Category Archives: Uncategorized

What to do on a wet and overcast morning in Rotorua? Go to the Redwood Forest

A day of thermal pools, sulphur smells and a waterfall. Not to mention a bit of driving and some rain. Tokaanu Thermal Pools Lake Taupo Taupo Spa Thermal Park Hula Falls Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Park Mud Pools

Some shopping and then our journey on the Forgotten World Highway began. Highway is a misnomer as we spent the next 4 hours predominantly in third gear and covered less than 150 km with nary a straight section to provide respite from the bends. The Republic of Whangamomona, which once upon a time was aContinue reading “Day 26 Stratford to Tongariro National Park via Forgotten World Highway”

Today Keiran decided that he wanted to spend some time and check out New Plymouth while I wanted to go to Mount Taranaki / Egmont. So after fuelling up I dropped Keiran in New Plymouth and drove off to spend the day in Mount Taranaki National Park. We both had enjoyable and satisfying days. NewContinue reading “Day 25 Opunake to Stratford via New Plymouth and My Taranaki”

Wellington was much bigger than we expected and it took an age for us to get out into the countryside again. The North Island is certainly very different to the South Island and today was spent driving through green rolling countryside reminiscent of parts of New South Wales and Victoria when not in drought. OurContinue reading “Day 24 Wellington to Opunake”

Today we added water wings to our van to cross the Cook Strait. But we began the day with two detours: a walk at Karaka Point And a visit to the foreshore market at Picton where we discovered that we were hugely ripped off when we bought jade at Hokitika paying prices about ten timesContinue reading “Day 23 – Picton to Wellington”

Our only stop today was the WOW museum of wearable art & classic cars at Nelson. Picton

We spent most of today at the top of the South Island doing some walks. Pillar Point Lighthouse walk

Today we drove on more winding roads than at any other time since we’ve been here in New Zealand. One road chokers from sea level to 800 metres in just several kilometres and then back down again. That was just the first of many winding roads today use not just by us but also byContinue reading “Day 20 Kaiteriteri to Collingwood”

Whilst there is a shorter and more direct route from Murchison to Kaiteriteri, we chose the longer and more winding road via St Arnaud. Our first stop was at Kawatiri where we did a walk over an abandoned railway bridge and tunnel built in 1923. As we received conflicting information about this we’re not sureContinue reading “Day 19 Murchison to Kaiteriteri via Picton Lakes National Park”