Rotorua to Wellington - a Joe's eye view

Joe here, taking over Beth's blog for this part of the journey, from Rotorua down to the bottom of the north island in Wellington.

Eerie mist

We left Rotorua and headed towards Gisborne via Whakatane. The journey there was breathtaking.

We passed the iconic Lake Rotorua, and the various other smaller lakes along the way. As the day was beginning to heat up, there was mist creeping across the top of the water on the lakes and streams. We went through an awesome mountain range, where the clouds cling to the tops despite it still being sunny. As the shadows move with the rising sun, the icy dew begins to melt into a misty vapour.

Beautiful turquoise river below misty hilltops

Plenty of low cloud!

It was several hours before we reached Whakatane (genuinely pronounced fuck-a-tony), skirting the coast and looking out to the beautiful pacific ocean. We eventually ended up at a camp ground - where I accidentally churned up all the waterlogged grass. The owner was not impressed!

We left the next morning for Gisborne. On the way through the ever-gorgeous landscape we saw a farmer fertilising his crops with a helicopter. That's certainly a new one to us, and we wondered just how much land he must have to have to use a helicopter!

We finally got to Gisbourne. A short drive from the town is the Rere Rockslide - famous waterfalls where the rock is so smoothly eroded that it is otherwise known as a natural waterslide, and it is a popular spot for people to take a body board and go crashing down them! This sounded like a lot of fun, however after discussing over breakfast in town we decided it was too cold for that, and we should head further south.

We travelled some more distance until we got to a farmhouse lodge near a town called Hastings. The lodge was extremely old (by New Zealand standards) but was big in character. But the biggest character was the caretaker, who remarkably resembled the Prospector from Toy Story 2, and had the sense of humour to put anyone at ease. There were also 12 dogs running around these grounds, which Beth enjoyed immensely.

In the morning we left early and travelled towards Wellington. We saw snowy mountains for the first time in the distance, as well as plenty of goats, sheep, cows and even falcons soaring above our car.

Our first view of snowy mountains - a change from the north's rolling green hills!

We eventually came upon a town called Dannevirke - originally settled by Scandinavians, where the most awesome chocolate cheesecake was to be found in a cafe called Yummy Mummys.

Onwards once more through various villages and scenery, we arrived at Porirua where we visited a police museum. It was all about police and criminal history in New Zealand, and you could also try on some of the uniforms!

Who do you think wears it better - Beth or Joe?

We also went bowling... but don't talk to Beth about who won...

The following day we finally arrived in Wellington and set our sights upon the Great War Museum with it's exhibition from Sir Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings & Hobbit fans) which was both extremely informative and moving. There was an insane amount of detail that had gone into the making of the sets and models, as well as the information about battles and individual soldiers. It was a great exhibition and I hope it continues to show other people the horrors and futility of war.

Afterwards, we had originally planned to go back to Porirua for lunch when suddenly Gimli's clutch blew leaving us stranded at the side of a busy motorway! There was smoke everywhere and the whole car stank! Luckily for us a very helpful stranger was just on his way back from work and towed us to a garage. After a few painstaking hours (and a lot of money spent) Gimli was back on the road - though still smelling like death.

Oh Gimli...

This time we stayed at a hostel in the city to recharge ourselves for the more challenging part of our journey - the south island!

Next stop: Hobbiton and Rotorua

After spending the night drinking overpriced Jagerbombs (fun fact: In New Zealand, it's cheaper to buy 2 dominoes pizzas than 1 Jagerbomb) in an Irish bar and camping out in their carpark, our next stop was Hobbiton.

Hobbit holes by the lake

Matamata: here sits a perfectly picturesque farm that took the eye of Peter Jackson 16 years ago for filming the home of Bilbo and Frodo in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. This was quite possibly the place Joe and I were most excited about seeing, and it was just as magical as we expected. It was so amazing to see and learn about every tiny detail that went into making these particular scenes for the movies. Walking in the same tracks as some of our favourite characters, and having a ginger beer and beef stew in The Green Dragon.

Bilbo's house at Bag End

The Shire

Next along was Rotorua - the only place you can fart and blame it on the earth, as the whole city and surrounds is sitting on a volcano, and there is a strong smell of sulphur - like rotten eggs. In recent years it has become a tourist hotspot, with people flocking every year to experience the natural hot pools, mud pools and geysers.

Lake Rotorua

 It is also the birthplace of zorbing, so of course, we gave it a go. We went on one straight and one zigzag track down a hill in a massive inflatable ball with water inside it. The second time, Joe and I went in a ball together, and crashing into each other just made it even more fun!

The greeting of the Maori chiefs

In the evening we headed to Tamaki Maori village, where we learnt about the Maori tribes, their customs, history, even the games they used to play - and had a go ourselves. The whole evening was amazingly set out, and really makes you feel like you were there experiencing a real Maori village. The men learnt the traditional "Haka" battle dance, and the women learnt Poi. The evening ended with some performances, songs and dances, followed by a meal cooked traditional using the Maori method of hot stones in large holes underground. The food was to die for and there was plenty of it!

For our final day in Rotorua, we were supposed to be going white water rafting, but after being driven out into the starting point in the forest, the staff decided the river was too high following rain last week. It was definitely disappointing but I'd rather not die. Instead, we had a free lunch and were taken to a local hot stream. Sitting in our swimwear in the middle of winter in a stream that reaches temperatures of 40 degrees definitely felt a little more than strange. It was so hot that you could see the steam coming off the surface of the water. If it wasn't for the constant eggy smell it would be natural bliss!

Next time you'll find out all about our drive from Rotorua to Wellington, our last stop on the north island. The amazing views we saw, and how Gimli burst into smoke on the motorway! Until then...