Road tripping the North Coast of New Zealand
Road trip along the North Coast of NZ
Last week a new part of our world trip started in Auckland. Over there we met some old friends and were able to stay in their cozy cottage with a fantastic view of the skyline of this impressive city. You can see the video of this amazing adventure through this link.
We also made trips to the wine lover’s paradise on the island of Waiheke and climbed the special volcanic island of Rangitoto in the deep blue Hauraki Gulf off the coast. New Zealand has been a delight for us explorers so far and we are already hungry for more! Time for an adventurous road trip through New Zealand!
The City Trip in Auckland ends, the Road Trip through New Zealand begins
It’s time to leave the now familiar Auckland and explore the rest of New Zealand. However, public transport in the country is so underdeveloped, partly because New Zealanders hardly use it themselves, that a rental car is an absolute MUST to get anywhere. After the road trip we will fly on from Wellington, so it is also important that we can return the car there. After some searching on the internet, we found the best deal through the company Jucy, where we only pay fifteen euros per day. The best part is that we can also return that car, with the wonderful nickname El Cheapo, in Wellington at no extra cost. New Zealand is at our feet and it only costs us next to nothing!
Spotting dolphins in the Bay of Islands
When Suus and I rent a car abroad, I usually volunteer as the driver. Now that sounds very generous, but that is mainly because I have the desire to see our possible children grow up. No, Suus is a very good driver, but it takes some getting used to driving on the other side of the road. My tip is to take it easy to acclimatize!
Because we will be in the car a little more than usual, she will also have to drive a lot and that is here on the left. When we drive away from Auckland, things go well straight away, but she has to get used to the fact that she sits on the right side of the car instead of the left. In the first street she forgets that for a moment and with that she also forgets the entire left side of our El Cheapo, including me. Partly thanks to my scream of panic, we narrowly avoid a whole bunch of parked cars; Fortunately, both the left side of the car and I are still intact. Suus quickly gets the hang of it and so we quickly cycle north to visit New Zealand’s birthplace: the Bay of Islands.
The Bay of Islands is a highlight during a road trip through New Zealand
Make use of campsites during a road trip through New Zealand!
We book a tent at a campsite in the town of Paihia. From there boat trips take you through the bay with no fewer than 144 uninhabited islands. At least, uninhabited by people, because we often see the main inhabitants jumping above the water: dolphins! We sail past the most beautiful green wonders of nature and stop at the island with a beautiful name for 11-letter-word lingo: Urupukapuka. While most islands are strictly protected because of their unique flora and fauna, we are allowed to take a walk here. We then sail back to civilization and disembark at the famous town of Russell. The first English settlers came ashore here to explore New Zealand. In the nineteenth century the place was still known as the ‘Hell Hole’ of the Pacific, because sailors went ashore there to drink, gamble and… well, what men do when they have been secluded at sea for months: watch football, probably.
Nowadays Russell is a neat town, with cute colonial houses and there is hardly a beer to be found. Let alone that you can still ehh… watch football here, so to speak.
Starving and tired from the salty sea air, we take some time for luxury at the campsite: a dip in the pool, a tasty meat on the barbecue, some music and a bit of fun in the jacuzzi. Sometimes the backpacker’s life is hard. Mostly not.
During a road trip through New Zealand we occasionally leave the car behind. There is much more to discover by boat!
The Coromandel Peninsula
From the Bay of Islands it is, to say the least, a long drive to the next destination; we travel from one peninsula to another, but with the limited number of roads you have to pass the traffic chaos of ‘Traffic Jam City’ Auckland. We don’t even have to ask our Kiwi friends, because they are already there before us: we drink a beer, get a pizza and spend the night again for nothing in the nicest house in the southern hemisphere.
The first place we pass on the way to Coromandel is the town of Thames. Along the way I read up a bit with our travel guide. In the meantime, Suus has found her place on the road again and I stay safely next to her on the same lane.
Captain Cook once landed here and named the town after the River Thames from his home country. The town later became famous when it turned out that there was a lot of gold in the ground; fortune seekers came from all over the world and became infected here with the gold rush. The great thing about Thames is that it is perfectly on the route of our road trip along the north coast of New Zealand.
The town of Thames is recommended on a road trip through New Zealand. It is nicely located on the route from Auckland to Coromandel.
This highlight is ‘mine’: panning for gold!
Once in Thames we drive straight to the only remaining gold mine, where gold is still actively sought. We have to see that of course! At least… As enthusiastic as I am about mines, tunnels and underground activities, Suus runs to the nearest tree to climb. In Bolivia I dragged her into the silver mines of Potosi and her nightmares only disappeared sometime around last week. Fortunately, this time it wasn’t too bad. First we saw how the gold is loosened in the workroom and then we went a little bit into the mine. This time I will really only give Suus’ trauma a month or two.
Afterwards we fished some gold out of the river with a pan and took a jar with a few small grains as a souvenir. According to our guide, I could probably just score a beer with it in the local pub, I say: a child’s hand is quickly filled. Into the pub!
The magical kingdom of Narnia.. really exists!
From Thames, not in England but in New Zealand, we drive to the most beautiful coast for which the Coromandel is known. The strange rock formations here form a fairytale landscape by the sea. It is therefore not without reason that Cathedral Cove, a graceful tunnel through which seawater flows beneath the tropical forest, was used in Disney’s fantasy film Narnia.
From the main road we walk along a spectacular walking path along various beaches and cliffs; occasionally even through a piece of dense jungle! In combination with the viewpoints we encounter along the way, it really is a fantastic walk. When the path ends at a hidden beach we suddenly look through a large cave. On the inside it indeed looks a lot like the dome in a church. When the sun shines brighter, the water turns a beautiful turquoise. And so we can continue to take pictures of this wonderful piece of nature.
Once on the beach of Cathedral Cove, the landscape is quite unique.
Hot Water Beach
Just when we want to spend a day relaxing on the beach, severe weather breaks out on the island of Coromandel. At any other beach I would swear and walk back to the car, put on a thick sweater, throw my inflatable crocodile in the trash and drive to the nearest cinema for a feel-good movie. Not here! Here we walk to the beach bar with a big smile and rent a shovel. A shovel? Yes, a shovel!
We walk across the beach through the unpleasant weather, wait until the low tide comes in and dig a large hole. Under the beach of ‘Hot Water Beach’ there are geysers with boiling water. By poking the sand in the right spot and adding some cold water, we have our own jacuzzi at about sixty degrees in no time: a very strange experience. Around us a dozen tourists are doing the same and it makes it fun too. Typical or not; They are mainly Germans, for whom digging holes appears to be in their blood.
Going to the beach in the cold, digging in search of warm water. What an experience!
Mount Maunganui
We leave the Coromandel Peninsula along the coast and drive to Mount Maunganui. This is the most famous seaside resort in the country. It owes this reputation partly to the good conditions for water sports enthusiasts. But also, it’s right next to the mountain of the same name, in the middle of the sea.
A MUST is to climb that mountain when you take a road trip in New Zealand. Just for the view! In an hour we walk up a steep hiking trail and see that not the tourists, but the locals make optimal use of this outdoor gym. We are the only ones without sneakers, sweatbands, water bottles, stopwatches and even fire suits (some exercise). But, for us this is now also a daily occurrence; In two months of traveling around the world I climbed more mountains than in the rest of my life, I think. I almost feel like we walked from China to New Zealand: calves of steel guys, really!
No vacancy in New Zealand? You’ll always have a place to sleep!
It is not entirely coincidental that we make a stopover here in Mount Maunganui. Suus’s parents recommended this place to us because an old friend of theirs emigrated here. Moreover, we have already made contact and we can stay here for two nights. Always useful in an expensive country like New Zealand. But when we arrive at the address there is no one home.
So we decide to start driving again and look for a hotel, but: everything is full! Only the most expensive hotels still have rooms available and even in the nearby city of Tauranga has none. What now? Well, it’s nice to know that the seats of a Nissan Sunny can be quite flat. Okay, provided you force them a bit, read: molests. And it’s no coincidence that Tauranga’s Memorial Park has beautifully clean toilets next to a tip-top lawn. They can still make a point of that in the Amsterdam Arena! We pour a bottle of wine on the park bench and have a phenomenal view of the city. We stare at the hundreds of stars in the sky and sleep for about ten hours in our faithful friend, El Cheapo. Who said New Zealand was too expensive for backpacking?
Another fantastic stop on your New Zealand road trip, climb Mount Manganui!
The hotspot of Kiwi-land: Rotorua
We gradually end up in the middle of the North Island; the center of geothermal activity. In other words: volcanoes, sulfur fields, geysers, boiling mud pools and the most colorful lakes in the world. The center of tourism in New Zealand is the city of Rotorua. It also happens to have the largest Maori population, the original inhabitants of this country.
As soon as we drive into the city, the wonderful smell of rotten eggs secretly wafts through our El Cheapo air conditioning. It’s a small price to pay to discover Earth’s most beautiful natural wonders. In the next blog all about those natural wonders. We’ll also explore the Maori culture and continue the road trip through the unspoilt nature of Kiwi country.
Continue reading about this epic adventure? You can do so here!
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The road trip in New Zealand continues towards the most bizarre natural highlights of the country.
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We’re Wout & Suus, traveling full time around the world with our little globetrotters Jens & Céline.
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