Tag: North Island

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Hobbiton

I’m going on an adventure!

The rolling hills, the lush greens and the gem like waters, New Zealand is just like the Middle Earth depicted in The Lord of Rings and The Hobbits.

Unlike many movie studio tours, where tourists see all the setups and fascias, Hobbiton feels real. It is real, in a sense. The village was created on an active farmland in Matamata on the North Island. The set was built over a year before filming to give the plants time to cover the landscapes; as Director, Peter Jackson, wanted to give audience the feeling that the Hobbits had lived there for hundreds of years. The set was originally built for filming The Lord of The Rings, then rebuilt for filming The Hobbits. We walked through the village just like we would through any small county villages. The guide would point out where various scenes were shot and explained how some of the interesting effects where created. At the end of the tour we all step into the Green Dragon to enjoy a drink of the local brew. It is a special beer only brewed for Green Dragon. If you are a fan of the movies, or not, Hobbiton is a worthwhile stop.

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Rotorua

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.

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The Land of Kiwis

Take me to the volcano!

Yeah! We are going to New Zealand, the land of Kiwis.

We met someone from New Zealand when we were in Guilin and she invited us to visit her in New Zealand. After we got back from China, we decided this is the best time to go to New Zealand. After all, it is spring down there!

Meta

  • Travel light, take only carryon luggages if possible. This makes it easier to move and reduces time spend at the airport.
  • Self driving tour. We will set a few major destinations, drive at our own pace and book lodgings as we go.

Things to do

There are lots of information online for things to do in New Zealand. Tripadvisor Things to Do in New Zealand‎ is a good starting point. Two other sites with great, detailed local information are, the official New Zealand travel site and Department of Conservation site.

We created a My Map on Google Maps and plotted on it every locations we found interesting during our research.

Flights

We have a few must haves that affect our flight plan.

  • We want to visit my sister in Melbourne
  • We want to visit Rotorua on the North Island
  • We want to visit our friend at Nelson on the South Island
  • We want to spend most of our time on the South Island

Based on that, we have several options, like, visit Melbourne at the start of the trip or at the end, driving down to Wellington then take the ferry to South Island, fly from Auckland to Nelson, fly from Auckland to Christchurch, and on and on.

We used Google Flights to get a sense of the price and flight schedule for each segment of the various options. At the end we decided to book the following flights separately to maximize our time on the ground.

  • Chicago – Melbourne round trip [Orbitz] – Air Canada
  • Melbourne to Auckland [Expedia Australia] – Air New Zealand
  • Auckland to Nelson [Expedia New Zealand] – Air New Zealand
  • Christchurch to Melbourne [Expedia Australia] – Air New Zealand

Notes:

  • Carry on limit for Air Canada is 10kg and only 7kg for Air New Zealand.
  • Air Canada operates CRJ 900 between Chicago and Vancouver. The overhead compartment would not fit the standard carry on suitcase.
  • Air New Zealand charges for inflight meal for regional flights and the meal needs to be booked when booking the ticket.

Rental cars

Instead of taking the ferry, we will rent two separate cars, one for North and one for South

  • Two days of Hyundai i30 from Snap Rentals at Auckland
  • Thirteen days of Mazda CX-5 from Hertz at Nelson

Tours

A few sites for professional guided tours and cruises

The more your know

Travel documents and customs

Make sure to check New Zealand visa requirements before booking the trip. U.S. passport holders do not need to apply for visa for staying up to three months.

The Australian visa requirements are different. U.S. passport holders must apply for an ETA before boarding the flight to Australia.

Both Melbourne and Auckland airport have SmartGare/e-gate for international arrival and departure. Getting through customs only take minutes. However, both  are island countries and are extremely strict about biosecurity. Make sure to declare any controlled items on the arrival card or at the kiosk.

Connectivity

T-Mobile with international roaming works great in Australia and New Zealand. If you have an unlocked phone, you can also buy a tourist SIM card at the airports. In New Zealand, coverage is really good around cities. Areas in between oftentimes have no cellular signals at all.

Payment system

Most restaurants and grocery stores accept payWave which works with Apple Pay and Android Pay. Many stores at the airports also accept WeChat pay and Alipay. Chip-and-PIN credit card works in all places that accept credit card. Unfortunately, almost all American credit cards require a signature for the transaction. Those cards can only be used at staffed locations. Good old cash still works. Each bank charges different fee for using oversea ATM; some debit card does not even work overseas. Make sure to check that with the bank before heading out. The only time we had to use cash, at a public restroom at Te Anau.

  • Apple Pay, Android Pay, WeChat pay, Alipay
  • Credit card
  • Cash

Driving

More than just driving on the left, driving in New Zealand is different. A few things to especially pay attention to,

  • In most cases, direction of travels are separated by WHITE line, NOT yellow. Visit the Transport Agency web site to find out more details.
  • In remote areas, there are not a lot of cars. You could be driving on the WRONG side of the road without realizing it, until another car shows up.
  • If there is another car behind you, let it pass. If there is passing lane ahead, pull to the left lane at the passing lane. If there isn’t one, just slowdown and pull off to the left side when it is safe to let the car pass.

Be prepared to take more time than what Google Map shows. Make sure to check road closures before heading out, especially towards the west coast on South Island.

Gas stations

In New Zealand there are a lot of unattended gas stations. Those stations only accepts Chip-and-PIN credit cards. Credit cards that require signature, i.e. American credit cards, will NOT work. Debit card does not work at such station either. Luckily, attended gas stations are just as common. I fill up the tank everyday just to be safe. Especially, before heading to Milford Sound from Te Anau. The round trip is about 250 km and there is no gas station anywhere in between.

Weather

The weather is on the wet side, especially on the west coast. Milford Sound rains about 200 days in a year. A great weather forecast for the New Zealand area is metvuw.com. It is recommended by sky divers, must be good!

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