North Island, New Zealand
Blog: By Way of the World - 7 July 2009
By: Erin
From Christchurch, we made our way to Picton, a town in the Marlborough sounds at the northern end of New Zealand's South Island. From there were able to take the Interislander Ferry, which took about four hours to get to Wellington. It had beautiful views of the Marlborough Sounds, though it was very cold out on the deck, so we weren't able to stay outside long.
Often dubbed "Wellywood" because of the recent boom in the film industry, thanks mostly to Lord of the Rings, Wellington was far more cosmopolitan than any city in the South Island, in our opinion. We parked the camper and took a day off. Our second day, we went to the national museum, Te Papa, which is an awesome museum. So many hands-on exhibits for kids (Dan really liked them too!) and such a variety of exhibits. They have a giant squid from Anarctica on display (the only museum to have such an item), natural history exhibits, Maori history, art, and lots more. We were there for most of a day, and it still wasn't enough. Best of all, it was FREE!
The following day, we started officially looking for Lord of the Rings film locations, since we'd picked up a copy of Ian Brodie's book at Te Papa Museum. In Wellington itself is Mount Victoria, the park where they filmed the hobbits hiding from the Nazgul. Next on the agenda was the river Anduin, Isengard, and Rivendell.
It was way more fun to find them ourselves, using his directions, than going on some organized and expensive tour. This way, we felt we were actually discovering these tucked away corners of the island! Later we also went to Mordor, Mount Doom, Gollum's pool, and Hobbiton.
Another highlight was the city of Napier, a few hours north of Wellington, on the east side of the island. Napier is right near the Hawkes Bay wine region, and we stayed a few days to be able to do all the wine tasting and walk around this fantastic area. Dan has been really interested in Art Deco, so for Dan's birthday, we did a walking tour of the Napier.
The city was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1930's, and rebuilt in a unified Art Deco style. This style was chosen because of its economical value during the depression, while also having the advantage of being more solidly built than previous buildings (thus withstanding future earthquakes). We stopped in the historical society's headquarters, where they had a free 20-minute video on the history of Napier. Anyway, the buildings were fabulous. The i-SITE brochure we bought for $5 said that the tour would take 2 hours max. 2 hours later, we were only halfway through! We did some wine tasting after that, and then went to the only dinner out at a restaurant in all of our time in NZ!
Rotorua was another highlight. This city is located next to the crater (now a lake) of a volcano. New Zealand, and the north island in particular, has all kinds of crazy geothermal action because of its location on the fault line between the Asian and Australian plates. Rotorua is famous for its mud pools, hot springs, and steam vents. We walked around Kuirau Park, which is free, checking out a plethora of steam vents, boiling hot pools, and mud pots.
We even dipped our feet in the free hot spring, which is supposed to have healing properties. Boy was it hot! We could only stay in a few minutes and when we took our feet out they were red and steaming!
We made it to Auckland, but didn't have much time to explore before our flight out the following day. We chose to spend more time at Matamata, where the Hobbiton movie set is located. It was awesome, despite the ridiculous admission price ($58 each). I even got to 'pose' as a hobbit!
Often dubbed "Wellywood" because of the recent boom in the film industry, thanks mostly to Lord of the Rings, Wellington was far more cosmopolitan than any city in the South Island, in our opinion. We parked the camper and took a day off. Our second day, we went to the national museum, Te Papa, which is an awesome museum. So many hands-on exhibits for kids (Dan really liked them too!) and such a variety of exhibits. They have a giant squid from Anarctica on display (the only museum to have such an item), natural history exhibits, Maori history, art, and lots more. We were there for most of a day, and it still wasn't enough. Best of all, it was FREE!
The following day, we started officially looking for Lord of the Rings film locations, since we'd picked up a copy of Ian Brodie's book at Te Papa Museum. In Wellington itself is Mount Victoria, the park where they filmed the hobbits hiding from the Nazgul. Next on the agenda was the river Anduin, Isengard, and Rivendell.
It was way more fun to find them ourselves, using his directions, than going on some organized and expensive tour. This way, we felt we were actually discovering these tucked away corners of the island! Later we also went to Mordor, Mount Doom, Gollum's pool, and Hobbiton.
Another highlight was the city of Napier, a few hours north of Wellington, on the east side of the island. Napier is right near the Hawkes Bay wine region, and we stayed a few days to be able to do all the wine tasting and walk around this fantastic area. Dan has been really interested in Art Deco, so for Dan's birthday, we did a walking tour of the Napier.
The city was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1930's, and rebuilt in a unified Art Deco style. This style was chosen because of its economical value during the depression, while also having the advantage of being more solidly built than previous buildings (thus withstanding future earthquakes). We stopped in the historical society's headquarters, where they had a free 20-minute video on the history of Napier. Anyway, the buildings were fabulous. The i-SITE brochure we bought for $5 said that the tour would take 2 hours max. 2 hours later, we were only halfway through! We did some wine tasting after that, and then went to the only dinner out at a restaurant in all of our time in NZ!
Rotorua was another highlight. This city is located next to the crater (now a lake) of a volcano. New Zealand, and the north island in particular, has all kinds of crazy geothermal action because of its location on the fault line between the Asian and Australian plates. Rotorua is famous for its mud pools, hot springs, and steam vents. We walked around Kuirau Park, which is free, checking out a plethora of steam vents, boiling hot pools, and mud pots.
We even dipped our feet in the free hot spring, which is supposed to have healing properties. Boy was it hot! We could only stay in a few minutes and when we took our feet out they were red and steaming!
We made it to Auckland, but didn't have much time to explore before our flight out the following day. We chose to spend more time at Matamata, where the Hobbiton movie set is located. It was awesome, despite the ridiculous admission price ($58 each). I even got to 'pose' as a hobbit!
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