New Zealand

After we had left Fiji behind, we soon found out that we were not able to change our flight to Hong Kong and that we had to stay for another 3 weeks in New Zealand before we could fly to Hong Kong.

The First week we spent in Auckland. We did some sightseeing, shopping and we arranged our China Visa. We also booked ourselves a campervan for the next two weeks We didn’t want a tiny campervans so we upgraded to a, what we thought, a slightly bigger van. The weather was nice but not as warm in Fiji so we wanted some indoor luxury.

When we arrived at the campervan rental company, we found out that our campervan was slightly bigger than we expected. It was more a touringbus size than a campervan size. Anyway, after two days of driving, the van didn’t feel so big anymore and it was time to explore the roads less travelled…and less paved. ..

 In two weeks time we have seen every road on the North Island and hated every road map the kiwi’s made. That is something they cannot make..with some more things, but we won’t go into that as we have many kiwi friends…

Not only have we seen the country by road but also by foot, bike, and bus.  We did some very nice hiking including the Tongariro crossing. A one day crossing over a volcano area with the top at 1900 meters.  That was a hiking trip we would recommend everyone who is fit enough to do!

We also took a bus ride up North in Northland. That included a drive over the 90 miles beach (very weird to drive with a bus over the beach), sand boarding and a trip up to Cape Reinga.  And finally as real Dutchies, we cycled around Napier to visit the wineries and savely “drink and drive”.  Probably it is illegal to do so in NZ put it looked better than doing it by campervan.

The weather was oke. We only had 2 days of rain what was unbelievable compared with our last visit to New Zealand.  We had temperatures varying from below 0 degree Celsius (at night near the Tongariro crossing) up to 23 degrees (during daytime in Northland).

After 3 weeks New Zealand we had seen enough and we were happy we could return our campervan and fly to a much warmer destination..Hong Kong..

Cheers Anna