North Island Road Trip – New Zealand Travel Photography

New Zealand Travel Photography

As the saying goes, there’s no rest for the wicked! No sooner had I touched back down in Auckland after my trip to Australia was I off again. This time I was road tripping across parts of the north island in my trusty little Rav 4.

First stop was back to Hahei in the Coromandel for wedding fun before I embarked on my little adventure. It was great to revisit this beautiful part of the country again and explore some more. My first stop was Mount Maunganui and Papamoa for lunch and a catch up with my friend Kate and the family which was lovely.

A few of my highlights in this week were visiting the set of Hobbiton where the movie was filmed. Being a bit of a JRR Tolkien/Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fan this was awesome! I also loved that I was the perfect size for this little village making me feel right at home 🙂 The attention to detail on this set was unreal. Well worth a visit if you head this way. The other was the Lost World tour at Waitomo. It was absolutely incredible! I did a 100ft abseil down into the entrance to one of the caves and then spent the next few hours caving underground and exploring some of the nooks and crannies within. There were 1000’s of tiny little glow-worms lighting the way too which was incredible. Such a cool experience.

I did the obligatory trip to Rotorua to visit this geothermal city. Apart from the smell it was cool to see the geysers like Te Puia, bubbling mud pools and find out more about Maori culture. I spent time chilling out at the Blue lake too which is right next to the sacred Green Lake. When you look at them side by side you really can see the true colours of the lake too. There’s an excellent viewing platform to see both side by side. Before heading off I had a wander around the Redwood forest and managed to sneak a few cheeky go’s of the Skyline luge which was bloody great fun! Think I could do that all day long.

Before heading to Taupo I headed to Huka Falls which was beautiful and Lake Taupo itself is huge. A lot bigger than I was expecting. I had an amazing drive from Papamoa down to River Valley to the Rangitiki river for white (knuckle) water rafting, it was an incredibly epic drive and there was just so much I wanted to stop and take photos off but I had to keep my eyes on the road. Great to see Mount Doom and drive through the Tongariro national park on route.

My last stop before heading back to Auckland was the surfer town of Raglan. I wasn’t there for very long but managed to see a pretty sunset and grab some dinner before heading back up north.

Only a few more days now until I embark on exploring the south island for a few weeks. My time here is flying by! Enjoy the post. x