North Island, New Zealand

We flew into Auckland, which is at the top of the North Island of New Zealand but didn’t spend any time and started driving south.

Our first morning in New Zealand we had a booking to go see glowworms in a cave. This is a popular attraction as they are only found in Australia and New Zealand, and we were lucky to secure a spot with a smaller company that does longer tours.

Our tour guide explained the landscape features and then took us on a boat ride through the cave, where the glowworms looked exactly like stars. Afterward, we went through a second cave which had bones of animals that had fallen into the caves from holes above. One of these included the bones of a Moa, a now extinct gigantic bird.

Illuminated glow worm strands hanging from the cave ceiling

The bones of the Moa, a giant flightless bird, which like many animals fell through toma (sinkholes) on the surface. Farmers today keep groupings of trees near the openings to discourage animals.

That night we headed to Rotorua, which is known for thermal features. The town was pretty chaotic (as was our hostel) so this wasn’t our favorite spot. We walked around a redwood forest and some thermal areas, but opted not to fork over the insane admission fees for the larger thermal attractions.

Redwoods — Very clear stream in the redwood forest

On Christmas Eve, we had reservations for a shuttle to do the Tongariro crossing, a famous hike that passes between three volcanoes across a pretty unique landscape. Our bus dropped us off at 6:30, and I made Jon-David practically run to get past the initial crowds. We started in some dense fog, which cleared just as we reached the highest point and revealed the landscape.

The bright blue lakes at Tongariro crossing, with thermal steam churning out

Our original New Zealand plans had us camping over Christmas, but back in Italy we revamped the whole itinerary assuming that we would not want to purchase all gear necessary for backpacking and that we would be moving a bit slower. This was good insight on our part, and for Christmas we had a nice airbnb with a hot tub and full kitchen.

On Christmas day we did another hike in the Tongariro park, and then relaxed with a jigsaw puzzle and some local fish for dinner. This turned out to be so good we made the same dinner the next night, reasoning that it was Christmas day at home so we should celebrate twice. We missed family a lot over the holidays, so it was good to be somewhere comfortable.

The main Christmas dessert in New Zealand is pavlova, and large meringue covered with whipped cream and fruit. This was quite good, I’ll be making it at home sometime.

Dinner — Enjoying our Christmas dinner, complete with Moscow mules made from Bundaberg ginger beer, a new favorite.

The last stop on the North Island was Wellington, which is in a valley on the coast. Our place backed up to some ridgeline trails which we walked despite some crazy winds. We also visited Zealandia, a huge bird sanctuary where we spent hours trying to spot all the bird on the list they provided.