New Zealand is not a small country but a large village. (Peter Jackson)
I've never been so impressed with a country before even landing in it. The flight towards Auckland was breathtaking. The mountains and clear water could be seen from our plane window. I turned to Nathan and said 'I think we are going to love it here!'
Our first day was spend getting to our airbnb place in Wateview (a suburb outside of Auckland) and planning the rest of our trip with our massive map!
In the early evening we went for a walk to the supermarket which took about 45 minutes but about 90 to get back as we got lost in the New Zealand bush called the Waterview glades. It was a pretty awesome place to get lost, although I would have preferred us not to be carrying a bag of vegetables.
Our first real day in Auckland we went into the city to explore. In typical 'Nathan & Vicky fashion' we walked for miles all over the city and at the end of the day we were exhausted.
My favourite part was definitely the Viaduct Harbour. The boats were absolutely stunning and the buildings, restaurants and bars around the edge were glitzy and cool to walk past. At one end was the fish market which sold so many different types of fish and many I had never seen before.
The water in the harbour was so clear that people were actually swimming in it. I went in for a little paddle.
On Saturday we headed to the car hire place and the heavens opened! It was raining so heavily that once we had picked up the car and headed to the tent shop we actually stood in the aisle discussing whether or not we should change our entire plan and not camp. We both came to the agreement that we wanted to camp and it would be an adventure. Little did we know at this point that the rain had no plans on stopping and would continue until Tuesday morning.
We headed north to Gulf Harbour to visit Katie, Dave, Evie and Georgie in the afternoon. Katie and I worked out that we hadn't seen each other in 13 years, but it was so lovely catching up it was like we saw each other yesterday. We had a look through the Year Book and had a laugh at the comments. Then we found a birthday poster from year 11 too!
Their house is lovely and Evie and Georgie are awesome. I especially liked reading stories with Evie she is such a lovely little girl.
We went out for Thai food in the evening to a restaurant 5 minutes from their house which had a fantastic view over the bay and you could see Auckland across it, even though we were a 45 minute drive north of the city.
We had a great nights sleep and woke up to Katie cooking us an English Breakfast which was a really nice treat. We headed off late morning and I chatted to Nathan for ages about how much fun I had, had and how lovely it was to see them.
As we left Auckland and headed South the rain did not stop! The scenery around us was like something from a movie set. Hills rolled on and on as far as the eyes could see, the city motorways had been replaced with country roads and there were no service stations like at home. We drove though little villages, passed farms and churches and still the rain continued.
We arrived at Lake Taupo and found a campsite easily enough but then we had the task of erecting the rent in the pouring rain! In these situations I tend to go into teacher mode (I can get a little bossy) but we got the tent up and secured with out any problems.
Then we realised we had the biggest tent in the camp site and also that it was bigger than our car! Oh well we had an awesome living room to put our chairs up in and sit while the rain hammered down on the tent.
Monday was a great day, it was sill raining but there were a few breaks for 30-45 minutes at a time which was perfect for seeing some of the natural sights.
Our first stop of the day was the Waikato River and Huka Falls.
The Waikato River is New Zealand's longest river, starting at Lake Taupo and making a 425 kilometre journey to the sea south of Auckland.
The water churns along the channel towards Huka Falls.
The next stop was Craters of the moon which is part of what is known as the Taupo Volcanic Zone.
We went on a 45 minute thermal walk which looked and felt like you were on another planet.
Geysers with stem were all around us and mud could be heard bubbling at the bottom of the craters.
The whole area was fascinating and totally surreal.
Nathan had read about a honey shop so we decided to make a stop. The Huka Honey Hive was so interesting it was like a small museum as well, you could see the bees in their hives and how they made the honey it also gave a lot of information about why bees were so important. It made us think of our wonderful Taltal and the speech that Cristina made about saving the bees.
The last natural stop of the day was the Aratiatia Rapids. We timed it just right that the dam was open and the water was flowing through.
We took a short hike to a viewing area to get a better look. Again the colour of the water blew me away with how stunning it was.
We finished the day with a visit to the Volcanic Activity Centre, which Nathan loved.
The next morning we left Lake Taupo and finally the sun came out as we headed to Hawkes Bay on the East coast.
The drive was absolutely stunning, the most breath taking scenery surrounded us the entire way.
We arrived in Hawkes Bay and before relaxing in the campsite we visited Salvare, a winery where we had a gorgeous platter and several wines to taste. The Merlot was our favourite and was so wonderful we purchased a bottle to have with dinner that evening.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon on the campsite doing laundry, swimming in the lovely pool and later cooked kebabs on the BBQ, made a salad and drank our Merlot it was such an amazing day, I really loved every minute of it.
Wednesdays weather was too good to last and after a morning swim we headed off to Martin-borough where we planned on spending the next evening. We could see from the trees that it was extremely windy but we did not realise just how extreme until we parked and opened the door and the wind flung it backwards and items were flying around. I tried walking and it was so strong you felt as if you were pushing your way through it. We realised we couldn't sleep in a tent here so decided to continue towards Wellington and are what we could find.
The route to Wellington meant we had to drive up the mountain range and then across it and down. I must admit driving for an hour on the edge of a mountain in extreme wind is definitely not something I'm in a rush to repeat.
We arrived in Wellington and booked a cabin for the evening as there was no way we were going to be able to erect the tent.
Thursday morning we headed to the ferry terminal to head to the South Island.