We arrived in Rotorua after spending some time further north and spent a few days in the town before moving further south again to Hawkes Bay.

At this point, we had been on the road for about two weeks and living out of a van and doing a continual road trip like this was beginning to become a familiar routine. Throughout each day, we make decisions on where we’re going to go, which places we’re going to stay in, and what we’re going to see and do along the way.

Plans change based on the weather so this becomes a never ending process throughout each and every day. Then every couple of days we have to find somewhere to fill up our water containers, get fresh groceries, find showers, do laundry, fill up propane for the camp stove and so on. So the trip becomes a cycle of maintaining and juggling all of these things, which in one way becomes a little bit exhausting. But in another way, it seems to make everything so simple.

These are nearly all of the concerns that we have at any given moment, so compared to regular living, these things that we have to maintain seem very minuscule and easy. It also gives us small goals and things to look out for as we drive through different towns and plan ahead. Of course, throughout it, there are bigger things that we have to worry about like the overall plan for the trip and finding employment, and small things like getting internet and printing things that we need to fill out can sometimes be frustrating and take a long time, but in general, each day has this simple rhythm to it, that once you get into the swing of things, gets very addicting.

Each day we wake up in a new place and see new things, so without things like tv or constant access to computers, we completely focus on seeing the places around us, taking pictures, and when we can, read our books. Each day we cover a lot of ground, so we don’t have much time at all to sit around but at the same time, each day seems to be quite relaxing.

Rotorua:

When we arrived in Rotorua, it was the first place that we had been where we planned to stay more than one night (other than Auckland). Everywhere previously, we had only passed through briefly for a day or a night before moving on to the next place. The town itself is really cool and there is a ton of things to do in the area.

I was familiar with the town before arriving in New Zealand because it is famous for its mountain biking scene, so it’s somewhere that I had always wanted to go (even though I didn’t have a mountain bike with me unfortunately). Another main feature of the town is its hot springs and geysers, and thermal pools. The area is very geothermally active and this is immediately apparent when you’re driving through the area because every now and then you get a very strong smell of sulphur that smells like rotten eggs.

Rotorua is built on the edge of a lake (which not surprisingly is named Lake Rotorua) and is surrounded by rolling hills. It’s a great place to spend some time and we ended up staying a total of 3 nights in the area (the first night in a paid campground in town, the second at a free-camping spot about 20 minutes from town, and the third night at a free camping spot along the edge of the lake in town).

Even though I’m sure that there was a lot more to see in Rotorua than what we were able to cover, we kept ourselves busy every day and some of our favourite things were:

• Redwood Forest:

The Redwood forest of Rotorua is just on the edge of town so it’s quick and easy to get to. There is an entire network of trails so that you can walk for an hour, or an entire day if you want. For some reason, to me Rotorua seemed like a very unlikely place to find redwood trees and I was quite surprised to hear about them.

We walked for an hour or two through the forest and besides the gigantic trees themselves, there are also some small sulphur pools filled with a strange faded blue water, and some bridges and boardwalks.

Nearby the walking trails in the Redwood forest, there is an entire network of mountain biking trails. Unfortunately, we didn’t have mountain bikes so we couldn’t take advantage of them, but the biking network was far more extensive than even the walking trails.

• Thursday Night Festival:

We’ve found that lots of towns in New Zealand have festivals and farmers markets throughout the week which are really awesome and bring people from the town together. In Rotorua, we happened to be there on a Thursday night which is when they have their festival. They had a section of the street designated for the festival and it was filled with food trucks, vendors, and live music.

• Rotorua Museum (Bathhouse):

One of the most well-known landmarks in Rotorua is the famous bathhouse, which has now been turned into the Rotorua Museum. We walked to the bathhouse early on the morning that we were leaving Rotorua, so the museum wasn’t open but we walked through the gardens in front of the building and also checked out some hot pools nearby. Unfortunately, I don’t have a great picture of the building as the sun was directly behind the building, putting it into shadow, but just take my word that it’s cool, and it also has a long and interesting history as well.

• Kerosene Creek:

There actually isn’t much to see at Kerosene creek and it isn’t overly exciting or scenic. But, on the day that we left Rotorua to make our way south again, we were driving right by so we decided to check it out. Besides being not especially scenic, Kerosene creek is actually quite interesting because it’s fed from a geothermal spring so the water is warm (actually almost hot in some places).

So, even though it looks like a regular creek, it’s a bit of a shock when you first feel the water because it’s so warm. I’ve seen plenty of pools and small streams that are fed by hot springs, but I’ve never seen an entire creek with large pools and waterfalls like those at Kerosene creek.

• Huka Falls:

As we were making our way south from Rotorua we stopped in at Huka Falls. There’s a big parking lot that is a quick walk to the falls and a couple of different trails on either side of the river to take you to different viewpoints. The river is quite wide upstream of the falls and then it suddenly narrows into a steep gorge for about 100 metres before the falls.

In this section, the water rushes past very fast and there are huge powerful rapids. The bridge that spans the river crosses over this small gorge so you can stand right above this water and see it flowing below you. Further down, the water then plunges over a small drop that is Huka Falls. Even though the falls aren’t very big, they’re quite powerful and unique. The best part about the falls though, is that the water is a vibrant light blue colour (like blue raspberry Koolaid).

• Hamurana Springs:

On the other side of the lake from the town of Rotorua, is Hamurana Springs. There isn’t a ton to see here, but it’s a nice quick walk that takes you to the source of the springs.  Once you get to the source, you can look down from a small platform above the springs to see where 4 million litres of water are produced from the spring an hour.

The spring water then flows down the river into the lake and makes a really colourful and vibrant river that people canoe and stand-up-paddle-board down. A little bit further on from the mouth of the spring, you can see another small spring called the Pool of Dancing Sand.

It’s almost impossible to show in a picture, but in this pool, spring water rises in a pool with white sand on the bottom and makes the sand move around in an endless dance. Again, it’s tough to show with a picture, but it’s really cool, so I thought I would include my best attempt anyways.

Some of the things that we missed in the Rotorua area were:

• Blue Green Lakes:

While we did actually go to the blue green lakes, it was raining quite heavily and we couldn’t quite figure out where the good walking trails were so we didn’t spend a lot of time there. We were a bit disappointed with the lakes, but maybe we missed something, or maybe it was just the weather. So because of that I thought I’d mention it here quick.

• Zorbing:

So first off, Zorbing looks awesome, and the name itself makes it seem like a cool thing to do. From what I could see, you basically get strapped inside of a giant rubber ball in a harness and rolled down a big hill. It sounds slightly nauseating, but fun nonetheless. We’re trying to minimize our costs at the moment and as it was quite expensive we decided to pass on it when we were in Rotorua. There are many places throughout the country that you can…do zorbing…or zorb…or go for a zorb. I’m not sure what the proper descriptive action is supposed to be, but either way, we decided that we would try it later on in the trip.

Hawkes Bay:

After leaving Rotorua, we had planned to head south to the Lake Taupo area where we were going to do a hike called the Tongariro crossing. But as it was a Friday, and we had heard that the hike gets really busy on weekends, we decided to make a detour to the area of Hawkes Bay instead for the weekend. We would then return to Lake Taupo to do the hike on the following Monday.

There are two towns along Hawkes Bay that we stayed near. These were Napier and Hastings. Both towns are quite nice, but we didn’t spend much time doing things in the towns themselves but were instead on the beaches outside of town or exploring the surrounding area. This area of New Zealand is quite open and flat with rolling hills everywhere and very little for dense forest. It’s filled with vineyards as the area is know for its olives and wine.

Some of the things that we did during our couple of days in the Hawkes Bay area were:

• Te Mata Peak:

Alright, so before anything else, I just have to say Te Mata Peak is awesome. Actually, it was one of the reasons that we went down towards Hawkes Bay in the first place, but its awesomeness far exceeded our expectations.

But the question that you still probably have is, what’s Te Mata? So let me tell you. It’s a ridgeline that is just outside of the town of Hastings. It’s not exceptionally tall, but because the surrounding landscape of Hawkes Bay is low rolling hills, the view from the top allows you to see everything around you.

About halfway up, you reach the first parking lot in an area called the Redwoods. You can park here and start a number of different walking trails that take you to the top of Te Mata. Otherwise, you can continue driving and the road goes all of the way to the top of the peak. And really, why walk when you can drive, right?

During the morning and throughout the day, the peak is filled with people running and biking along the road and trails. On the day that we went to Te Mata Peak, we drove to the top to catch a sunset and then we drove down to the Redwood parking lot where we stayed the night (we found out that you can’t actually stay at the top as there is a gate that is closed between 10PM and 5AM and a security guard checks that everyone has left before the gates are closed). In the morning, we woke up at 6AM and drove to the top of the peak again to catch the sunrise.

In a way, Te Mata Peak reminded me of the Quirang on Isle of Skye in Scotland with the rolling green hills that lit up in the morning sun, and with the way that you could hear the sheep and cows and birds during the early morning far down below you.

From the top, you can see in every direction around you and its hard to know where to look. To the east you can see back down the ridge back to the ocean, to the west you can see farmland and rolling hills that are bunched together like a Caramilk chocolate bar, to the North you can see back towards the towns of Hastings and Napier, and to your south you can see a deep valley with a river down the centre and orchards and vineyards along the banks.

• Sunday Farmers Market in Hastings:

The morning that we caught the sunrise on Te Mata Peak was a Sunday morning. So, after watching the sunrise and having breakfast on the peak, we made our way back down into town and found a farmers market that started at 10AM. I’m not an expert on farmer’s markets or anything, but this way by far the best one that I’ve ever been to. They had live music at the centre of the market, and you could buy things like homemade cheese, hot sauce, walnut brittle, sausage, jams, olive oils, wine, chutney, muesli, fig bars, beer, and pasta. And those are only the things that I remember, but there were so many others as well. The best part, however, is that everyone offered samples of what they were selling, and all of it tasted even better than it looked.

Some of the things that we didn’t do near Hawkes Bay were:

• Cape Kidnappers:

I’m not really sure what’s at Cape Kidnappers except for a cool looking outcropping but it seems to be a popular spot in the area so I thought I would mention it here briefly.