Kia ora
Hello, New Zealand! After some delay due to the massive storm in Melbourne, we are finally here, the land of Kiwis.
The Auckland airport was under construction when we arrived. The first part of the custom with e-gates was pretty quick and easy. The second part was a bit messy. Lines of passengers winding around the construction barriers before reaching the custom officers for a friendly chat about New Zealand biosecurity.
Things to do
We have two days on the North Island. The two must sees are the Champagne Pools at Wai-O-Tapu and Hobbiton, the Hobbits movie set. If we still have time, I want to take a peek at the Tongariro Alpine Crossing as well.
Getting around
As we had arrived in Auckland after 18:00 local time, the shuttle from Snap Rentals was no longer in service. Reading the confirmation email more carefully, we realized that the rental car company had left the car at the long term parking for us. After arriving at the parking lot, we waited for about 10 minutes for Snap to finally brought our car, a Hyundai i30, over to us. Before we started the 3-hour drive to Rotorua, we did a little grocery shopping at Countdown, a local supermarket, near the airport.
Waimangu Volcanic Valley
Surrounded by 11 crater lakes, Rotorua has some very unique geothermal landscapes. Among them is Waimangu Volcanic Valley, the world’s youngest geothermal system. Waimangu was not on our list of to sees and we only decided to go because we saw a brochure at the hotel lobby. It is a privately maintained reservation and charges for an entry fee to get to the trail. It is totally worth the NZD $40. The park provides a shuttle service for a couple sections of the tail. Make sure to check the shuttle schedule and time your pace accordingly. We missed a shuttle and had to wait for 30 minutes for the next one. There is also a Lake Rotomahana Boat Cruise at the end of the trail. As we still want to see Wai-O-Tapu in the afternoon, we will have to put that on the “next time” list.
The entire valley is a series of seven volcanic craters with another fifteen craters submerged under Lake Rotomahana. Among them, Frying Pan Lake is the largest hot spring in the world, with average water temperature of 55°C. That may sounded comfy, still you probably don’t want to get into the water with acidity of pH 2.2!
Trail at Waimangu Volcanic Valley
- Entry fee: NZD $40
- Difficulty: easy and moderate
- Trail surface: mostly gravel, same paved
- Shuttle for a few sections of the trail
Wai-O-Tapu
It is called the Thermal Wonderland for a good reason. Nature just pulled together all possibilities of geothermal pools into this convenient location. This area is a lot more accessible compare to Waimangu, hence a lot more tourist traffic. Nevertheless, it is well worth the trip.
Trail at Wai-O-Tapu
- Entry fee: NZD $45
- Difficulty: easy
- Trail surface: gravel, boardwalk
Taupo
We left Wai-O-Tapu at about 17:00, there is no way we can reach Tongariro Alpine Crossing by night fall. Still it is too early to call it a day. We decided to head to Taupo for dinner before going back to Rotorua.
