A few weeks ago, some of my best friends from Rollins visited me in New Zealand. We all went on a road trip in the North Island. I went to Auckland for the first time (unless you count the hour I was in the airport there in February). Since my phone malfunctioned a while ago and won’t turn on anymore, and I wasn’t carrying my real camera around, this is the best picture I have from Auckland. (No I don’t have THAT many friends, half of these people are photobombing us.)
The next day, we drove to Coromandel and went to the beautiful beaches at Cathedral Cove. #squad.
In Rotorua, we went to some natural hot pools. Being wishful thinkers, my friend and I brought bathings suits, only to be sorely disappointed that the natural hot pools were not swimmable and smelled like sulfur. They did look pretty cool though. I also went to a redwood forest in Rotorua. The forest was beautiful. Having been to old growth redwood forests in British Columbia, I was expecting something similar, but the trees were pretty lame since redwoods were brought to New Zealand relatively recently. It was still cool, but nothing too impressive since all the trees were mediocre sized and kinda short and skinny for redwoods. Pictured below is the biggest tree we could find.
I saw some impressive waterfalls, including Huka Falls near Taupo and Marakopa Falls in the Waitomo region. In Waitomo, I went to the glowworm caves, which were incredible. You’re not allowed to take pictures in there so I don’t have any but it was an amazing experience. After walking through a bunch of caves, we boated through a river in the cave where there were tons of glowworms hanging from the ceiling.
In Taupo, I went skydiving which was the most awesome thing I’ve ever done ever. Below you can see me totally unfazed by the fact that I just jumped out of a plane. The view was absolutely gorgeous. On the way down, Ryan (my skydive dude who pulled the parachute so I didn’t plummet to my death) told me about the giant pine tree forest that extends from Taupo all the way to Rotorua. For some reason I was extremely interested in these trees and kept asking questions about them. It used to be all swampland, but now the trees are farmed for lumber, one of New Zealand’s major exports.
One of the HIGHLIGHTS of my entire New Zealand trip was going to Hobbiton!!!!!! I am an avid Lord of the Rings fan, which is not as common as you might think in New Zealand (where the entire series was filmed). It was amazing. I got to go inside a hobbit hole, I saw Bag End (pictured below), and ended the tour with a complimentary cider at the Green Dragon.
We also tried to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (where Mount Doom is!!!) but the weather conditions were so dangerous that the shuttles weren’t even running. The temperature was well below freezing and there were 100 kph winds. I don’t currently have a death wish so that didn’t end up happening. I did see Mount Doom while skydiving though, so that was pretty sick.
After my trip to the North Island, I spent some time closer to home. Here is Tunnel Beach, one of the lovely beaches in the Dunedin area.
I spent a day in the Catlins, where I went to the Nugget Point lighthouse and Cannibal Bay. These rocks are actually called “the nuggets.” How cute.
I also went to Jack’s Bay (below) and Jack’s Blowhole. To get to Jack’s Blowhole, you walk through farm fields for a while, and suddenly there’s a gigantic hole in the ground with water crashing around in it. The water somehow flows 200 meters out from sea into this long, deep hole in the middle of farmland, which is slightly disconcerting. I wonder if any cows fell in before they built a fence around it.
Speaking of cows, we stumbled upon a lot of cows in the middle of the road. There were actually hundreds of cows and it took us about 20 minutes to get past all the cows. They’re pretty stupid, so they don’t really move out of your way.
This dude looks slightly disgruntled at the fact that we’re in his road.
This past weekend, I ended up in Queenstown for the millionth time and had Fergburger (again). Then I hiked the Routeburn Track, which was incredible. It snowed overnight so the second day was a little icy and snowy, but absolutely stunning. I spent the next day in Arrowtown, which is a precious little town with not much to do. Now I am back in Dunedin and must study for my next final.
