North Island - New Zealand
/We took a ferry from Picton on the South Island of New Zealand across the Cook Strait to Wellington on the North Island. The seas were really rough that day, and unfortunately I had the worst seasickness of my life! When we got to Wellington all I wanted to do was sleep and do laundry. Chuck, Justin and Tania went out and met some locals and had a few beers. We didn't get to explore Wellington too much, but there's only so much you can do in a limited timeframe!
The next day we got up and drove north to make sure we made our two booked tours the following day. The first tour was to go blackwater rafting through the Waitomo Glowworm Caves! After being so cold the last time we went scuba diving, I was hesitant about getting back into a wetsuit and plunging into the cold water of a New Zealand cave. But, it was one of the coolest experiences yet! Trussed up in our wetsuits, helmets and boots, we climbed down into the cave with our guide. There were two waterfalls inside the cave and we had to jump off backward, clasping our tubes behind us. I found it terrifying! While floating downstream, everyone turned all lights off and we looked overhead at the glowworms spread across the ceiling. It almost looked like stars!
After a free shower at the tubing center we headed to the next tour of the day--the Hobbiton movie set. I don't think I've seen most of the Hobbit / Lord of the Rings movies, but it was really cool to hear about the building of the set and see the little hobbit holes. We also had some pretty good beer at The Green Dragon, which is the bar from the movie.
Next, we drove to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which is one of New Zealand's most famous day hikes. It was incredibly gorgeous, with views of volcanoes and geothermal pools. Justin gave us more geology knowledge, which was awesome. The only unfortunate thing was that we did the hike on a beautiful day, and the bus driver explained to us that since the prior two days had been cloudy and rainy, there were 2,500 people who hiked the 8 hour trail that day. Being back-to-back with so many people the whole hike did take something away from the experience, but it was still lots of fun (not to mention, a great workout)!
We also visited Orakei Korako Geothermal Park & Cave, which felt a little like a mini Yellowstone. It was a privately owned park with a nice walking trail around all of the geothermal sites.
Other than that, we spent some time relaxing, visiting a town called Mount Maunganui and hiking up the beachside mountain with the same name. We even saw a movie due to rain one morning! We camped in weird places and played some solid games of Heads Up! in the van.
After that, our #vanlife was over, and we dropped off the campervan and flew out of Auckland bound for Sydney, Australia. Justin and Tania flew down to Christchurch to gather the rest of their belongings before going to Sydney and then on to the USA.
