After a short wait in line, we got our rental minivan. It took us
a while to figure out how to get everything into the van. My
parents brought way more stuff than we were expecting, so even with a
minivan it was a tight fight to get everyone and all of the luggage
into the car. We then set up the GPS and mapped us to our next
destination. Before we left, I found a free Garmin compatible map
set of New Zealand and loaded it on our GPS. You can find the
maps here.
This mapset would prove very helpful and accurate in getting us all
over New Zealand. It was then time to actually start
driving. I was pretty worried about driving on the left side of
the road. Not only is it quite strange to drive on the left hand
side of the road, New Zealand also has a weird right of way that is
confusing if you've spent your entire life driving in the US.
Before you drive in New Zealand, I would suggest reading this
brochure. On the whole, driving wasn't as bad as I thought it
would be, but I did spend several days turning on the windshield wipers
when I wanted to use the turn signal. That was probably the
biggest difference of sitting on the right hand side of the vehicle
while
driving. The turn signals and wiper controls are reversed and it
is very hard to retrain your brain after 18 years of doing it the other
way.
We had planned a busy first day in an attempt to keep us going and
awake until the evening. It was a 19 hour time zone change from
Wisconsin to NZ, and with little sleep on the plane, we knew it would
be tough to stay awake until a proper bedtime. Our first stop was
to a grocery store a short distance from the
airport. We loaded up on some groceries we knew we'd need and
also bought sim cards for our phones there. We bought peanut
butter and bread so we could have breakfast in our rooms most
days. This saved us a lot of money because most of the places we
stayed had very expensive breakfast choices.
The first scenic destination we went to was a small area that had some
Kauri trees. Kauri trees are massive trees found in the northern
parts of New Zealand. Most of the trees are found north of
Auckland, but there are a few that can be found south of
Auckland. When we started researching New Zealand, I started
reading about Kauri trees and knew that we needed to see a mature Kauri
tree during our visit. Kauri trees are similar to Giant
Sequoias. They are very wide and don't have many branches.
We
had originally planned on going to the Waitakere
Ranges northwest of Auckland, but decided we didn't want our first
experience in New Zealand to be driving through Auckland during Monday
morning rush hour. After quite a bit of digging, I found
a short trail that has an 800 year old Kauri tree that you can
see. The trail is the Kauri Loop Trail in the Hakarimata
Scenic Reserve.
We followed the GPS to a small parking lot and started hiking on the
trail. It didn't take long to realize New Zealand was going to be
quite a bit different than the US.
Tyler climbing over the gate to start the Kauri Loop Trail
This trail is nice and short, but it is pretty steep with lots of steps.
This was the first of many trails in New Zealand that featured lots
of stairs
After a few minutes we reached a large tree. We didn't think we'd
gone far enough for this to be the Kauri tree we were looking for, but
it was still big and very impressive.
Unknown species, but a very impressive tree
We continued on the trail and were rewarded with many awesome views. We
also noticed how different the plants were in the forests
compared to the US. The forests were filled with all kinds of different
ferns and trees that we've never seen before.
Scenic views and wild ferns were everywhere
It didn't take us too long before we reached our destination.
This Kauri tree is estimated to be about 800 years old. It was
massive.
The Kauri trees were simply amazing
There used to be two large trees on this trail, but one of them fell
over in the last few years, so there was only the one tree to look
at. The one that fell was still laying on the ground nearby which
was a pretty interesting sight as well. There are also many other
younger Kauri trees that you can see in the area. My parents
turned around and headed back to the car, but Erin, Tyler and I
continued on through the scenic loop.
More views of the forest from the scenic trail
Eventually the trail came to the top of the hill and the following view
presented itself:
Scenic view from the top of the hill
It was a short walk back to the parking lot where we met up with my
parents and began the short drive to our next activity. We headed
a short distance over to Bridal Veil Falls in Waikato. This falls
is about 170 feet tall but very narrow. We got out of our car at
the parking lot and it was a short walk to the top of the falls.
The top of Bridal Veil Falls
We spent a few minutes at the top then we headed down to the base of
the falls. It was a pretty short, but steep trail to the bottom.
Looking down from the trail to the base of the falls
Here's a few shots of the falls from their base:
Bridal Veil Falls
We then headed back up to the trail head. I grabbed a few
pictures
of the trees and ferns along the way. The vegetation in New
Zealand looks so different from the Midwest. It has a tropical
rain forest feel to it.
Vegetation on the way back
When we got back to the van we were all getting hungry so we drove to
Raglan to find our first meal in New Zealand. I quickly spotted a
fish and chips place and knew where I wanted to eat. I got some
fresh fish and Erin and Tyler got burgers. We quickly learned a
few things about food in New Zealand. First, their idea of
ketchup is not even close to what we were used to. Second, they
like to put beets on their burgers and third, they make good fish and
chips. The place we ate at was kind of a dump, but the food was
quick and good. We found a little table outside to sit at and eat
our lunch. Then it was time to head to the beach. We knew
Tyler would enjoy seeing the beach and getting a chance to run around
after the long plane ride, so we drove out of town and found a spot to
park near the beach. It was beautiful and a big change from the
cold an snow of the Midwest that we had just left.
Enjoying the beach at Raglan
We spent some time at the beach and then decided we should drive to our
hotel for the night. We were staying in Waitomo Caves at the
Waitomo Caves Guest
Lodge.
We booked two rooms. As we found for most of the trip, kids were
not free as they typically are in the US, so we paid more for the hotel
on most nights than my parents did (NZ $135 for us, NZ $120 for my
parents). The owners of the lodge were great and very
friendly. We got checked in and settled in to our rooms. We
then headed over to the nearby bar and waited around for them to start
serving dinner. By this time we were all exhausted and were
nearly falling asleep while eating our dinners. We walked back to
our rooms and promptly went to sleep at around 6:30pm. It was an
amazing first day in New Zealand and we were looking forward to the
rest of our vacation.
Continue to Day 2
Back to trip home
