New Zealand: North Island
The North Island has a bit more culture than the South with its greater influence of the native Māori people. We arrived in Auckland only briefly to pick up our car, then headed out to our first town.
Waitomo: The main thing to do in Waitomo is visit the glowworm caves. Waitomo Village is a town of literally 3–4 restaurants and the same amount of hotels, so there’s not much else to see. We stayed for 2 nights, but you could easily do it in one. We took the 3-hour Spellbound Tour of the glowworm caves. This is known to be the best tour in the area due to its small size (12 tourists maximum) and the native New Zealand guides with their passion for caving and funny stories. It’s definitely an activity worth doing! The first cave we walked a bit in the dark to acclimate our eyes, then hopped on a boat for a float down the underground river to see spectacular views of the glowworms. Then we headed to another cave for a more well-lit walk.
We also drove around the area to find more beautiful landscapes!
Going out of our way to find a remote black sand beach was a highlight. Covered in black sand from a neighboring volcano, its iron-rich sand was magnetic in more ways than one!
We also spotted elusive red deer only found in New Zealand.
We got to check out the nearby Marocopa Waterfall, which was a powerful sight of about 80 feet tall and well worth the visit.
Down the road is a really cool site — the Mangapohue Natural Bridge, formed by 17-meter high limestone arches, which are remnants of an ancient cave system. Walking around the area, you’ll cross through farmland where you’ll find 25 million year old fossilized seashells in the limestone rock.
Matamata: One of our favorite parts of our entire New Zealand trip was the immersive experience at Matamata aka Hobbiton. We took the 2-hour Hobbiton Tour in perfect weather. First, we met at The Shire’s Rest to catch the group tour bus up to the movie set. With the birds chirping and the sun shining, it felt exactly how we predicted The Shire to feel. We got some great photos of The Shire, including some 2 hobbit holes not shown in the films. Many of the hobbit holes are built in different sizes to account for the height differences of the characters. We stood next to larger hobbit holes that simulated actual hobbit size, while smaller ones simulated a larger character like Gandalf. At the end of the tour, we kicked up our feet to enjoy a stout and ginger beer at The Green Dragon — The Shire’s only pub frequented by Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo.
Auckland: The city felt very similar to Sydney, only smaller and grittier. You’ll only need to stay 1–2 nights maximum unless you want more time for the wine country. The main tourist attraction in the city is the Skytower. More reasonably priced than Sydney’s, we took the elevator up and enjoyed the view of the city and its small neighboring islands.
Another similarity to Sydney is the botanical gardens, or Auckland Domain. Walking through the gardens up the hill it’s a leisure walk to the Wartime Museum.
Take the Lover’s Walk downhill from the Wartime Museum down to the city center for a more intimate path. Following a creek through the covered area, Lover’s Walk felt as though we didn’t leave the forest trails of the South Island. During our stay, the weather was cloudy with sporadic showers, which capped a lot of our other opportunities to explore other parts of the city.
You might want to consider visiting some of the place we skipped, including: Waikeke Island (wine country area only a quick hop onto the ferry from Auckland), Wellington (the second most populated city on the southernmost tip of the North Island), Tongariro (a national park with an active volcano), Te Kao and The North District (a tropical climate with unparalleled beaches and more native Maori cultural influences).
We’re glad we explored New Zealand since it’s always been very high on our country list. It’s a beautiful country to visit and explore by car. We probably wouldn’t consider living there since it mirrored California so much; we might as well stay where we were fortunate enough to be born. But, it’s beautiful rural and mountain landscape, especially in the South Island, won us over.
