, considering we can cave for free at home!
The North Island so far
We got off the ferry onto the north island at Wellington, the capital city. We drove around a bit and were going to drive to a view point, but the road was closed so in the end we decided not to bother!
We went north up the coast then veered inland to stay just south of Tongariro National Park. The following day we went for a walk in the national park - unfortunately it was drizzling with rain a little and the visibility was poor so we couldn’t really do the walk we wanted to and we couldn’t see the massive mountains around us either! However the walk we did was quite good but it did just remind us of the Yorkshire countryside without being able to see the mountains! In general the scenery here isn’t as spectacular as the south island.
Kaikoura and Blenheim
We headed north from Lake Ianthe then across to the east coast via Arthur’s Pass. We stopped off there to do a short walk to the Devil’s Punchbowl waterfall.
On the east coast we headed towards Hanmer Springs, stopping overnight just south of it. The next day we went into the town and spent a couple of hours enjoying the hot geothermal waters. The pools ranged in temperature, from 38 degrees (hot) to 41 degrees (too hot!). The hotter ones were also unfiltered so smelt a bit sulphurous.
Queenstown, Wanaka and Fox Glacier
We headed up to Queenstown for our Nevis Arc Swing, checked in for that and then got the bus to the canyon site. They also do the Nevis Bungy there, but we decided to go for the swing as it was cheaper for us both! It’s also the highest swing in the world, and you freefall 70m before swinging across the canyon.
