New Zealand Travel North Island (Part 2)
Through this blog I will outline the second half of our New Zealand travel and what to do in New Zealand while touring the north island, focusing on primary pointers I think are useful for other travelers. You’ll notice I have some vegan food information in this blog, but check out my Vegan Travel: New Zealand North Island blog (coming soon!!) to see how to eat vegan in New Zealand and where to find plant-based food in New Zealand.
We had a most incredible trip around New Zealand. We did a full two-island tour in two weeks. In this blog post I’ll tell you the second half of how to do New Zealand in two weeks, how to do certain cities in one day, what we did in each place, and great options that we didn’t do, but would still recommend. If you’re just jumping to this blog, be sure to go over to New Zealand Travel South Island (Part. 1) first to see how we adventured across the south island, and check out Vegan Travel: New Zealand South Island (Part 1) to see how to eat your plant based diet while traveling this wonderful itinerary through New Zealand.
Overview of our itinerary:
Covered in New Zealand Travel South Island (Part 1)
- Flew (LAX) Los Angeles, CA to (AUK) Auckland, NZ, short layover, AUK to (CHC) Christchurch, NZ
- One day in Lake Tekapo
- One day in Mount Cook National Park
- Two days in Wanaka
- Two days in Te Anau
- One day in Milford Sound
- Two days in Queenstown
Covered in this blog
- Flew Queenstown to Auckland
- One day in Waitomo
- One day in Taupo
- One day in Rotorua
- One day in Hahei
- Three days in Auckland
- Flew out of Auckland back to Los Angeles
Flew Queenstown to Auckland
After an awesome stay in Queenstown we packed up and headed to the north island. This was an exciting flight because we had just the right amount of time to fly over to Auckland, grab a rental car, drive a couple hours to Waitomo, and hop onto a cave tour. That cave tour time was the only one that fit in our itinerary, so we were praying we didn’t get delayed along the way and lose our money and chance to go cave diving.
One day in Waitomo
We flew into Auckland, drove 2.5 hours to Waitomo Adventures and went on a 4 hour caving adventure. We abseiled (rappelled) 300+ feet down into a cave. It was so scary at first and ended up being an exhilarating experience. We saw glow worms, a huge eel who took a nibble at another cave-divers fingers, climbed an enormous metal ladder out of the cave, and felt spooky the whole time.
Getting ready:
Our cave-crew:
Looking down our abseiling cords:
Sheer terror:
Alright, ladies, that’s close enough:
Standing in the last bit of light we could see, before heading into the dark-depths of the cave.
Headlamps: ON!
Glowworm larvae:
We made it out alive!
After a long adventure through the caves, we changed clothes and started our next 2 hour and 15 minute drive over to Taupo. (Thanks for driving babe!) We had our grocery snacks for the car, so we ate during the drive. We got to our hostel and went to sleep as early as we could, because we were getting up very early the next morning.
One day in Taupo
What we did in Taupo:
- Tongariro Crossing
- Happy hour at our hostel
- Walked around town
Activities we didn’t do but look awesome:
We woke up at 5:45 am so that we could get to the Tongariro Crossing hike early. The hike is about an hour and a half from Taupo, then you take a 30 – 45 minute shuttle to the start of the hike, so you end the hike where your car is parked.
You can start the hike later in the day, but because the weather was predicted to get stormy later in the day, they officials weren’t letting people start the hike later.
Tongariro Crossing is about a 6 – 9 hour hike.
It is 12 miles with substantial elevation change.
You should have advanced fitness, packed water and food, packed layers of clothing, and a great attitude for this hike.
There are no permits required – it is a free hike.
Book a shuttle to transport you from your car park to the trail head.
Because this is a somewhat dangerous hike, they close it down, often.
You can hike it year round. In the winder you’ll need special ice hiking tools and to go with a guide. Spring and Autumn are great, but the weather can be unpredictable and may be closed on the day that you plan to go. Summer is very busy.
The Emerald Lakes:
After our long hike we drove back to our hostel, Taupo Urban Retreat, which was a fine hostel except that it didn’t have air conditioning or good airflow for the room that we were in, so we were pretty hot. We cleaned up, got some happy hour drinks at our hostel, and walked around the corner to an Indian restaurant for an awesome vegan dinner.
The next morning we walked around the little town, grabbed some plant-based breakfast, an awesome New Zealand soy latte, and headed on our way.
One day in Rotorua
Activities in/ on the way to Rotorua that we did:
- Incredible hikes (free things to do in Rotorua)
- See geothermal activity!
- Free natural hot springs
- Walk around the Government Gardens
- Zorbing
- Gondola up, Luging down the mountain
Activities to do in Rotorua that look like fun:
- Tour Volcanic Valley ($32 NZ pp)
- White Water Rafting
We went hiking in the redwood forests:
And we stopped at the geothermal activity site (free) and felt like we were witnessing something from the Jurassic period.
We went to Skyline Rotorua to take a lovely gondola ride up the mountain, take trips luging down the mountains, we ziplined and did a 30 foot free fall off a plank!
We went out to dinner that night and down to a lively little area of town called Eat Street that had lively music, fun restaurants and an energetic vibe.
We stayed at a lovely little AirBNB that gave us our own studio apartment.
The next morning we got up and went Zorbing! We actually went to OGO Rotorua because they had a better deal on bookme.nz, but zorbing is more fun to say. It was a blast, we recommend it.
We cleaned up, packed up, and started the 3.5 hour drive to Haihei.
One day in Hahei
We had another awesome studio AirBNB in Haihei. The woman who rented it to us was great. It had a lovely location.
Activities in Hahei
We cannot recommend the hot water beaches more highly. It was raining when we were planning to go. It was cold outside. Getting onto the beach in the rain in our bathing suits did not sound fun. We almost skipped it, but someone saw us considering getting back in our car and yelled over to us “you won’t be cold, it’s worth it, you should go”. We’re so grateful.
Check the link I posted above for the tide times at the time of year you are attending. You go out onto the beach during low tide and you dig a hole. You’ll know if you’re in the right area because the water is so hot it could burn you if you stood in it for a few seconds. If you dig in a perfect spot (there are many) you’ll have the hot spring water flowing into your hot tub and an area of the cool ocean water in your hot tub, so you can dig on either side to have your hot tub fluctuate in temperature.
Shakespear’s Cliff and Lonely Bay
This is a beautiful little 30 – 45 minute walk and look-out combination. Both spots have gorgeous views of Flaxmill bay and Hahei surrounding areas.
Lonely Cove
Three days in Auckland
Lodging: Simple AirBNB in a great location with a very accommodating host
Activities
Things we did:
- Wandering to awesome places to eat, have fun happy hours and mingle with fun people
- Dancing and nightlife
- Free Walking Tour to learn about Auckland and New Zealand history. Bring cash to tip your tour guide.
- Ambury Park where you can see many sheep and cows and go into the areas where they are hanging out. Great spot for a run, a leisurely hike, a picnic, etc.
Things we didn’t do but look fun:
- Hiking and Walking
- Free Auckland Art Gallery
- Bar Crawl
- Free Music in the Park
- Laughing Yoga – it is basically what it sounds like. Check out this video to see what Laughing Yoga is. I’m bummed we missed this, we’ll have to try it in LA.
Flew out of Auckland back to Los Angeles
We left in the afternoon of our last day, got rid of all of our remaining food (which cannot travel internationally with you). Made sure our laptop was cached with TV shows and movies, and headed to the airport back home 😊
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