Exploring the North Island

From the moment I first stepped foot on the North Island, I could tell that this was an entirely different New Zealand. The NZ capital of Wellington is huge in comparison to the "big" cities of Queenstown and Christchurch in the south island. Wellington boasts tall office buildings, busy streets, traffic (imagine that!), and tons and tons of people. In fact, the majority of New Zealand's population lives in the north, as the two biggest cities in NZ are Wellington and Auckland.  

Side note: I have managed to see the Southern Cross every night in New Zealand so far (except the stormy first night at Mount Cook). It is such a treat to look up in the sky and see this exclusively southern constellation. I know exactly where to look for it in the sky- on the horizon directly opposite Orion (which is inverted compared to the Orion we see in the States). Kearse managed to get some great pictures of the Southern Cross when we were camping in Queenstown, so I'm really pumped about that!


We watched the beautiful sunrise over the mountains surrounding Wellington Harbour as we drove north toward Egmont National Park and the city of New Plymouth. Compared to the South Island, the drive here was terribly boring. It was neat to see some rolling green hills, which reminded me of the English countryside, but the traffic and the practically flat landscape were relatively boring to drive through. Even though the north has nicely paved roads that are wider than the roads in the south, I preferred the jutting rock mountains right up to the edge of the road that you find in the south, rather than the open green fields in the north outside of Wellington. I'm looking forward to seeing the volcanic regions in the north though- that should be a real treat!

Fun fact: The English-esque rolling green hills that are outside of Wellington were the reason that Peter Jackson chose this area as his set for Hobbiton and the Shire. Interestingly, Peter Jackson had the locals in this area start growing weeds and hedges to form the Shire a whole year before the filming started!

North of Wellington lies the regions of Paraparaumu and Otaki. These two locations were also prime filming spots for The Lord of the Rings. The Otaki Gorge was used for the sequence of the hobbits leaving the shire. Paraparaumu was part of the Pelennor Fields with most of it filmed in Twizel in the south. Also near Paraparaumu lies the home of the horses that appeared in all three films, including Arwen's horse Asfaloth and Aragorn's horse Brego. The horses' trainer Jane Abbott is from Paraparaumu and was the stunt-riding double for Liv Tyler (Arwen) and also appeared in the films as a Black Rider, a Rohan soldier, and a Ranger. Wellington hosted the cast for a year and a half during the filming, and basically the LOTR films stimulated NEw Zealand's economy and job market during the four years of filming.


Continuing on to Egmont National Park you see Mount Taranaki in the distance. Mount Taranaki is a live volcano that is the center-piece of the National Park. To take a break from driving, Kearse and I hiked up Mount Taranaki on one of the designated trails. It was neat climbing a volcano, even though it seemed more like a mountain since we couldn't see the summit due to the cloud cover. The hike was quite challenging as we hiked straight up to the translator tower (no switch-backs, just a very steep track with quick elevation changes), and then traversed the volcano 's side, and descended along the ridge called the Razorback. From the tower we were treated with an incredible view of Egmont National Park, the ocean coast, and the Sugar Loaf Islands. My favorite part of the hike was traversing the mountain side and walking down the ridges. It reminded me of those movies where they show a line of people walking along a mountain edge, and the camera is moving around them in a circle from above.


On the way from New Plymouth to the Waitamo Caves and the town of Otorohanga, there is a black sand beach just beyond the town of Mokau (which may or may not be on your map depending on how detailed it is, but there are lovely signs welcoming you to the town). Stopping here is a must. This was the first black sand beach I have ever seen, and it was magnificent! The wet sand was as black as black, and the dry sand was a deep deep deep indigo navy blue. There were small silver metallic speckles that made the sand sparkle. It was so fine, so soft, so beautiful. 

It may have been that the sun was setting (and sun sets are some of my favorite sights to see, especially over water). It may have been that the tide perfectly reflected the misty cliffs surrounding the bay. It may have been that this is the warmest ocean water I've touched since arriving in Australasia. Whatever it was, this was the most lovely, beautiful, joyous close to a day!