Heading north on New Zealand’s North Island
Tuesday, March 4, 06:45 (our itinerary)
We’ve been in Wellington the past couple of days, touring, visiting with friends and their families, and in an hour or so we’ll be heading north. Internet access has been less common than I had expected, but that’s partly because of the region we were in the past week. We’re keeping to our rough itinerary so far, but we’re changing it from here on due mostly to continuing unsettled weather.
I won’t attempt to try to tell you at this point about all that we’ve done and seen in the week since my last post. The fact that I’ve now taken 2,249 photos may give you a hint of how long the list is! The touring highlight so far, though, has been the day trip to White Island (Whakaari), a privately owned active volcano. It was astounding, totally blowing away anything that much more famous Rotorua has to offer.[Edit: on December 9, 2019, the White Island volcano erupted, killing 22 people and seriously injuring 25 🙁 ]
Many people online recommend avoiding East Cape due to poor roads and limited facilities, but we really enjoyed it. Off the beaten track, with spectacular and empty beaches such as Wapiro Beach seen below. It was reached by a narrow side road a few miles long, and made a superb lunch stop.
We’ve discovered that getting away from the usual tourist route can save a lot of money. Great fish and chips for 2 for $10NZ ($7.50 Cdn) at a roadside shack, for example, and the same size and quality kauri-and-paua bowl we saw in Rotorua for about $300 is now in our collection for a $101 investment.
Wellington is a charming city – shrinking San Franciso and then scattering it around a rugged and complex piece of coastline will give you a bit of an idea what it looks like. The spot below is just a few minues from the office towers of downtown.
The rest of the household is now up, and the day has begun – I hope to give you another update tonight or tomorrow morning.
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