Kia Ora, New Zealand – North Island

Day 01: The opening saga

After 10 hours flight from Singapore, we arrived at Auckland, NZ. The cold and windy weather greeted us as we landed at Auckland Airport (AKL). Although we were tired, we were excited to explore NZ.

First we went to Mt. Eden to get the city view, but due to the rainy day and safety reason the way to the peak was closed.  ☹ We continued our journey and passed the Parnell Vilage, Mission Bay, and Harbor Bridge. Then we took several photos at Water Front Drive. In the evening, we checked in to Skycity Hotel.

Water Front Drive:

Romance @ Auckland:

Auckland, City of Sails:

Day 02 : Farms and sheeps along the way. 

We headed to Rotorua city today. Before that, we visited Waitomo Glow Worm caves. We rode a small boat into the cave. It was pitch black all around us. However, above us, thousands of little illuminating blue lights were glowing brightly. It looked like a night sky at its clearest and the illuminating blue lights were such bright stars that your mind wanted to make constellations out of the shapes they projected. I wish I had pictures from the inside of Waitomo Glow Worm caves, but we were not allowed to take pictures. The experience lasted 10 minutes, but I could have easilu spent hours there. It felt like looking at the night sky, while outside was a broad daylight.

Kiwi trees, easily found during our journey:

Choose your own Kiwi ^^:

Along our way to Rotorua..love it

Big Apple for our lunch:

Cherry begins to bloom:

After that we went to Te Puia, to see geothermal valley that consist of geyser and mud pool.Over 500 pools and 65 geyser vents, each with their own name, are found in the Te Whakarewarewa geothermal valley in Rotorua. Many magnificent geysers are active here, according to local guide, the geyser could erupts up to 30 metres high depending on her mood.

There are few places in the world where geothermal phenomena such as geysers and mud pools are as extensive and accessible as in Rotorua. In the past, Māori regarded such phenomena as gifts from the gods.

Geothermal Valley at Te Puia

Small geyser erupted during our visit:

At night, we watched a traditional dance performance. One of the dances performed that night was Haka, a traditional dance performed by Maori warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength in order to intimidate the opposition. Haka becomes familiar through NZ football team (All Blacks) pre-match performance.

Maori Traditional Dance:

 

Day 03 : Back to the Nature
We went to the Rainbow springs, a natural reservation for NZ unique plant and animals. The most famous one is Kiwi conservation. Another great attraction is the rainbow, brown, and tiger Trout conservation. Trout fish is one family with Salmon. We also went to Kiwi conservation room, and according to our guide, Kiwi is a unique New Zealand animal that they can claim as their own –so much so that around the world New Zealander’s are referred to as ‘Kiwis’. However since Kiwi can’t fly, they are easily caught by their predators and some are now threatened with extinction. Kiwis’ egg is the largest in the world in terms of the size of the bird laying it, it also contains the largest proportion of yolk. Incubation is by the male and can take anything from 74-90 days. Therefore, the family man is often called kiwi father. Later in the afternoon, we went to Christchurch by plane. We arrived at Christchurch International Airport at 4pm. Then we continued our journey to Tekapo. We stopped at Farm Market to have our dinner and bought some souvenirs. We arrived at our hotel, The Godley at 10 pm. The weather was colder than in the North because we were closer to the South Pole.

Kiwi with All black’s uniform, to welcome Rugby World Cup team

Silver Tree Fern, NZ national emblem

Black Swan @ the park

to be continued….