The day in Rotorua started out raining and after having to hide from a rainstorm, we were a little discouraged. Fortunately we already had completed our points on the agenda ‘Lake Rotorua and hot springs in the urban area’ and thus just waited for the rain to stop from inside the car…

It only was a few minutes, which we used to look at the route ahead and without rain we went towards our next destination. Because when you are in Rotorua, you just have to look at the geothermal phenomena up close. We decided in favour of ‘Hell’s Gate’ and were not dissappointed!
Just like any other significant attraction, first you pay for admission and enter the premises. In our case it was an hour’s worth of a walk through most impressive terrain… And what am I to say, we had the shining sun with us. 🙂

Just next door you find the Blue and the Green Lake. Who should have known that the colour you can only see from way above? So they looked great, but like two ordinary lakes. 🙂

We went back to the hostel, I changed the camera battery and and we double checked the weather report: All clear for another visit in Hobbiton!
While drivinv, we booked ourselves the last tour of the day and arrived an exact 3 minutes early. The sun began to set, we had a blue sky and some excitement and all that made for a brilliant experience.
I will just spare y’all with an abundance of movie facts and just hope that the pictures tell the story by themselves. 🙂

This dreamlike scenery is completely secluded from any views from the outside. Also, you have to go through the meadows of the Alexander Farm for a couple of minutes in the shuttle bus, before you can even see any sign of the movie set.
You are being led through the set by your tour guide, so you cannot freely move on your own. That gives you much information and is non-constricting.

For, as mentioned, we had the last tour of that day, we had one advantage and one disadvantage: On the one hand we had no tourists following us and could take our pictures and glances freely, but on the other hand it was quite dark in the end, which is hard on you picture results…

What a day though! We saw: Rotorua, the hot springs at ‘Hell’s Gate’, some big lakes and at the last moment Hobbiton. And the weather just played along perfectly!

After the leftover spaghetti for breakfast we first buried Celine’s plan to go hiking in the Tongariro. That was because the weather wasn’t suitable and also, the guide of those tours was not to be found… We used the ‘saved’ time to get moving towards Rotorua.

After some truly worthwhile photo stops we found ourselves in Taupo. Lake Taupo is the biggest one in New Zealand and actually is just one big volcano crater.
He was the one I look down on while doing my skydive. 🙂

We only wanted to have a short break at the promenade in Taupo and soon our way led us to the next attraction, the Huka Falls. My words couldn’t fall more sensational than the pictures:

For from Taupo to Rotorua thermal activity starts showing, we already saw some steam coming from the ground… In the park ‘Craters of the Moon’ you had to pay some admission, but on the other hand there was quite someting in store.

It was a little early to home to Rotorua, so we took a detour over Matamata. As one knows, this is the place where the movie set ‘Hobbiton’ from the Lord of the Rings is situated. Though, we were somewhat poorly informed and would like to let you share in to our misconception: Hobbiton lies quite some way outside of Matamata. But you can book many shuttles from Matamata and the bigger tourist cities around.
So we arrived at the actual movie set and had to realise the next truth: Hobbiton is only accessible through a guided tour. So no driving there some night and taking some pics. Nothing of that, it costs 75 dollars and as we arrived, the last tour was sold out already. We could have known… 🙂
We set the visit for another day, as we would pass by Matamata some more times. These bling ends are no loss by far, as long as long as you can get some impressions along the way. And that was not hard at all with the sunset and all beautiful views…

As the sun sun kept on shining, we went for another desitnation: Tauranga. That is a bigger city at the coast, topped off with Mount Manganui.

Having arrived in Rotorua, we prepared our dinner in the rather sparsely equipped hostel kitchen and after long talks got the sleep we deserved…

On this day we saw: Lake Taupo, the Huka Falls, ‘Craters of the Moon’, Matamata, the place where guided tours take off to Hobbiton, unparalleled views of a far green country around Matamata and Tauranga (Mount Manganui)…

As last week was rather quiet on my blog, I would like to publish the travel report about the afore-mentioned road trip in the North Island piece by piece.

It all began with planning and thinking. The dicision between North and South Island was made, some travel companions couldn’t make it for different reasons and thus, it was us two in the end.

As you know, it is the hard-out winter these days and we didn’t get much encouraging words from the locals. It doesn’t snow much in the North Island, so we would get rain as the typical winter’s weather…

Our plan: To suss out the North Island and get just the most out of it. For for Celine this was the last opportunity to see the North Island in it’s whole beauty. We took it a good thing, both having seen the east coast already and leaving it out of the equation without harm…
We didn’t have a meticulous plan, just a list of things we would love to see and a direction. Northbound, that was. THe first two hostels we pre-booked and for the rest we decided upon mood, mode and the weather. 🙂
But I will write about it as if it was all planned. 🙂

That crisp Saturday morning we met in Wellington city. It wasn’t far to the car rental, so soon we found ourselves in front of our small but excellent ride. Luckily we thought about music CDs and the phone charger for the cigar lighter. Of only the latter had worked, we would’ve had a few less commotions on the way…

All bubbly with wanderlust we entered the car and went. Further and further away from Wellington beloved.
We were most sure about one thing: Without any doubt you will get to know each other very well on these trips as a pair. That’s to mention that we had many most delightful topics to discuss.

“STOP RIGHT HERE!” very often let the talking cease and meant that we were about to make one of the ca. 310 photo stops on the way. It goes down like this: You stop at the side of the road (make sure there’s enough space), jump out of the car, ferociously shoot some pictures, say your Ah!s and Oh!s and drive off.

First station was Tongariro National Park. Our hostel was situated in the little settlement named ‘National Park’. As excitedly as I talked about the rapidly changing landscape in the post ‘Outta da House!’ in January, we now had the chance to behold the phenomenon up close. The Tongariro area is not green and there are no meadows for the sheep, but the great mountains. Covered with snow and all majestical. We even saw a brown golf court. 😀

Before we arrived at our destination, we had to adapt to the winterly street conditions. Because of landslides a section of the highway was closed and we took the scenic route as a detour.

Having arrived at the hostel, we had a simple backpacker’s dinner (spaghetti and tomato sauce from the jar) and also there were those Table Talkers… That is a simple collection of personal questions and we tried it: They are just perfect to get to know each other closer. 🙂

Thanks to the off-season we had a six-bed room to ourselves. 🙂

On the first day we had some splendid views on the side of the road, two glorious sculptures and many stunning panoramas of the Tongariro mountains and the national park itself. The nourishing travel atmosphere and long talks made for a healthy and dream-ridden sleep then…

Despite my plans to travel the South Island later, I have spent last weekend there. And it was fantastic!

The framework:

• 5 people, all of them au pairs, 2 of them boys
• a rental station wagon, no USB or AUX connection
• a holiday home (called ‘bach’ in New Zealand) right at the Mahakipawa Arm of the Mahau Sound
• friday night to monday night as the Queen’s birthday is a holiday here

On Sunday we went on an adventurous road trip west coast bound, in order to see the famous Pancake Rocks. Adventurous because of 5 grown up people inside one car.

After a long time with many guessing games and black stories (a card game, originally), we finally arrived at the destination: Punakaiki.

On our last day we visited the Pelorus River. Once again awesome to behold, once again natural wilderness.
I would like to point out that some scenes for the Hobbit movies were filmed at this very location. (Just imagine 13 dwarves in the river inside barrels…)

Looking back at the South Island, I can confirm it differs quite much from the North Island. While green round hills dominate the landscape of the North Island, the South Island features bigger, browner and more ‘edgy’ rises.
It all has a wilder and more forceful impression and I was surprised to see sub-tropical flora give in to coniferous forest after a short car drive. Settlements and gas stations also tend to be a lot further away from each other…

The weekend was a superb taste for my next journey there. And I hope to get such nice people again, whom you could sing some rounds with on long car rides… 😉