Ah September, how time flies. I feel like time just slipped by this 2020 because of COVID-19, it's not really a good year for most people. A lot lost their jobs, business closures, lost loved ones I hope next year we'll have the vaccine so we can all live normally as we used to. So far my 2020 is still pretty good to me, I am well, my family is well, passed AWS certification, got a new car (Mazda CX-5!) and yeah got my own home here in Australia. I am paying two mortgages (one in PH) so I need to keep earning money and cannot afford to be jobless. Thankfully I am still with my employer and busy each day. Anyways I thought I'd write my North NZ trip with M this evening.
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| I was supposed to get the Mazda CX-30 but due to covid, there was a delay in car deliveries. As it was the latest car to buy, dealer said to wait until July (This was in May). I couldn't wait for 2 mos so got a CX-5 instead. |
Before our NZ trip, I actually went back to Manila, PH for 2 weeks last April 2019. I enjoy visiting my family, friends and off course Kisses, my dog who I miss the most! A bond with your dog is just different than people, I miss Kisses all the time so I always come home at least once a year. Good thing my employer sometimes also sends me to PH for work stuff so I get to come home frequently.
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Trip to Las Casas with family and Kisses
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| Me and my cousins are all close, we grew up together so we like to hang out when we get the chance. |
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| The day I fly back to Sydney, it's sad to leave Kisses boo behind :( she always comes with me to the airport. |
Oh before we went to NZ, me and M had a mini trip to Melbourne to watch Harry potter and the Cursed child! We only went on a weekend (May 2019) so we went straight to the office from the airport after landing 7am on a Monday in Syd!
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| Potterheads! |
Onto the NZ blog (May 2019)!
Autumn is my favorite season to travel and New Zealand is definitely a place you'd go during autumn. Actually you can go any season! It's peaceful and scenic country, I know I will always enjoy coming back. I love driving in NZ so again I rented a Toyota Rav 4 and drove for more than a thousand km in a span of 7 days! If you want to follow my itinerary, here it is from Auckland to Coromandel - Matamata - Rotorua - Taupo - Waitomo - Hamilton then back to Auckland! It is pretty packed.
Coromandel: Me and M arrived at Auckland airport and picked up our rental car. I drove all the way to Coromandel in the dusk and it was scary! The road to Coromandel is steep, narrow and winding. It's not something I recommend to drive at night for first time goers. We got a little late because there was traffic in Auckland and we ate at KFC :p so by the time I was on the road to Coromandel it was already late. The fog wasn't helping too but all is well and we arrived in our resort at 10pm. I recommend staying here at Tatahi Lodge if you are visiting Coromandel! They've got cozy log cabins, near the beach!
Coromandel Accomodation: https://www.tatahilodge.co.nz/accommodation/
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| Beach near Tatahi lodge |
We were supposed to go to Cathedral cove where Narnia was shot unfortunately I didn't research good enough that we needed at least a day to go there! You have to ride a boat then it's about a 2 hour hike to reach the cove. We didn't have enough time as that day, I also booked afternoon tickets to Hobbiton so we just went to Hot water beach instead.
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| Where you dig in the sand and hot water comes out from underground fissures. |
Matamata: After Coromandel, I drove to Matamata to visit Hobbiton.. again! It's my second time here it's where they shot some scenes from the Lord of the Rings. The tour guide will explain the scenes from the movie. If you're a fan, don't forget to add this to your list of destinations. I love the details of the set here, also there is a channel in NZ where they endlessly show Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies!
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| Middle earth adventurers |
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| Frodo are you there? |
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| On my way to Green Dragon Inn to get ginger beer! |
Rotorua: After Hobbiton, off we go to Rotorua or as the locals say Rotten-rua! So the city itself is filled with geothermal lakes so it smells like rotten egg due to the sulfur hence Rottenrua nickname. It is famous for Geothermal activities, mountain biking, hiking and Maori culture. Over here we went to Governor's Manor, Whakarewarewa forest aka Red Woods, rode the Skyline Gondola, visited Wai-o-Tapu Wonderland and watched a Maori traditional dance.
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| Just a huge mansion in town |
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A must when visiting Rotorua, it's just filled with towering, majestic trees. Hundreds if not thousands of them! One of my favorite places.
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| Stop by Wai-o-Tapu Thermal wonderland for geysers and geothermal activities. |
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| Tamaki Maori village for insights on Maori culture and traditions. We had a buffet dinner too, Kia-Ora! |
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| Gorgeous view from riding the Gondola. You can also avail Luge to ride back down. |
Taupo: After Rotorua, we head off to Taupo where in we had breakfast in the only McDonald's with a decommissioned DC3 plane. Menu was the same but it was cool you get to eat inside the plane!
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| Burger and fries? |
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| Instead of seats, you'll see dining tables. You can also see the cockpit and steering wheel in the front side! |
After breakfast, we attempted to ride a bike to Huka falls bike trail but failed! Due to lack of biking experience, I wasn't even able to ride the off road section in the beginning. In the end just took some photos of the falls, and rode the bike back to the rentals.
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| #lovetaupo hashtag |
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| When riding a bike fails, just take a selfie |
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| Actually fell in the middle of the road and got myself a massive bruise on my leg. But all smiles life goes on. |
After Huka falls, we went to Craters of the moon. It's named that way due to the craters and geothermal activity.
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| Craters of the moon more like craters on Taupo |
Waitomo: After Taupo, we went to Waitomo to see glow worms! We went to Ruakuri cave and to Waitomo glow worm cave.
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| Ruakuri reserve for glow worms and limestone formations. It is an underground cave so you'll also see crystal formations. |
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| Spiral staircase down to the cave's entrance |
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Stars? Nope these are glow worms. Much prettier in person.
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| Stalagmites and Stalactites |
Hamilton: After our glow worm expeditions, I drove off to Hamilton. We went to Hamilton Gardens, it's a public garden. There are areas in the garden wherein they showcase the garden based on countries. They have a Japanese garden, Chinese, Italian, Indian and Modernist style garden.
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| But first brunch! |
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| Japanese garden |
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| Italian - renaissance style garden |
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| Indian garden |
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| Chinese garden - everywhere I go there is one! |
The last stop in Hamilton was Waikato museum. Then we flew back to Sydney from Auckland. As you can see, it is a jammed pack trip. I like to do DIYs than go on tours so you can explore in your own pace. Oh yeah we flew Air New Zealand, the country's flag carrier and I must admit it is now my favorite airline. I like that they have extra legroom in economy class but what I don't like is I have to pay for the movies. Got lucky on the flights as we got them on sale.
My aunties and my mom visited me here in Sydney last November 2019. They all wanted to go to NZ too so I took them to Queenstown, the most scenic place in NZ South Island.
That is another post to tell the tale. :)
