Trio NZ Trip: North Island

25/11

The itinerary for today was jln2 kat welly which has nothing much to see just another city. But, we went to Te Papa museum which was quite a large museum with many things in and jln2 around the city. Later that afternoon we went to Oriental bay which was very windy there which make the area very cold and Lastly, we went on their cable car which cost only $1 one way and only had 4 stops. That’s all for Wellington.

Te Papa Museum

With my primary school friend, Aishah

Inside the museum

Visiting Victoria Uni of Wellington

wellington's Street Mall

Around the city

The Beehive, Wellington

Parliament Building

Wellington Cable Car

The view from the top station of cable car

 26/11

We started our journey up north today to Rotorua but stops at Taupo on the way to see the Hukka Falls. The Hukka Falls is like another rapid on a stream which is so fast that it is a source of energy to the area around it. Arriving at Rotorua around 6pm, we walked around the place to the Government Garden, Lake Rotorua and the sulfur smelling thermal spring. The thing was so smelly at first we thought that it was the waste water treatment plant as we saw the sign board a bit outskirt but then we realized it was the thermal spring/geyser as they call it.

The scenery on the way to Hukka Falls

Hukka Falls

The rapid fall

Rotorua

Government Garden

Lake Rotorua

Black swans on Lake Rotorua

Thermal Spring

27/11

First stop for today was a Kiwi orchard called Kiwi 360 about 35min drive from Rotorua. We went tour around the orchard with the tour guide explaining the process from growing the plant to harvest and market. We were given some samples of kiwi fruit which has 2 varieties; the gold kiwi and green kiwi. The gold kiwi is sweeter than the green kiwi that we usually ate. But I still prefer the green kiwi. After that we drove back to Rotorua to Te Puai; a Mouri cultural village where we watched their cultural performances and have an insight of what their daily lives look like. Here I got to see a real life kiwi animal but as they are scared of light and noise no picture ca be taken. Last thing for the day, we went to the zorbing area but we didn’t do it as we didn’t bring xtra clothes. All of us didn’t know that we were going to get wet in the ball so decided to do it the next day.

Kiwi 360: kiwi fruit orchard

 

Kiwi fruits on tree

Te Puai Maori Cultural Village

Thermal Spring

Carving School

Weaving School

 

Cultural Performance

28/11

We were due to go to Auckland today with some stops on the way. Firstly we stopped at the zorbing place with our swim clothes and zorb. It was fun as we were tumbling in the ball as we go down hill. Then, we drove up to Coromandel hoping to have a swim at the beach unfortunately we can’t swim and ended up going to the Hot water beach where we can dug up the sands near the beach and hot water will come out. As we arrived nearly high tide, we didn’t do the digging but went into the pools that have been dug up by somebody else and been left behind. So, we did get to feel the hot water. Once we had lunch we went to Cathedral Cove. This was a 45 min hiking from the parking lot which was worth it as the scenery was fabulous. For your information, the cove was the entrance to Narnia in the Prince Caspian film. Stayed there to play with the wave and then drove up to Auckland.

Zorbing

Post-zorbing pose

Hot water beach

Heading towards Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove

With our car at Coromandel before heading to Auckland

Sunset on our way to Auckland

29/11

It was already nearly the end of our trip. We went to Uni of Auckland and up Auckland sky tower. We got to see the whole of Auckland from up here. They even have glass floors that we can see the ground from. Seriously scary..hehe..Nothing much, Auckland is just another big city like Sydney. Which is very serabut and was glad that we didn’t stayed long. At 12 we drop off our rental car at the office and went to airport to catch the plane back to Christchurch.

Uni of Auckland

Auckland Sky Tower

Before going up

The view from the tower

This is what you see if you look down

Us and tower

That evening, we had dinner at Mum’s with Ami and Hazel. Mum’s is a Japanese and Korean restaurant and the food there was fabulous and cheap. I want to go and dine there again. To finish off the day, we watched the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

My first korean food experience with my high school friend, Hazel

A big chess set at Cathedral Square, Christchurch

30/11

The last day of holiday, we went shopping for souvenirs in the morning and head to airport at noon to fly back to Brisbane. Back to reality..hehe

Overall, the trip was tiring but I enjoyed it a lot as I did some crazy stuff there and it was lots of fun. I would recommend people to go there and do some of the crazy activities that they provide. This was also the first time that I went on a trip oversea with friends and I'm looking forward to a lot more to come in the future.
Till then~