New Zealand (North island)
Cruising through New Zealand – Volcanoes, sulfur and steam
Route
- Landing in Auckland, picking up the minivan
- Rotorua and its many volcanic attractions
- The famous Tongariro crossing between two volcanoes
- Heading to Wellington for a date with the ferry!
Budget
- € 92.7 per person per day ?
- 7 days on the north island (too short!)
- First week of April 2019
- Useful information – prices, and more, at the end of the article
New Zealand is a country that for many reasons (Lord of the Rings being one of them) grabs people’s imagination, including ours. And of course, as usual, we didn’t know much about the country before we entered it. Luckily Paul & Julia arrived a couple of weeks before us so we weren’t completely clueless!
To explore New Zealand you need a car. It’s probably possible to use public transportation, but being able to drive yourself will make everything 1000 times easier. We decided to settle on a small camper from Escape rentals, partly to save money on hotels, partly because you can just arrive and set up camp without too much hassle.
Very important to know though is that New Zealand does not allow wild camping and even if you have a camper van you can’t just park it anywhere and sleep. If you see the massive amount of campers on the road in NZ, you understand why they made this rule 🙂
It even matters if your camper has a toilet or not (self-contained vs non-self-contained vehicles). If you don’t have a toilet, you’re limited in the kinds of camping spots you can choose.
All in all it severely jacked up the budget, but, no regrets!
Stage 1 – Auckland to Rotorua
We landed at 6AM after a full day of flying (Denpasar – Melbourne – Auckland) so naturally we were exhausted. We took a bus into town and camped in a coffee shop for a while until Escape Rentals opened office.
nice park in Auckland 
After picking up the van (yes, we’re sure we don’t want extra insurance! ?) and activating a SIM card for GPS purposes we got the hell out of Auckland.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
Still absolutely knackered, we pulled into a small free camping spot for a couple of hours of shut-eye.
We held a brief stop at Blue Spring Putaruru, a river with such clear, clean water, that this is the source of 60% of New Zealand’s bottled water. The water comes from the Mamaku Plateau, where it takes about a 100 years to filter through.
A free walkway takes you next to the river.
Soon afterwards, we arrived in Rotorua.
Rotorua is an area with volcanic activity manifesting itself in different ways. There are natural hot pools, bubbling mud pits and steaming geysers to be found everywhere, and there’s a constant smell of sulfur in town.
Our first stops were Waimangu Volcanic Valley and Wai-O-Tapu.
Waimangu is the location of the Frying Pan Lake, the largest hot spring in the world. The water is constantly at a temperature of about 50-60 °C. Lots of steam is being released here, and in some places the lake can appear to be boiling, but it’s just CO2 and hydrogen gases being released.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
almost burnt my finger! 
Wai-O-Tapu is more colorful, with lots of volcanic chemicals giving a unique look to the place.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
champagne pool 
The next day we decided to discover the redwoods forest nearby, and lake Tarawera.
Camping art 
Cooking at night 
Lunch next to the lake 
We visited a place called ‘Kerosene Creek’, a warm water river where you can bathe quite comfortably for free. Just don’t put your head under water or you might get some nasty brain infection. Afterwards we discovered Rotorua city a bit more in Kuirau park and the Government gardens.
kerosine creek 
The following day we spent at the Orakei Korako Geothermal Park. Crazy colors! And if you’re lucky you can see a geyser or two erupt.
Stage 2 – Rotorua to Tongariro
From Rotorua to Tongariro we passed a place called Taupo. Here we had a quick look at the Huka falls and a volcanic park called ‘Craters of the Moon’.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
The smoke everywhere in Rotorua is pretty mesmerizing:
In Tongariro, there’s a very popular trek called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The hike is about 20km long and it passes between two volcanoes; Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe. The latter served in the Lord of the Rings movies as Mount Doom, but they just took a picture of it and the rest is CGI.
It can be a bit cold during the hike, and since we didn’t have much warm clothes with us (we naively thought we would only do warm countries), we went shopping. A British couple gave us a good tip: usually you can find op-shops (second hand stores) in towns. We found a couple of good ones, I bought a jacket for 4 dollars and a hat for 1!
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
We had a lot of people joining us that day.
at the highest point 
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
In the middle of the hike you are confronted with a beautiful view on the volcanic ‘Emerald lakes’.
The picture below is a 360 photo, click and drag to look around, scroll to zoom!
removing trash with a helicopter! 
Stage 3 – Tongariro to Wellington
After Tongariro it was a hefty drive to Wellington to catch our ferry on time. Check that in part 2!
Useful information
1 € = 1.7 $NZ (04.2019)
• Accomodation – 11 % of common budget
In the accommodation category I included 1 Airbnb + parking fee in the camping sites. Almost all camping sites in NZ are paid (but with a shower and kitchen included). Free camping usually is very basic, with no shower and electricity. In April at night is very cold in the car, so we preferred camping with electricity. For a wild camping you can have a huge fine.
To find and reserve camping sites we used a free app Camper mate, super useful! There are also a lot of useful information about sightseeing, restaurants, hostels etc. The most popular travel app for Australia and New Zealand.
• Food – 14 % of common budget (we bought everything at the supermarkets and cooked by ourselves, there is always a cooking set in campers)
• Transport – 54 % of common budget
•1 028 NZ $ – non self- contained camper from ESCAPE (2 weeks, pick up in Auckland and drop off in Christchurch (+300 NZ) no extra insurance •200 NZ $ – ferry from Wellington to Picton (camper van + 2 persons) •813 NZ $ – fuel (3 000 km – 12L per 100 km) •74 NZ $– taxi Uber •38 NZ $ – Skybus airport in Auckland •85€ pp – flight from Christchurch to Auckland
• Activity – 14 % of common budget
There is a free magazine at the airport that called ARRIVAL, with a reduction for almost all main activities in NZ! Hostels or campings also offeres a 10 % discount sometimes for the activities close by •In Rotorua – Waimango volcanic valley – 42 NZ$ pp •In Rotorua – Wai-o-tapu – 30 pp •In Rotorua – volcano visit orakei korako – 35 pp •In Rotorua – crater of the moon – 8 pp •transport to tongariro path – 40 pp •Wail watching in Kaikoura – 135 pp •Franz Josef Glacier hot pools – 23 pp (cool!)
• Other (postcards, laundry etc ) – 8 % of common budget •100 NZ $– sim card for 10 Gb