After three nights in Wellington we left on Saturday to continue heading north towards Auckland. As it's a fair distance away we left relatively early, heading along the Kapiti Coast to Bulls where we stopped for a bite to eat. From Bulls we continued towards Taupo, although the weather wasn't great so when reaching the Central Plateau the volcanoes weren't really visible. We arrived in Taupo by afternoon and after checking into the hostel went for a walk down towards the Huka Falls, perhaps one of the more impressive waterfalls in New Zealand. Despite being only 9m high, what makes it impressive is the sheer amount of water which goes down it which is very powerful. Following the Waikato river back to Taupo we stopped at some natural hot springs which were nice to chill out in. It was amazing how swimming in the river was freezing but on the bank it was hot water, all down to the volcanic nature of the area. We then just had a chilled out evening.
We only spent 1 night in Taupo as the Tongariro National Park was closed which meant it wasn't really worth staying any longer, the following bus 3 days behind. We therefore headed up to Rotorua to spend 3 nights there instead. En route we stopped at some natural mud springs which were fascinating, arriving in Rotorua little over an hour after leaving Taupo. Rotorua has a very thin crust which means large areas emit sulphur making the city stink. It's great for people who like to fart though because you can get away with it as it stinks already. After checking into the hostel we still had most of the day so we headed out to the redwoods forest to check out some of big trees, taking a walk through the forest and towards an old quarry before heading back into Rotorua, commonly called Rotovegas by the locals.
On the Monday we booked a tour to the popular Hobbiton Movie Set, the location of the shire in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies. The location was used in the Lord of the Rings movies as a temporary set using materials like polystyrene, and was removed after filming leaving just some random hobbit holes in the hillside. When they announced plans to film the Hobbit film trilogy they returned to the same location, this time building a permanent set of structures to allow tours to be given after filming had been finished.
When arriving we had a guided tour round the set which included walking round the shire and getting some great views of the surrounding area, the green hills effectively resembling the english countryside which is what Tolkien based it on in his novels. The Hobbit holes themselves are only exterior though and despite the doors opening only the first 5m or so are furnished to create the illusion there's something inside, the interior scenes being filmed elsewhere. We got to see many places including Bag End and Samwise Gamgees house, before heading out to the party field and the Green Dragon pub for a couple of beers. It was a really good tour and felt like you were really there just like the movies. After returning to Rotorua we headed out to the park to see some of the bigger geysers which were pretty impressive. We also checked out the lake and the government house, before heading out for a few drinks in the evening.
Tuesday was the last day in Rotorua so we decided to head just out of town towards the skyline gondola, walking via some of the geysers. It was a really nice day and it was nice to be finally start to wear things like flip flops again. The views up the gondola were great looking right out over the lake. After heading back down we went to the zorb centre which was fun to watch! We then headed back to the hostel, which was accompanied by a great sunset before just having a chilled out night at the hostel.
We left Rotorua on the Wednesday to head up towards Auckland, and with a late morning departure it was nice to have a lie in. En route to Auckland we stopped at Rainbow Springs where we had the opportunity to visit a Kiwi breeding programme and I thought I may as well visit as I hadn't actually seen a living kiwi. It was very interesting learning what they're doing to protect New Zealands national bird, and when seeing some for myself they were actually a lot bigger than I imagined! After leaving we stopped a bit further down the road in Matamata for lunch before cruising into Auckland by late afternoon. After arriving we just chilled out, although we did do the quiz night in the evening which we actually won!
Thursday was a free day to explore Auckland, although I've obviously lived there for a while so seen a lot of it already. After going down to Wynyard Quarter and Silo Park for a bit, I thought the best thing to do was head up towards Mount Eden as it was such a nice day. The view up top was great, and when heading back down we went back via Newmarket and over Auckland Domain back into the city. Come evening there was only one thing we could do and that was the Frenzi Bar Crawl which we won free tickets to at the quiz the previous night as well as a bar tab at Habana Joe's which is the fourth and final pub, so it would have been silly not to go. It was as ever a great night.
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