North Island part 2 - the final leg

The day couldn't have been nicer as we made the journey through the Marlborough Sound and across the Cook Strait from the South Island back to Wellington.

We took highway 1 up the west coast from Wellington to Palmerston North, then route 3 up to Wanganui where we went for a paddle in the Tasman Sea at Castlecliff Beach – boy it was cold!

As the weather was due to be nice for a few days, we stayed on the west coast and carried on up to Opunake – where we were the only ones there!

The walk along the cliffs showed what a great coastline this is, especially for surfers

On up to New Plymouth and the biggest city on the west coast, where we spent a couple of days walking along the coast and relaxing in the sun watching the ships come into Port Taranaki

When the weather to the east cleared, this was the view inland from the other side of our van:

Mt Taranaki - beautiful.

We left New Plymouth and headed down towards Stratford and the start of the ‘Forgotten World Highway’, NZs oldest Heritage trail, 155kms following ancient Maori trade routes and pioneering farm tracks from the west coast to the central plateau…

… and through the Moki Tunnel, known locally as the Hobbit’s Hole (think thin - it only 1 lane!)

We carried on from Taumarunui (the end of the highway) to Turangi, passing the bottom edge of Lake Taupo along the way…

… and saw Mt Tongariro grumbling (it last erupted in 2012) …

… and Tawhai Falls…

… on our way to Tongariro National Park and Whakapapa Village, seeing Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings)

and Mt Ruapehu

in the distance. As the weather was nice when we arrived in Whakapapa and we knew it was due to change later in the day, we decided to do the 2 hour hike to Taranaki Falls. It was a lovely walk through the national park to the waterfall

… although we could see the weather closing in across the plateau…

Did we make it back in time? No, the rain came and caught us 10 minutes away from the carpark. About 20 minutes later, it started snowing! I’m glad we weren't out in the open then. As the weather had closed in, we decided to go to Chateau Tongariro in the village for ‘high tea’, and spent the late afternoon in luxurious, warm surroundings, watching the world go by through a huge picture window (mainly rabbits multiplying on the plateau!) and eating tiny sandwiches, lovely cakes and drinking pots full of tea (with the pinky stuck out, of course). We had taken our e-readers with us and after we had been there for about an hour, I heard a thud as Mark dropped his – apparently his fingers had gone to sleep, unlike the rest of him! We decided to leave shortly after that and before they evicted us for snoring! It snowed again in the evening and it’s the only place I've had to wear my coat and take a brolly to the shower block as it was so cold. I’m so glad we have a heater in the van.

The following day, we headed up to Otorohanga and visited the Waitomo Glowworm caves – wow, what a sight! From our boat, we went deeper into the caves and saw thousands of glowworms lighting up the inside of the caves just like stars in the sky. Photography was not allowed, so here is one I found on their website:

We then spent a couple of days in Hamilton, visited the local farmers market on the Sunday morning and went for a very long walk along the river. We’re now in our last week and based in Manukau in the greater Auckland area. We’ll be visiting places to the west of Auckland that we didn't get to see the first time around and also fitting in a few curries too (especially as we won't get a good one for quite some time), including heading into town for the Diwali festival this weekend. We'll then bid farewell to this country as we head off across the Pacific to Los Angeles and another new adventure!