Middle Earth, Narnia & Everywhere In Between

The celebration of Waitangi day blessed us all with a four day weekend, which I did not let go to waste. I went through a car-share service with two other interns to secure a vehicle and headed north Wednesday night. The woman who lent us the car was kind enough to leave us with her collection of homemade CDs, composed of a eclectic mix of pop ballads, Spanish party music and Macklemore, which served as the soundtrack to our drive as we cruised through miles of breath-taking (and radio-dead) country.

TAUPO

Our first destination was Taupo, a beautiful town on a lake formed by the eruptions of surrounding volcanoes thousands of years ago. Our day here started with a three hour hike up Mt. Tauhara, one of these (now dormant) volcanoes. Summiting at 1,088 meters, the view of Taupo and the surrounding area served as a lovely place to strenuously catch my breath and inhale some nutella and crackers in an attempt to recover from the demanding climb.

After this hike, we cooled off with a visit to Huka Falls on the Waikato River, where approximately 200,000 liters of beautiful turquoise water gush over the cliff face every second. Apparently, the flow of the river is powerful enough to provide 65% of the North Island's power and 15% of the total power used in New Zealand. We found a little spot along the shore to relax, scale some trees and dip our toes in the crystal clear water before moving on.

We followed the falls with a thermal walk, where the high geothermal activity of the area created a sulphur-scented landscape of bubbling pools and steaming rock.

We then headed to the marina around 3:00 to prepare for a boat tour at 5pm, but stumbled across a Waitangi Day concert being held right on the water. We decided to set up our gourmet picnic of PB&Js in the grass there and enjoy the fun music and expressions of

Māori culture before boarding our tour boat to see the Māori rock carvings on Lake Taupo. The tour was led by a Māori man and woman who shared their culture and demonstrated traditional chants, songs and dances as we sped across the lake to see the beautiful carvings, one of which is pictured to the right. We finished our day with dinner on the waterfront overlooking the sunset.

HOBBITON

We drove to Matamata that night in preparation for our tour of Hobbiton the next morning. The tour led us along the paths of the shire past countess hobbit holes, each designed and decorated for a particular member of the community, such as the florist or the fishmonger. Peter Jackson's crazy attention to detail was evident in every painted leaf, mossy picket and worn path in the grass, and it made for a surreal experience. After lots of Tolkien trivia and cheesy Lord of the Rings jokes, the tour concluded with a refreshing cider at the Green Dragon.Through endless hours of gardening and maintenance, the magic has been beautifully preserved in this little slice of Middle Earth.

RAGLAN

That afternoon, we drove from Hobbiton to Raglan, a cute little surf town on the west coast. We rented kayaks there and took them deep into the bay that cuts through the village, finally giving our upper body a workout to balance out all of the hiking. After kayaking, we snagged dinner at your typical beachy bar & grill, then headed over to the famous Ngaranui Beach to dip our feet in the water and watch one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever witnessed. We finished off the day with some drinks and Aussie rugby at a local sports bar.

WAITOMO

Disclaimer: This was taken by our tour guide, not me. My camera is not that good.

Saturday morning, we drove over to Waitomo for our much anticipated black water rafting tour of the Waitomo caves. We wiggled into super fashionable wetsuits, snapped on our helmets and headed into the caves with our tubes over our shoulders. Underground, we waded through streams, army crawled through crevices, floated through canals, climbed up rock piles and jumped off waterfalls in our hunt for the infamous glowworms.

I'm in the yellow helmet!

We totally found them, by the way.

With our head lamps off, a sea of bright turquoise stars seemed to dance above us, guiding our tubes along their path through the frigid water 60 meters underground. In the last part of the tour, our guide had us play a game called "find your own way out of the cave in the dark!" which proved to be quite fun after the initial moment of panic.

Back at the tour site, our bravery was rewarded with hot showers, cups of tomato soup and more than our share of toasted bagels.

After our caving adventure, we decided to make the most of our time in Waitomo and headed over to Marokopa Falls. We walked the short trail down to the gorgeous waterfall straight out of a fairytale and took in yet another unreal scene of nature in New Zealand. I hopped and scaled rocks along the river to get up close and personal with the cascading water and let the spray rinse off the last of the cave grime.

COROMANDEL PENISULA

That night, we drove to our final destination of Thames, on the Coromandel Peninsula, just east of Auckland. After dinner there, we made the ambitious decision to go for a night hike in the Coromandel Forest Park in an effort to spot the elusive, nocturnal kiwi. As we drove up the west coast of the peninsula to the trail head, though, we were forced to pull over to experience the another one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever witnessed (yes, more breath-taking than Ngarauni Beach). By the time we got to the hike, it was 100% night and anxiety was high. It was the sight of a noisy opossum up in a tree (at least, that was my best guess of what it was) that sent us scampering back to the safety of our car.

We struck HOT WATER

The next morning, we scooped a friend up at the local bus station (he had spent the weekend in Auckland) and headed up to Hot Water Beach. Known for the thermal activity bubbling just below the surface of the sand, we set to work digging holes in search of the beach's namesake. After a bit of trial and error, we struck gold, digging our hands into boiling hot sand- i mean BOILING hot. We dug ourselves a nice little pool and allowed the sea water to stream in and cool it to a reasonable temperature.

After relaxing in our personal hot spring for a while, we drove further north to Cathedral Cove, famous for it's staring role in Narnia. We walked the 40 minute trail down to the beach where we spent time cooling off in the water and capturing the picturesque views of islands in the distance. We trekked back up the trail after a couple hours and rewarded ourselves with ice cream before heading to the beach town of Whitianga for a dinner of Coromandel green-lipped mussels and another lovely sunset.

And it was from there that we started our drive back.

To Wellington.

9 hours.

ETA: 5:30am.

On Monday morning.

We all had work.

Oof.

We were serenaded by Ed Sheeran as we navigated the winding mountain roads. The tune of "Descpacito" filled the car as we cruised though the rolling hills of farm land. "Glorious" echoed in our ears as we passed cows and sheep and sheep and more cows and more sheep and "Somewhere over the Rainbow" took us home.

It was a long weekend of views, adventures, and getting well acquainted with the left side of the road, and though Monday quite possibly holds the record for the most coffee I have ever consumed in a 24 hour period, I have no regrets.