New Zealand - North Island

The North Island isn't quite as spectacular as the South Island, but there are some interesting places.

Wellington
This is a great, smaller city that is supposedly one of the top cities in the world to live in. We really lucked out with a sunny day. The Te Papa National Museum (free admission) has interesting and well-planned exhibits. My favorite were the one about earthquakes and the one about immigrants. We ate lunch at the Mac's Brewery on the waterfront. All of their beers are great but my favorites are the Spring Tide and the Great White. I finally ate some green-lipped mussels. They were enormous and delicious. Adam and I wandered around town, through the parks and botanical garden. New Zealand did a great job with green spaces in the cities. Cuba Street is popular for restaurants.


Tongoriro Crossing
We got up early to drive to National Park. We met Andrew and Nicole again to do a big day hike. Nicole hurt her knee, so she didn't hike but she was nice enough to drop us off and pick us up at the end of the trail. It's a 17km hike through the most varied terrain I have ever seen. We lucked out again with a sunny day. The winds on the pass were fierce. Andrew, Adam and Conor decided to be macho and climb Mt Doom. Since I'm a bit wiser, I opted to keep going on the main trail and enjoy the hike. They made it, of course, but they had a rough time and we all hurting the next few days. There were craters, rocks, geothermal vents and turquoise colored lakes.



Rotorura
This is geothermal central. We stopped to view the Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. The colored pools and the boiling mud pots were pretty spectacular, but not as impressive as Yellowstone. We found a great hostel, Treks Backpackers, that is new and clean. We went to the Polynesian Spa to soak in the natural hot springs. They have a nice setup. You can look out at the lake while soaking. It rained pretty hard that night so we found a good pub to hang out in. The Pig and Whistle has a good atmosphere and great food. I recommend the Moroccan lamb stew.


Waitomo
The caves are the only reason to go to this small town. Adam and Conor did the Black Rafting Company adventure tour which includes abseiling, jumping and floating around underground for a few hours. I opted for the calmer, warmer and lighter version. I walked into a cave to view the stalagmites and stalactites followed by a short boat ride to view the glowworms. Glowworms hang from the cave roofs and emit enough light to resemble stars in a night sky. I think they are impressive. There wasn't a whole lot happening in this town for a Saturday night. The only decent food is the pizza restaurant at the YHA hostel. Who knew pumpkin could taste good on a pizza?


Whangarei
This is the major town in the far northern part of the island. We stayed at the holiday park a ways out of town. There is a great trail and park along the river which we walked to reach town. We stumbled upon a laid back family brewery, Bauhaus Frings. The beer was good and the food was ok. Nothing really spectacular in the town.

Bay of Islands
This is a beautiful, tropical paradise. Adam and Conor went scubadiving again so I had the day to relax and explore. I drove, first time driving on the left side of the road, to Pihia. From there I rode a ferry to Russell. This is a quaint small town. I walked around and spent some time at the beach. It looks like a great place to sail and kayak.


Auckland
This is a great city. Adam and I walked all over, exploring several neighborhoods. We started with Devonport, which is a short ferry ride across the harbor. I recommend the walking tour up Mt Victoria and along the beach. The shops on the main street are fun to look at too and there are plenty of cafes. Next we hit up Queen Street and Albert Park , near the university. Again nice green spaces for a city. We walked through the Domain, a huge park with a nice conservatory and big museum, to Newmarket. This is the fashion district. We returned through Parnell which is more of the hip restaurant district. It reminded me of Georgetown in Washington DC. We had a delicious mussel dinner at The Occidental downtown. If you like mussels and a Belgian influence, I highly recommend this restaurant.