NEW ZEALAND - NORTH ISLAND TRIP 2025
I have just returned from a wonderful trip to New Zealand's North Island. I spent a week in this beautiful country and saw Rotorua and Auckland. New Zealand is made up of two islands, the North island and the South island, as I mentioned previously, I saw only the North island, however I would love to return to this beautiful country one day and see the South Island as well.
DAY ONE
Arriving In New Zealand
My first day in New Zealand, I really didn't see much of anything as I spent the entire time resting up at my hotel, I stayed in the Novotel directly opposite Auckland International Airport. The hotel itself was very nice and comfortable and best of all it had a bath!!! that is always a plus for me as I love a nice hot bath before bed.
My Hotel Room
That night I ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, I unfortunately can't remember the name of the dish that I had, however it was a pasta dish and it was delicious. For dessert, I had a chocolate chip cookie with salted caramel ice cream, also delicious.
Dinner & Dessert
DAY TWO
My second day in New Zealand was all about Hobbiton. That morning, I went down to the Novotel buffet and had breakfast, I of course had pancakes, I love pancakes for breakfast but I only have them when I'm on holidays. The buffet breakfast was really good with a large variety of food available. After breakfast I checked out of the hotel and walked over to Europcar and got a hire car and made the drive to Hamilton. The drive there was so beautiful and green, as an Australian, I have always said that we have beautiful countryside but I can honestly say that I think New Zealand's countryside may be even more beautiful than ours.
The Beautiful New Zealand Countryside
Once I arrived at Hobbiton, I went straight into the gift shop and bought myself a pair of prosthetic elf ears.
Me And Gandalf In The Gift Shop
After a little shopping I still had about an hours wait for my tour so I went into The Shire's Rest and had a ham and pineapple pizza for lunch.
Lunch At The Shire's Rest
You cannot walk around Hobbiton by yourself, you have to do it in a tour as it is apart of the Alexander family's property which brings me to my next point about how Hobbiton came to be. In September 1998, whilst looking for a location for Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord Of The Rings movie, New Lines Film location scouts spotted the farm of the Alexander family from air and helicoptered into their farm, asking if they could use the location for the films. Once filming had commenced all of the sets around New Zealand were dismantled, but when the movie executives returned to secure the site for the Hobbiton movies, the family negotiated to be able to keep Hobbiton.
When it was time for my tour, which you must prebook in advance, if you don't you will not get in so be sure to book before you go, I went and waited in line. There I met some very friendly tourists who I sort of hung out with a bit on the tour so that was nice. We were all taken to Hobbiton by a bus trip through the working sheep and cattle farm, accompanied by a personal message from Sir Peter Jackson himself.
Once we arrived at Hobbiton, it was then 2 hours of nothing but pure magic. Our tour guide, Jess who was awesome, explained certain things about how the movie was filmed and how the sets were built, I am not going to be going over these details as I do not want to spoil the tour for anyone who may be planning to go, however I will retell one story. The tree above Bag End is fake. While setting up Bag End, Peter Jackson needed a large oak tree for his vision, so an oak tree from nearby was cut down, numbered in pieces, moved to the set of Hobbiton and reassembled. They then imported hand painted leaves from Taiwan which they wired on to the tree so that it looked alive. The tree was prepared and sat for about 6 months before filming, in that time the weather and the elements turned the leaves from their original deep green into a lighter yellow colour and months late, when Peter Jackson finally got around to filming, he was setting up his camera to shoot Bag End and decided that he was unhappy with the colour of the leaves. So 10 days out from filming, they had uni students brought in to repaint every single one of the over 300,000 leaves and rewire them back on to the tree. This tree ended up costing 7 million dollars!!!! all of that work and money and this particular tree was shown in the film for less than a minute. This tour left me with even more appreciation for the Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit films than I already had, as I learned how meticulous Peter Jackson and his team were about every little detail and how hard they had worked to get it all perfect.
The Entrance To Hobbiton
Hobbit Houses
Bag End
More Of Hobbiton
Towards the end of the tour, we got to go into one of the Hobbit houses which was my favourite part of the tour. I was absolutely floored by the attention to detail, seriously not one little detail had been overlooked. The house has actual working plumbing and electricity and a real working fire place. The taps over the sinks actually turn on and the place is air conditioned.
Inside The Hobbit House
We then walked over the famous Shire bridge and had a complimentary beverage at the Green Dragon Inn.
The Shire Bridge
Once our tour was done, the bus took us back to the entrance and I got back on the road and headed to my next destination, Rotorua. Upon driving into Rotorua, I immediately noticed a very strange smell, the smell of sulphur which Rotorua is known for. Some people say it smells like rotten eggs, but more morbidly, some say it smells like a dead body, which I've never smelt and don't ever plan to so I'll go with the rotten eggs. My accomodation in Rotorua was at Rydge's, my room was nice and the pool and spa were beautiful. The pool itself was warm which was lovely as it was starting to get cold in Rotorua and the spa was nice and hot.
My Hotel Room
The Pool & Spa
After checking in, I was hungry so I went down to Eat Street, a popular outdoor food court with a variety of restaurants. I went to Atticus Finch and had the most delicious dinner. I had the fried haloumi salad for entree and the Chicken Thali and Gourmet Mac N Cheese for mains. I enjoyed every mouthful and received amazing service.
Dinner At Atticus Finch
DAY THREE
Unlike the previous day, today was all about exploring the true New Zealand and its wonderful culture. I started off the day by walking through the Hells Gate Geothermal Park
The Entrance To Hells Gate
Inside the park is a collection of bubbling mud and sulphur pools, while walking around it occurred to me that the environment that I was seeing is probably how the Earth looked before humans existed. Looking at something so ancient, something that has been around before us humans is a very strange and surreal experience and I'm so grateful to have been able to see and experience it for myself.
Inside Hells Gate
Baby Adam
Inferno Pool
Sodom & Gomorrah (YES!!! That Is The Actual Name)
Sulphur Fall
Map Of Australia
I spent about an hour on the walk and when I was done, I then headed over to the mud spa. A word of advice before you do this, buy a cheap pair of swimmers that you don't mind throwing out immediately afterwards because you will never be able to get rid of the sulphur smell. My spa experience started with a 20 minute soak in a mud pool, this particular part of the experience is timed to 20 minutes, however the plunge and sulphur pools you can use for as long as you want. The mud in the spa was used by Maori warriors to heal battle scars and it is believed that this same mud can ease inflammation and arthritis as well as rejuvenate the skin and I must say, my skin has never felt as soft and supple as it did the next day. After my mud bath, I braved the plunge pool, however I only lasted for a few seconds. I then spent some time soaking in the beautiful sulphur spa. I was not able to take photos in the spa so unfortunately I don't have any photos of this.
After Hells Gate I was starving so I headed to Ciabatta Bakery & Cafe for lunch. I had a focaccia and a hazelnut cronut, both were delicious and the cafe itself was very cute and quirky.
Lunch At Ciabatta Bakery & Cafe
This night, was the date of the experience that I was most looking forward to on this trip, the Mitai Maori Village. The Mitai Maori Village, is a traditional, living Maori village that has been operating for more than 20 years. The purpose of this living Maori village is to showcase Maori culture through the act of performing arts and to share the lifestyle of Maori. I was picked up from my hotel by bus and taken to the beautiful Mitai Maori Village. Once there, myself and the group I was with were taken into a large hall with tables and chairs and sat at a table. On our tables was a card with a few different Maori words on it and their meaning.
Card With Maori Words
Our guide for the evening, whose name unfortunately slips my mind, came and explained to us how the evening would progress and gave us a little background into Maori culture. The Maori, invented tattooing and she explained to us the reason behind some of the symbols that Maori get tattooed on them and what they mean which I found really interesting. She also explained how the Maori used the stars to navigate in the way that those of us in the modern world use GPS and how tribes worked and established themselves.
We were Then taken down to a river where we watched A group of Maori warriors, paddle upstream in a war canoe and chant out war cries. This was a truly mesmerising experience which I enjoyed so much.
Maori Warriors In A War Canoe
We then went back to the dining hall and were taken out back where we were shown how our Hangi meal was prepared. A Hangi, is food that is prepared under the ground, the word "Hangi" roughly translates to "earth oven". The meal consisted of chicken, lamb, different kinds of potatoes including of course kumara and salads. I had chicken, roast potatoes, kumara and cream potatoes and it was out of this world delicious, this was easily my best meal throughout my entire trip to New Zealand, I even went back and got seconds.
The Hangi
Me Enjoying A Delicious Hangi Dinner
After dinner, was the most exciting part of the night, the show. We were taken into a room with a stage and for half an hour, we watched a spectacular show, where Maori performers performed some of their cultural songs and dances, showed and explained traditional weaponry and explained about their customs and way of life and of course, concluded the show with a Haka. This show was easily one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen, I am so happy to have had the chance to witness this and get to experience a part of the beautiful Maori culture.
The Maori Cultural Show
I would recommend anyone travelling to Rotorua to do this, it is the one experience you absolutely cannot leave Rotorua without doing. After the show, we were taken through a fortified Maori village and got to see glow worms. The glow worms were beautiful, but unfortunately my camera was unable to get a clear picture of them so I don't have any photos of them. After this, the same bus that brought me here, took me back home again.
DAY FOUR
This was my last day in Rotorua, so I decided to go and see Waiotapu Geothermal Wonderland and the famous Lady Knox Geyser. Everyday at 10:15AM, Lady Knox Geyser is induced with suds. Suds are poured into the geyser which makes it spurt water 10 to 20 meters into the air which is quite a spectacular site.
Lady Knox Geyser
After seeing Lady Knox Geyser, I went into the Waiotapu Geothermal Wonderland, which is famous for being New Zealand's most colourful geothermal attraction. Within the park, is a magnificent landscape sculpted over thousands of years by natural geothermal activity, where unique volcanic features can be viewed. There are 3 different walks you can do, simply labeled Walk 1, Walk 2 and Walk 3. Walk 2 and 3 are not suitable for wheelchairs and prams. I did walk 3, the longest walk but it was worth it, it took me about an hour and a bit to do the full walk. The scenery throughout the park was truly spectacular but of course the most impressive was the famous Champagne Pool. About half way through, the walk started to get harder, much steeper and a few stairs, although i very much enjoyed it, I imagine that it may be a bit difficult for some people so do keep that in mind.
Champagne Pool
Primrose Lake
Waiotapu Geothermal Wonderland
After my walk, I was starving so I headed back into the town of Rotorua and got some lunch. Before my trip, I had been told that New Zealand is famous for its burgers so I went to a place called Burger Fuel and had a cheeseburger. The cheeseburger was absolutely delicious!!! that is something else I wanted to point out is the food in New Zealand is unlike anything I have ever tasted before. Seriously every single thing I ate regardless of where it came from or what it was, was so incredibly fresh and delicious.
Lunch At Burger Fuel
I didn't really do much for the rest of the afternoon, I went back to my hotel and basically spent the afternoon in the pool which was really nice. At about 5, I decided to go back to Eat Street for an early dinner. When I got there, I realised that the Rotorua Night Markets were on so I had a little shop around before going for dinner. I didn't get any photos of the markets as there were too many people there but the markets were amazing and I bought a really yummy hazelnut and chocolate chip cookies from one of the vendors. I then went to Atticus Finch, I Know I Know!!! while travelling you really should try different places but I just couldn't help myself, I loved my dinner there so much I just had to go one more time before i left Rotorua. My food was delicious as always and the service was great just like last time. After dinner, I went down to Lake Rotorua as I had STILL NOT SEEN IT!!!! Yes!!! I had been in Rotorua for 3 days and still not seen Lake Rotorua. The lake at night was very calm and beautiful and while there, I met some beautiful black swans. I absolutely adore black swans and think they are so beautiful, we do have them in Australia but unfortunately not in Sydney where I'm from so any chance I get to see them I take happily.
Lake Rotorua
Beautiful Black Swans In Lake Rotorua
DAY FOUR
Today, I was moving on to Auckland, but before I did there was one last attraction that I wanted to check out in Rotorua. The Redwoods Forest. The Redwoods Forest is renowned for being home to the worlds tallest trees, this 55,000ha forest is a playground for mountain bikers, walkers, hikers and horse riders. Within the forest is the treetop walk designed by David Trubridge which offers a birds eye view of the forest floor below and at night, lanterns illuminate the trail adding an ethereal vibe. The treetop costs money to do so I instead opted to do the free walk through the forest floor and I have to say, it was the most beautiful and peaceful experience walking through this beautiful lush forest and admiring the gigantic redwoods trees. The walk talk me about 40 minutes to do, however I just did the main basic trail but there are a few trails, including one that takes 8 hours to complete.
The Redwoods Forest
I then got back on the road and made the trip to Auckland which took about 3 hours. Once I got to Auckland, I went and checked into my hotel, the Avani Metropolis and I totally forgot to take any photos of the room silly me, although I did get some footage of it which is included in my Youtube video. This hotel was actually my favourite in all of New Zealand because the room was more like an appartment, I had a full kitchen and the room itself just felt like a "home" for me, I was really comfortable there. The hotel also has an indoor pool and spa which were very nice and I did manage to get some photos of them.
The Pool
After checking into my hotel, I went and dropped off my hire car back at Europcar which was ummm an interesting experience!!! lets just say the guy working there was the first person I met throughout my entire trip in New Zealand that didn't have that friendly and chilled personality that I had experienced with everyone else that I had met and interacted with on my trip!!! anyway enough negativity and back to the fun and adventure. I then decided to explore the city of Auckland, I apologise in advance that I did not take any photos during my exploration of the city, I got so caught up in the moment I totally forgot. I went to find Britomart and was confused when I "found it" as it was a little square with clothes shops and 1 restaurant, yet what I had read and seen about it described it as precinct with a wide variety of places to eat. I soon worked out what was going on, Britomart Precinct itself is actually much bigger than it appears in photos and videos, the little square I had found was only one part of the complex, it actually stretches from that little square, all the way to the train station and the restaurants are spread out as opposed to all congregated together in one little square like I thought, so I just wanted to mention that to let anyone else know who may have thought like I did it was just one little square. I then walked down to Viaduct Harbour and then over the bridge to Wynyard Quarter, a lively area on the harbour with lots of restaurants, parks and even a little swimming pool which would be lovely in the summertime.
By this point, my little afternoon stroll had turned into a long walk and it was now dinner time and I was starving. I decided to check out a restaurant called Esther which is located in the QT Hotel, which is where I ultimately ended up having dinner. The food here is expensive but it was out of this world delicious!!! absolutely worth every cent. If you want to treat yourself to a casual fine dining meal while in Auckland, this is the place I would recommend. I had puff bread as an entree and for mains I had the linguine with te anau saffron, lemon and parmigano and the cauliflower steak. All of my food was so good I had to stop myself from licking the plate and the service was outstanding, my waiter was very friendly, efficient and couldn't do enough for me. Though I was ridiculously full, I just had to squeeze in dessert and try the delicious chocolate torte.
Dinner At Esther
DAY FIVE
Other than the Mitai Maori Village, today's experience was what I had been looking most forward to on my trip, WETA WORKSHOP UNLEASHED!!! Weta Workshop Unleashed is Auckland's outpost of the Wellington based movie props and special effects company. The company have worked on films like Avatar and The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings film trilogies. As a Makeup Artist who specialises in makeup for film and theatre, I was beyond excited to see this as I am really working hard and hoping to one day make the big time. I started with the 90 minute tour. The 90 minute tour is centred on three fully developed and original film concepts: a horror, a fantasy and a scifi. The tour started at the entrance of the workshop, near Greg Broadmore's mural.
Greg Broadmore's Mural
Our tour We were taken into various different rooms, all of which were set up like different departments on the set of movies with interactive props that we got to try out for ourselves. We were shown sketches from artists, sculptures, movie scripts and even an entire movie set. Towards the end of the tour, we got to try our hand at things such as sculpting with clay and creating sculptures out of tin foil.
Weta Workshop Unleashed
After My tour, I went to Andy's Burger Bar and had lunch. Once again, I totally forgot to take a photo of my lunch!!! it seems that by the time I got to Auckland I really got slack with photos so sorry about that. The burgers were delicious but best of all, my food came over on a robot with a cat face that played music as it made its way over to me!!! so cute!!! After lunch, I went back to Weta Workshop Unleashed as I was booked in to do the Intro To Special Effects workshop. As a Makeup Artist, I have done special effects and it is one of my favourite areas of makeup, however there are always new techniques to learn. I was very lucky to have been in a class of only two people, me and one other girl. My instructor, whose name slips my mind was amazing and showed us a really good way of making scars, a technique which involved steps that I had not used before but I certainly will be now. We started off by making molds of 3 different kinds of scars with plasticine.
Scar Molds
We then picked one of these molds to model our scar off of, I picked the classic scar and then we recreated the scars on our arms. We started off with creating the scars on the skin with silicone. Once the silicone was dry, we painted them with alcohol based paints, I have always used cream based paints but found that alcohol paints looks far more realistic and are easier to work with so I will be doing this from now on as well as making a mold beforehand to follow from. Once we were done painting our scars, we then added fake blood, I have always bought fake blood but the blood we used was a mixture of food colouring and glucose, a much cheaper alternative that looks just as good as actual fake blood. Upon completion, we were given a certificate of completion.
Making The Scars
The End Result
After the workshop, I then spent the afternoon walking through the city and checking out some of the shops for a few hours before heading back to my hotel. As I was heading back to my hotel, I discovered a cute little lane called Chancery Lane that had some restaurants and a little game centre, so I made a booking at one of the restaurants, a Japanese restaurant called Bonjiri for later that night. I went back to my hotel, had a swim in the pool and then got ready and went down to Bonjiri for dinner. The food was sooooo delicious!!! it reminded me of the food I had at Yakitori bars in Japan (side note, yes I have been to Japan, however I do not have a post about it as I went back in 2018, years before I started this blog and as it was so long ago, pre covid, I feel whatever information I have is not really relevant in 2025 to do a blog post. I would like to return one day so if I do, I'll do a blog post on it) The service was really good and friendly, my waitress was actually telling me that she has a trip to Australia coming up so we swapped travel info, her for New Zealand and me for Australia.
Dinner At Bonjiri
After dinner, I went and had a little look in the game centre and then I went to a dessert bar called Kumi and had a really nice ice cream sandwhich
Inside The Game Center
Dessert At Kumi
DAY SIX
This particular day was a pretty chill day, where I didn't really have any plans. I decided to take a ferry over to the island of Devonport, a cute little island out of the Auckland CBD.
Ferry Trip To Devonport
In Devonport, I walked along the main street and stopped in at some gorgeous little gift shops where I did a little shopping. I then walked past a gelato shop and had some gelato and then I found a bakery selling pies and sausage rolls and had a sausage roll for lunch. After lunch, I went to a bakery that one of the locals had recommended to me called Lily. At Lily, I had a really delicious chocolate and tahini cookie
Morning Tea At Lily
I then caught the ferry back over to Auckland CBD and had another wander around the city before heading back to my hotel and spending the rest of the afternoon in the hotel pool and spa. That night for dinner, I went to a restaurant called Amano. As I had not booked, I was sat at the kitchen bar where I got to watch the chefs prepare the food which was really cool. My food was amazing!!! I had the Fazzoletti with basil, ricotta and pine nuts and the chargrilled chicken, both were amazing. I think after my Hangi meal at Mitai, my meal here at Amano was my second favourite meal on the whole trip. I would say that this is the best Italian restaurant in Auckland.
Dinner At Amano
After dinner, I went to Duck Island and had ice cream for dessert.
Duck Island
Me In Britomart
DAY SEVEN
Today was sadly my last day in New Zealand. I decided to do the trek up Mount Eden. Mount Eden is Auckland's highest volcano, standing at 196m tall and is also known by the Maori name of Maungawhau. Maungawhau was once a huge Maori pa (fortified settlement) built for thousands of inhabitants. The crater was known as Te Kapua kai a Mataaho - "the food bowl of Mataaho" the deity responsible for volcanic activity. Mount Eden is a large, elongated cone consisting of two overlapping cones which erupted around 28,000 years ago. The walk up Mount Eden talk about 10 minutes and once I reached the top, I was awarded with the most amazing views over the city of Auckland as well as the inside of Mount Eden. At the start of the trail, I ran into an orange cat that must of escaped from a house nearby which I thought was a great start to my day.
The Cat I Met At The Start Of My Trek
Mount Eden
After my trek up Mount Eden, I decided to walk to the Mount Eden Village. I of course stopped in at the famous Circus Circus Cafe. This well known cafe is bright red and decorated with clowns, lions and all different kind of circuseque decorations, it is the coolest cafe I have ever seen. I had an Afghan biscuit and it was delicious.
Circus Circus Cafe
I then caught an Uber to Ponsonby, a well known shopping and dining area in Auckland. When I arrived, I went straight into Ponsonby Central and had lunch, Ponsonby Central is a food complex with lots of different cuisines, I opted for Burger Burger and had a delicious cheeseburger with curly fries, I haven't had curly fries since I was a child and they were just as good as I remembered.
After lunch, I went for a stroll up the street and stopped in some of the many independent boutiques, I even found a really cute clothing store called RUBY. I may be a little biased but that was my favourite shop in Ponsonby. Some other shops that stood out to me were Flo & Frankie, The Poi Room, The Women's Bookshop and Public Record. After a nice long stroll and look through the shops, I caught the Inner City Bus back to Auckland CBD and walked back to my hotel where I spent the afternoon chilling by the pool and spa.
Burger Burger
Since I had been blessed enough to eat at some very fancy restaurants throughout my trip to New Zealand, I decided to go for a cheaper more street foodesque option for my final dinner, so I went to Harbourside. Harbourside is a food court located inside Queen Street Mall that has a variety of different cuisines to try. I started off with a mocktail from the bar, yes there is a bar inside the food court, and then I went to a pasta bar called Needo and ate THE BEST!!! mac n cheese I have ever eaten in my life. I followed this up with some tacos from Loco Bro's which were also delicious. This food court is amazing, I truly wish we had something like this back home in Sydney.
Dinner At Harbourside
Tasting Plate At Miann
Thankyou for taking the time to read my blog post, if you are interested, I also made a video on Youtube about my trip to New Zealand. I have had this blog for sometime now, however I have only just recently started up a Youtube channel so if you could take the time to subscribe I'd really appreciate it.
INSTAGRAM: seeingbeyondtheisland
YOUTUBE: seeingbeyondtheisland
Comments
Post a Comment