North Island, New Zealand: Volcanic hikes, lake sunsets and stepping into Hobbiton
- Esther
- Mar 21, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 4, 2020
When you’re planning to travel around New Zealand, most people will tell you to spend as much time as possible in the South. And that's definitely the best advice! I only spent a week in the North Island - leaving three weeks to see everything else - but I feel like that was the perfect amount of time to see most of its highlights. It was an incredible (and super busy) start to the trip!
NZ’s volcanic North Island is perfect for anyone who likes variety when they're travelling. One day you’ll be hiking up an active volcano, the next you’ll be relaxing on a white sand beach.
In the few days we spent there, Ben and I got to experience a slice of Māori culture, cycle around famous wineries, sleep next to some amazing jewel-coloured lakes and even climb up a couple of mountains!
We chose to do our whole trip by campervan (which we booked through Rat Pack Travel) and other than missing a few hostel comforts (like a hot shower and a proper kitchen), it was a really fun way to do it! You get to go exactly where you want, when you want, and some of the views you stumble upon when you’re freedom camping are absolutely unreal.
We learnt the hard way that ‘freedom camping’ doesn’t actually mean you can park wherever you want, though! We’d also have struggled without an amazing app called CamperMate, which tells you where all the nearest showers, bathrooms, water refill sites and camping spots are. It’s a total life saver!
Auckland
On my first day in NZ (after a 35 hour flight from England that had left me feeling pretty jetlagged!), I met Ben at the airport, went on a walk around Auckland and saw the city from the top of Mount Eden.
To be honest, there wasn’t that much to do in Auckland itself but the harbour was really pretty and you can do some great day trips from there.
On my second day, we took the ferry to Waiheke Island (one of NZ’s biggest wine regions) to cycle around the wineries. The scenery there was beautiful (even if we did get rained on for an hour!) but also pretty hilly, so we were really glad we’d hired electric bikes to get around.
The Coromandel Peninsula
The next day, we went to do The Pinnacles Walk; an eight-hour hike through the Coromandel Forest Park. It was super hard work (and nearly all uphill!) but the views at the highest point were definitely worth it!
The day after, we had a much more chilled day driving down to the beautiful Hahei and doing the coastal walk to Cathedral Cove beach. It was one of my favourite places in the whole of the North Island!
Most of the advice we found online said to get to the Cove for around sunrise (because the tide comes in soon after that), but we actually slept in by accident and it was still lovely at 11. There were less people there then too!
After you’ve taken a look at Cathedral Cove, definitely spend some time enjoying the beaches around it. I honestly felt like I was back in the Philippines!
Hobbiton
On the way to Rotorua, we stopped at the beautiful Hobbiton Movie Set, which is a real working farm surrounded by lush green pastures. The hobbit holes there are really detailed and sweet, and you can stop at The Green Dragon pub afterwards for some delicious cider or beer.
The day we went, it was also really sunny, so the whole of The Shire looked exactly like it does in The Lord of the Rings! I loved walking around sunny Hobbiton and Ben said it was probably the highlight of his time in NZ.
Rotorua
Our next stop was Rotorua; a super geothermal area which has been nicknamed ‘Sulphur City’ because of its uniquely bad smell! The wind changes direction a lot so sometimes you don’t notice, and then suddenly you’re hit with the smell of rotten eggs. I don’t know how anyone actually manages to live in Rotorua, but as a traveller I’d say you have to go there because there are so many cool things to see in the area!
One really cool place we went to was the hot volcanic pools at the Polynesian Spa, which looked out over Lake Rotorua.
I also really liked walking around The Redwoods Forest, which is densely packed with super-tall redwood trees.
Still, the best thing we did in Rotorua by far was visit the Tamaki Māori Village; a recreated indigenous forest community.
Tamaki Māori is run by a family of Māori people who dress up like their ancestors would have done to welcome guests into their village, entertain you with songs and dances, cook everyone a delicious traditional Māori dinner and talk you through different aspects of their ancestors' culture.
Tamaki Māori was also a really interactive experience because the hosts taught all the guys in our group a haka and showed the girls some Māori dances (before showing us all up with their incredible performances)!
Lake Taupo
On our way to Taupo, we stopped by the stunning Huka Falls (apparently the most photographed spot in New Zealand), walked around a steaming geothermal park called Craters of the Moon and went to taste some honey and mead at the adorable Huka Honey Hive.
This meant that we only got to Lake Taupo in the evening, but the freedom camping site we stayed at on Lake Taupo was probably my favourite of the whole trip.
I’d had no idea how enormous Lake Taupo was before we got there, but it looked like a beach from where we were parked. We saw the most incredible sunset from the back of our camper there.
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing
Luckily, we’d already had a lot of hiking practice going up the Pinnacles, but the Tongariro Alpine Crossing was still hard work! The whole walk took six hours and even though we were lucky enough to have nothing but blue skies and warmth that day, the weather can apparently change really dramatically at the top of the mountain and become suddenly windy, snowy and dangerous.
The long climb was definitely worth it, though, because the views at the top were absolutely incredible!
The Blue and Emerald Lakes at the top of the mountain were huge, bright and jewel-like. There’s also an enormous Red Crater there just past Mount Ngauruhoe, which is the volcano they used as Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings!
Wellington
We finished up our time in the North Island in Wellington, where our friend Jake (who’s been doing a Working Holiday there) showed us around the city centre and took us for a Thai meal and to a couple of bars.
We didn’t get the best weather while we were in Wellington (which we soon found out is a famously windy place!), but we still got to eat the best pizza in the city at Tommy Millions and try some incredible coffee at the edgy Fidel’s Café. Apparently, NZ is the official home of the flat white!
We were planning to stay an extra day in Wellington after that to walk up Mount Vic and explore a little more, but it turned out that because we hadn’t planned ahead and booked the ferry to the South Island in advance, we either had to leave that night at half 2 in the morning or wait 4 more days for the next free space!
So, our time in the North Island ended pretty abruptly with an unexpected overnight ferry trip.
Still, I absolutely loved our first week in NZ. We got to spend pretty much all of it in nature; taking in amazing views of mountains, lakes, forests, volcanoes, green valleys and beaches. And the best part is - the South Island was even better!
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