New Zealand’s North Island, Part 2: Rotorua, Lake Taupo & Wellington
We left the coast at Papamoa and began heading inland towards the main geothermic activity on the North Island. We would be driving through Rotorua, to Lake Taupo, and finally down to Wellington.
Our first stop on the way to Rotorua was Okere River. It is a class 5 white water rafting river famous for having the worlds highest commercially rafted waterfall! Tutea Falls is one of 4 waterfalls on this river with a drop of 7m (21ft)! The water was flying by us and looked very difficult to navigate! We were able to walk down to some secret caves along the side of Okere Falls. The stairs were cut into the cliff in 1907 and are still here today! The secret caves were used to hide women and children during war time and now are a location of glowworms.
We also visited Waimangu Volcanic Valley, the youngest geothermal area in the world! Mt Tarawera erupted in 1886 and completely changed the landscape, including destroying the pink & white terraces, known as the 8th wonder of the world. We walked along Frying Pan Lake, the largest hot spring in the world. Then we came across Inferno Crater, filled with a beautiful teal blue water, that is on a 1 month cycle of filling from below. The shape of the crater is described as a trumpet, filling from a small tube from below and spilling out to a wide mouth crater above. When the water overflows, it drains into streams below. Our walk continues past hot springs, geysers, terraces, and more. It ended at Lake Rotomahana where black swans swam by and bullfrogs were singing!
Rotorua is a town known for its geothermal activity and a strong Māori culture. We explored the geothermals by day and spent our evening in town at the local Thursday night market. The market had a bunch of different food stands and some artisanal stands! We tried some Nepali dumplings and Indian lamb dosas, both were delicious!
After the market, we headed to the Redwood Treekwalk just outside of town. NZ had a large lumbar industry in the 1800s but by the turn of the century, the number of trees to cut down was dwindling. So the country looked into planting exotic tree species to see which ones grew best. This redwood forest was planted in 1901 and the largest tree is 276ft tall. Turns out, redwoods grow very well here! We did the nighttime treewalk on suspension bridges 30-60m above the ground! We stayed in Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park tonight.
The next day, we visited Orakei Korako Geothermal Park just north of Lake Taupo. This is the last untouched park in NZ and requires a boat to access! It’s pretty off the beaten path and has few visitors despite being one of the best geothermal areas in NZ. We walked around the active geysers, colored silica terraces, and saw one of two geothermal caves in the world! We also met a wonderful couple (hi Andrew & LeAnna) traveling Australia & New Zealand for 6 months with their 3 year old daughter. We spent most of our time in Orakei with them and later met up in Taupo for happy hour!
After Orakei, we drove south to Lake Taupo. We made one stop at the famous Huka Falls. They are very powerful falls where a river suddenly narrows from 100m wide to 15m wide through strong volcanic rock. The water is a gorgeous turquoise blue and rapidly passes through this section!
Lake Taupo is a 30km x 40km lake formed by a supervolcano 25,000 years ago. The crater of this volcano is now the lake! We kicked off Matt’s 2 day birthday celebrations (obviously had to celebrate both NZ and US time zones) by spending the afternoon hanging by the lake shore, enjoying the beautiful weather, and loving our time in Rigby so far!
We wrapped up our lazy afternoon and headed over to Andrew, LeAnna, and Willow’s Airbnb for happy hour. Andrew had recently caught trout in Lake Taupo and had it smoked. So we had a lovely charcuterie board including fresh caught smoked trout with views of Lake Taupo! After happy hour, we headed into Taupo town for Matt’s birthday dinner at Vine Eatery & Bar where we enjoyed New Zealand wine and tapas!
The next day, we woke up early for a very exciting day. We planned on hiking the 19.4km (12.7mi) Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It is considered by some to be the best day hike in NZ. It also is our first “NZ Great Hike” that we plan on doing! The hike starts south of Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom from LOTR) and finishes north of Mt Tongariro. This area is still alive with volcanic activity and is part of a trio of volcanoes on the North Island. We climbed up past old lava rocks to the base of Mt Doom, continued past another crater, and up to the Red Crater. Despite the forecast showing rain & clouds, we actually had good visibility! When the clouds are thick, sometimes you can’t see more than 10m ahead of you! We continued onto the sulfur Emerald Lakes & Blue Lake before heading down the backside of the mountains. We finally saw some blue skies at the end of the hike and could admire the volcanoes we had just climbed around!
We had an unexpected special plan for after the hike. Susan met a group of Kiwi’s in Croatia in 2017 and kept in touch over the years. One of her friends, Emma, reached out and invited us over to her house in Whanganui! We drove from Tongariro to Whanganui and had a wonderful time catching up all night! Emma served delicious lamb and taught us how to do a Tim Tam slam. Basically, you bite off opposite corners from a Tim Tam, use it like a straw to suck up hot tea, which melts the inner layer of the Tim Tam cookie, and then you eat it!! Tim Tam’s are already Susan’s #1 cookie… this is next level!!
Our last day in the North Island was spent in Wellington. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and a personal favorite city to Susan. This is where she lived during the NZ section of study abroad back in 2012 and the city is full of memories! Our first stop was Te Papa Museum, a fantastic free museum with great NZ geography and Māori exhibits. After, we walked along the waterfront before turning up into town to catch the Cable Car up the hill. The cable car went right past Weir House dorms where we stayed! The cable car drops you off at the Botanical Gardens which is a great walk on the top of the hill with lovely rose gardens, city views, and an observatory. We finished off our day with a progressive dinner: kebab from Abrakebrabra (still the best kebab in Welly!!), Burger Fuel NZ burger, and drinks at The Library. We wish we had longer to explore Welly but we had to catch our ferry the next day to the South Island!
The Interislander Ferry runs between Wellington in the North Island and Picton in the South Island. It’s a 4hr crossing that can range from calm to everyone being sea sick. We were crossing the day before a category 3 cyclone was about to hit this region, so we were a little concerned. Amazingly, the ferry was calm (before the storm) and it was a nice ride across the Cook Strait. Susan also messed up time zone conversions and accidentally planned the 4hr crossing during the exact 4hrs of the SuperBowl (literally kickoff to end). Fortunately, there was great wifi on the ferry, and a smooth crossing, so Matt was able to watch the entire game!
Cyclone Gabrielle did hit the entire North Island the next day and we felt some of those strong wind gusts in the upper South Island. We were very lucky to have been on our ferry because all ferries were canceled for the next 2 days and it was very hard/impossible to reschedule. There was a lot of damage in Northland, Auckland, and Hawke’s Bay and it will take a while to be able to fully recover for these communities. We definitely feel fortunate to have timed our North Island dates between two severe weather events. We had a fantastic time and hope that our good luck and fair weather continues as we dive into the world famous South Island!