New Zealand #1

North Island

By Foreign Natives

February 19^th, 2017

buying a van

A trip to New Zealand had been in our minds for a long time, and we finally traveled there on February 2017. As we planned to be in the country for two months, we decided to buy a campervan and sell it at the end of our trip. It's way cheaper than just renting it, even though it might be a bit of a hustle. We spent a week in Auckland looking for a van and we finally bought a beautiful Toyota Hiace from a nice German couple. Toyota cars are so good! The van had already a simple custom set up, with a bed and a simple kitchen, we only had to cover the steering wheel with a climbing rope because it was so old and trashed! :)

We were ready to start our adventure.

COROMANDEL PENINSULA

New Zealand is composed of two pretty big islands: North and South. Auckland, which is in the north, is the most common port of arrival in New Zealand, so it made sense to start exploring the North Island first.

Our first stop was the Coromandel Peninsula, a piece of land on the north east filled with wild beaches and forests.

TONGARIRO

This is, we think, the most popular destination for tourists in New Zealand, and for one good reason. Tongariro is a spectacular volcano surrounded by multi-coloured lakes and dramatic red-colored rocks that make it beautiful and at the same time mysterious and threatening. So much that The Lord Of The Rings crew decided to use it as the filming location for Mordor.

Even though we like the trilogy, we were not so much into the hype and craze that seemed to be everywhere in NZ, so we went there for the nature, and ended up doing a full loop around the volcano in a couple days.

After spending some days in it, we finally made the little van our own. Sometimes it's hard to feel like home in a van. After several nights and little changes here and there, it finally felt (and smelled!) like it had always been ours.

MOUNT TARANAKI

Being a volcanic island, New Zealand has incredible volcanoes all around, some of them very accesible. Mt. Taranaki setup is unlike any other. It is a 2518m mountain, two thirds of it surrounded by the ocean. This means that you can see water all around you once you climb to the top.

The hike is hard, but the views are a big reward.

rotorua

Whangamata

crossing to the south island

After three weeks traveling around the North Island, we were ready for a wilder adventure on the South Island. A place known for the big contrast between mountains, glaciers, white sand but also very wild beaches.