I flew from Sydney to Auckland and spent two days there with friends. Auckland is a cool city after spending the day there but after that I was eager to get on the road.

We decided to do the whole campervan thing in New Zealand; we rented a fab orange one just so everyone would know we were tourists! We travelled east from Auckland and went up around the Coromandel Peninsula, beautiful scenery going up the winding mountain road and amazing beaches. It reminded me an awful lot of Ireland.

Cathedral Cove is one of the highlights on the peninsula. You take a walk down along the cliffs to the stunning beach with Cathedral like caves. We also stopped at Hot water beach where just before low tide you can dig in the sand for hot water springs. As usual my timing wasn’t the best so I didn’t get to partake in this fun activity. 

We stayed a night at Waihi beach and then headed for Rotorua. We were now entering a geo thermal area! After a long drive to Rotorua we headed to the Polynesian spa which has lots of thermal pools to relax in. A warning for you if you are considering heading to Rotorua…the place smells like eggs- it has to be smelt to be believed! This is due to all the sulphur in the air from the geo thermal activity. I know that sounds disgusting but you actually get used to it within a matter of hours!

Rotorua is the only place in New Zealand you can do zorbing. Zorbing is when you climb into a massive blown up ball and get pushed down a hill. Its madness! You can either get tied into the ball and rolled down the hill or they pump water into the ball and then roll you down ! I tried both and much prefer the zorb with water as it was way crazier!

After the zorbing we headed to a buried village. This village was wiped out when Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886. The ruins have been dug up and some of them reconstructed. It was interesting to read accounts of the event which were written by the survivors. Wai-o-Tapu is one of the coolest placest to visit in the region especially if you want to see craters, boiling mud and lakes and rivers with varying colours. Each morning they trigger the lady knox geyser by throwing soap into the geyser. It’s pretty cool once you can stand the beautiful sulphur odour.

We headed for lake Taupo next.  We went up to Aratiatia dam to see the flood gates being opened. It was pretty cool to see the water rushing through the gates and to learn that by doing this 3 times a day, 65% of the North Island’s geo thermal energy is provided. Taupo has its own hot springs so we headed there for a couple of hours. 

The next day we headed for a small village in the middle of the island called Whakapapa village. From here you can do the Tongariro crossing. A 20km mountain crossing which was made famous as Lord of the rings was shot up there. We had to get the bus at 7am to the beginning of the walk and it was freezing! The beautiful scenery made up for this though! The climb was very tough for the first few hours. They have built the Devil’s staircase into the side of the mountain and that is painful to get up but once you make it up there the climb gets a lot easier. It was a little foggy the day I did it but the views were still amazing. To see “Mount Doom” up close was a cool experience. The walk takes 7 hours and by the end you are wrecked. The last hour through a forest is the worst part as you keep thinking you must be nearly there and it feels like it goes on forever.

We headed south from Whakapapa to a place near Taihape called River Valley. This is a lodge located deep in the countryside and we went there as friends of ours had recommended it for the white water rafting. We headed down the river early in the morning with our two guides and Ant and Koryn and it was such a blast! Hard work though! The bold Ant was trying to make sure that we capsized the boat and tried every trick in the book to get us in the water and eventually succeeded by throwing us down a steep rapid and telling us not to paddle! The trip along the river was fantastic. We jumped into falls, jumped off rocks and floated down some small rapids! I had the time of my life!

We headed from there to Wellington and stayed there for the weekend. The weather was pretty brutal for the weekend so we headed to Te Papa museum which is a great place to spend a rainy afternoon. It is very interactive and had a whale exhibition when we were there. Wellington is lovely in the fact that the city centre is built by the sea and there is a lovely promenade which can be enjoyed when the sun shines. We’re heading to the South island from here. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful country.

I’ll let ye know how it goes,

Roisin x