New Zealand - North Island Part 1

Since we had a month in Australia, we knew we wanted to make trips to Sydney, New Zealand, and the Great Barrier Reef, but more likely, we'd only be able to do 2 of them.  As we have family in Sydney and NZ, the choice was obvious.  Based on my cousin's work schedule, we could make a trip to Sydney towards the end of February, which meant that if I wanted to spend a decent amount of time in New Zealand, we'd have to leave the coming weekend.  So we booked a last minute flight into Auckland and planned out our trip.


We also planned on renting a car, so we got a Navig8r P43B GPS.  Except for having some difficulty updating the maps, it turned out to be a great working GPS, and for $80, an excellent deal.

My aunt and uncle met us at the airport in Auckland.  After picking up the car, I was set to drive on the the left side of the road for the second time in my life.  The first was when I was in Malaysia, but I only drove on the highway, which is pretty brainless.  The hardest thing, it turned out, is not turning, or staying on the right ("left") side of the road.  It's that all the little things you get used to when driving are switched around.  Windshield wipers and turn blinkers are swapped.  The gear shifter is on the left.  And when I mounted the GPS on the windshield, in my peripheral vision, it would look like my side mirror, making me feel like I was constantly being followed by a cartoon car.

The sites in New Zealand are many, but our time was limited, so we made the most of what we could do in the few days we had on the North Island.  On our first day, with our guide Aditya, we checked out the local sites of Auckland, including Mission Bay and One Tree Hill, which did not inspire a TV show.  It inspired a song, and that song inspired the TV show.  I also had my first hokey pokey ice cream - delicious!

The next day, we drove up the Coromandel Peninsula to the Hot Water Beach, a definite highlight of the trip.  During low tide, there is a stretch of sand where water naturally springs from the hills.  Normally cold, some of it gets geothermally heated by hot rocks beneath the sand.  The nearly boiling hot water trickles back up to the surface, and by digging rivers and trenches, you can create your own private spa with the water temperature of your choice by combining the cold and hot waters.  It was just like playing in the sandbox when I was a kid.

The next day, we made our way south to Rotorua, famous for its natural sulfur spas.  We visited the appropriately named Hells Gate park.  The landscapes were a combination of beauty and terror.  The park was completely absent of life.  Surrounded by boiling mud pits that spewed out sulfuric steam, I wonder how many Maori men proposed to their girlfriends at this highly romantic location.  We spent the afternoon in a sulfur mud bath, which was a combination of relaxing and stressful.  And after 2 months, the sulfur smell has not completely left our clothes.

After Rotorua, we continued south towards Wellington.  We did stop for a picnic along the way at a little lake just off the highway.  Below is a picture I snapped at that lake, or should I call it a Loch....