Kiwi Roads: NORTH ISLAND ROAD TRIP (PART 1)

Hi Everyone,

So much to catch you up on! Dan and I hit a lot in the 6 days of our road trip around the southeast part of the North Island so I’m going to split up the posts to spread out the fun. We left from Hamilton on a Monday and headed east to Rotorua. The landscape from Hamilton took us out of the valley here and up into the hills. Rotorua is best known for all the geothermal activity around its big lake with a number of smaller lakes surrounding. As we drove down out of the hills into Rotorua we were overwhelmed with the strong sulfur smell (rotten eggs) that accompanies all the hot springs there. We took in a bit of the landscape at Rainbow Springs and got to see the kiwi birds they have there (a lot bigger than we originally expected!). We decided to go check out some of the smaller lakes before continuing on and we were treated with some beautiful views at Lake Tarawera where a volcano destroyed the māori village there in 1886 (you can see the flat top of the volcano in the distance). We spent the rest of the afternoon driving the rest of the way to the east coast to Whakatane (pronounced fah-kə-tah-nee) and spent our first night there in a backpackers called The Commercial Hotel. We realized then that we were definitely traveling in the off-season, as the small beach town was incredibly quiet.

The next morning realized that there was a small waterfall coming off the cliff just behind the backpackers. It was called the Wairere waterfall and was one of those that cascaded from pool to pool. Pictures just didn’t do it justice. After having some breakfast at a nice outdoor café in the warm sun we took off along the coastal road heading south. We took our time driving along the beautiful, but windy, coastal road stopping at a few lookouts for pictures and to take in the views. Many times we had to pull over as the parts of the roads along the cliffs had been washed out and traffic was coming from the opposite direction. Don’t think I’ve even been on a windier road! We also stopped at Raukokore to see the beautiful Anglican Church situated out on a bluff (panoramic pic).

Once we finally made it to Te Araroa (out at the tip of the east cape) we decided to try to stay instead of pushing on to Gisbore. We originally thought Te Araroa would be more of a town but it was sparsely populated, like most of the east coast, and only had one gas pump and two small general stores. Luckily we saw a posting for a backpackers a bit back down the road and easily booked a room there. This backpackers was set up more like a bed and breakfast with us staying in a big house with the host family. There were numerous beds in each room and a communal kitchen on the first floor. It was decorated with an odd mix of old english victorian things and māori art. Once we were settled the māori hostess kindly pointed us further down the road towards a river saying there was a ‘nature hike’ there. As there was still some light left in the day we decided to go explore. We followed the road to the end, where it turned into a gravel track and eventually met up with the river. We were surprised to come across a couple groups of what looked to be wild horses grazing in the riverbed. They didn’t really care for our company, but didn’t run too far off. We pulled over a couple different places to get pictures and explore but were back at the backpackers by dark. It was a bit of a restless night though as we stayed up in the attic room and the rain and wind picked up overnight creating a very eerie atmosphere!

That’s it for part 1…. Stay tuned for part 2! J (click pictures to see bigger)