Road Trip : Auckland to Tongariro NP

So, it was finally time start another adventure, this time from Auckland to Christchurch and I had reserved 2wks for me to do it. Yet again, I decided to do a trip by myself and a choice of camper was fairly simple..

Initially, I was supposed to drive on my 1st day to Hobbiton to take a look at the LOTR -movie set and then head down to Waikato Caves to meet up bunch of people from my hostel. On the previous night in Auckland I ended up going to a rugby match and the rest was history.. I felt so bloody sick so I decided to skip Hobbiton, I would have not been able to do anything in there. Like we had planned, I'd give a ring to one of the fellas 3ish when they should be ready from the caves and we were supposed to meet up at some camping site close-by. Turned out that they had decided to drive to Taupo for camping so I turned my camper towards there as well. We put the tents and my camper again on a circle and spent the nite just drinkin and talkin bullshit. It was pretty damn cold nite for the guys who slept in the tents but me and one of the girls were fine sleepin in my camper.

On the next mornin we headed first to take a look at the Huka Falls before cruisin to town where two of the blokes took a dip in Lake Taupo. After that we headed for hot springs nearby. I decided to just take few photos around when rest of the group went for warm bath. I did venture to one tiny waterfall and dipped my feet in the pool but it was so bloody hot you could only keep your feet there just for about 30secs. After all this, rest of the group had to start their return journey back to Auckland and now I was gonna be by myself again.

After this I headed once more to town just take a wee stroll and few more photos. I drove for the same camping spot as previous night and this time found a gorgeous spot for my camper right next to river flowing below me, what a view from inside my car. On the morning I was a bit reluctant leavin the spot but I had to keep moving, at least a bit. For my first stop I decided to drive a bit north of town to take a look of a place called Craters of the Moon. Brochure gave a lot different picture of the place than it actually was but nevertheless, it was nice wee walk around this thermal area.

After all this I took a one last glance of Lake Taupo and started headin down south, I had decided to drive to Tongariro National Park, close to the starting point of Tongariro Alpine Crossing, about 20km hike around volcanic area and possibly taking a hike to the top of Mt Tongariro. It was fairly strange but also thrilling to see snow on the top of Mt Ruapehu after over a year, previous time had been March last year when I left Finland. I bet there's quite a bit more for me to see when I get to South Island..

Rangitoto Island

I had been thinking of going to Rangitoto Island and doing a hiking in there for awhile but I was lacking company. Finally, I got someone to join me, English couple from my hostel. Rangitoto is about 20min ferry ride from Auckland Harbour. I had done a brief visit to the island earlier when I did Auckland Harbour Cruise but that time I stayed only about 10mins on the island. This time it was gonna be longer visit and we were gonna hike up to the summit of this old volcano.

We took a good decision turning immediately to coastal route around the island instead of heading straight for the steep climb to the summit. By this choice we were the only ones on that particular track. At the beginning the track was nice and flat with some nice scenery.

After about 1,5hrs it was time to turn and head towards the summit. By choosing this route we didn't have that steep climb, althou even on this one you started to sweat a bit, especially when the sun started to shine from cloudless sky. All the way up to this point it had been slight overcast so temperature wasn't so bad but reckon this was one those Murphy's Law's.. Once we got the last bit and onto to the boardwalk we got an amazing views towards next island, Motutapu. Just a few more step and we were on the summit. This took us about 3hrs all in all to get to the top and what a views..

We had a brief lunch at the top and then it was time to start heading back to the pier where we would catch our ferry back to city. On the way down we did a small detour to lava caves nearby and even managed to crawl thru one of them. This was another great day in Auckland and the weather was pretty much perfect for  hiking. Can't wait till I start my road trip and get to do some hiking in other areas of North Island.

Easter Camping

Our initial plan for Easter was to gather a group of us from hostel and head out to Waiheke Island for camping but since we started plannin it a bit too late we had to make a plan B. At the end it was 10 of us - 8 Brits, German & me - and 2 cars heading somewhere north from Auckland. Idea was to drive about 2-3hrs and then find a camping area. By my suggestion we headed up north via State Highway 16, purely for the scenery. And like I knew, it didn't disappoint us. We stopped briefly at one lookout point and headed to Wellsford for lunch and to get some drinks for the weekend. And, we forget to get any food..

Next destination was to head towards Mangawhai, north-east from Wellsford. We couldn't find any spot for camping in there so we went to information point to get some suggestions. From there we were instructed to head a bit back and then towards coast to a place called Te Arai. We found a spot for our tents and bunch of us headed back to town to get some food and rest of us, me included, started to pitch up all the tents. We pitched 5 tents and one base was put on as a tarp to give us a wee shelter from rain.

The plan for the night was fairly clear.. Boose, bbq and lots of fun. At some point of the night bunch of us ended up sittin and havin fun in a teepee that was erected at the camping site. It was a bit absurd feeling sitting in there while two fellas were playin guitars, another one playin didgeridoo and few others banging indian drums. Plus, one of our fellas was banging old oil drum.. All in all, it was a great night, what a fun camping in a group can be.

On the next afternoon we headed to close-by beach, Te Arai Point, just to relax for awhile before headin back to Auckland. On our way back we stopped for brief lunch in a small town which name I never got. Few more hours of drivin and we were back in Auckland, more or less shattered from the weekend. But everyone was so relaxed for having escaped the city, even for one night.

Auckland Zoo

After the weekend it was time to do 'something' again so I choose to head to zoo as so often before when visiting a new city. This time, after a long, long period I had someone with me, a German girl from my hostel. Reckon the last time I had company in zoo was back in Edinburgh so quite awhile ago. The zoo itself was designed really nicely, it really didn't feel fully a zoo, it was more like taking a walk in the park with animal enclosures around you. I do have to say this was one of the best zoo's I had been in awhile.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good photo of kiwi, bloody fast fellas.. Maybe next time then.