Wanderlust: January 2016

We arrived at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland at about 9am. Pools of colourful bubbling water are heated by volcanoes at this natural attraction.

Champagne pool.

At about 10am, we took a 5 minute drive to the Lady Knox Geyser. This geyser erupts at 10.15am on a daily basis.

After capturing the moment, we headed to Huka Falls.

Spot us amidst the greenery.

Our first sighting of snow-capped mountains in the distance.

One of the most scenic lookout on the way up to Whakapapa Village. Look at that valley surrounding the mountain, it's exactly like those from a fairytale.

Winding roads up the mountains to Whakapapa Village, to our next accomodation at Skotel Alpine Resort.

Arrived at our resort, and it was located right beside a snow-capped mountain. You can't really tell, but it was freezing. The resort was very cabin-like, with a wooden interior.

Nothing a cider can't fix.

Preppin' for the next day, The Tongariro Alpine Crossing. 19.4km & 1900m high.

We took a short drive around the village, but to our disappointment everything was already closed by 5pm. Don't forget to buy some food along the way for dinner, alternatively you can settle it at the restaurant in the lobby of Skotel Alpine Resort. We bought some cup noodles and a baked chicken at a supermarket beforehand, so that was our dinner for the night.

Sunrise at 6am.
We got up really early to prepare breakfast and lunch for our trek to Mt Tongariro. Ham in croissants, yum.

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, coming up next.

Kia Ora!

Departed Singapore at 8pm and we took British Airways to Sydney for a transit, then we took Air New Zealand to Auckland and we arrived at about 3pm. I have to confess that the food on British Airways was horrible and they gave us only a choice of vegetarian and beef.

We left Singapore on 4th December 2015 and returned back home on 21st December 2015. It was a total of 15 nights and 16 days spent in New Zealand and we covered both North and South islands. Thereafter, we spent a night and half a day in Sydney.

Temperature ranges from about -4 degree celsius to 22 degree celsius even though it is summer in December. It gets colder at night, so do remember to pack some jackets along (we kind of regretted not packing our winter wear along as we were not used to the cold). The coldest we have experienced in the north island was our stay at Skotel Alpine Resort, which was high up in the mountains. As we headed down south, the temperature dropped too, so do pack enough if you're like us (Singaporeans). We've experienced dry skin and cracked lips too, so don't forget your moisturizers and lip balm.

I was really busy taking in the view, blue waters, green hills, just like what I've seen online.

Picked up our car from Apex Car Rentals. We rented a Toyota as we wanted something more suitable for our roadtrip. The car looks pretty decent from the exterior, but honestly, I wouldn't recommend this car rental place as they provided us with a very old car, which had many scratches on the outside and the interior was really dirty. The aircon wasn't strong as well. When we requested to have a change of car halfway through the trip, they didn't even bother to reply to our emails. Very poor service.

After picking up our car, we went to a nearby supermarket called Warehouse, which has everything from food to clothes. There are other supermarkets around like PAKnSAVE, Countdown and New World. I managed to get some pretty good steals from these places.

The next day, we were being all touristy. The iconic Auckland Skytower.

We only spent about half a day exploring Auckland, then we headed down south to Waitomo. On the way there, we stopped by along the road to have some fish & chips.

New hiking shoes for him and her.

Waitomo Hotel, which has a very antique architecture. Wooden beds and all.

From our room window, we could see Waitomo Caves. If you're heading to NZ, remember to download the app, Arrival, we paid less 10% off for our visit to the Waitomo Caves. We regretted not switching on the gopro to capture some images/videos of the glow worms although it was prohibited. It was a really magical sight, luminous lights glowing in pitch black darkness.

HUHU cafe, just down the road for dinner, as recommended by tripadvisor. Before we went on this trip, everyone who has been to NZ told me that there isn't any nice food at all. I was prepared to lose some weight there. Now, let me clarify this, if you're heading there, use tripadvisor, their recommendations are pretty spot-on. Food can be quite reasonably priced as well, especially if you order a western meal. A tip for you, the beef and lamb there are really cheap and good.

Duck confit.

Spicy winglets.

Accompanied with beer & cider. Outdoor seating at a temperature of 15 degrees, perfecto.

Spot the Auckland Skytower.

The Hobbiton, NZD$75 per person.

The one ring to rule them all.

It was a really gloomy day.

The owner of this farm rented out that space in his farm for them to shoot The Hobbit. He has so many sheeps, I wonder if he names all of them. This picture is not all, there were so many hills full of sheeps.

We took a Hobbiton tour bus into the movie set. It was a two hour tour.

It was really fascinating.

Finally the sky decided to let me snap a few pretty pictures.

These flowers are so cute they look like ladybugs.

Our very entertaining guide for the day.

Everything in that movie set was picturesque.

Then we had a cup of free cider/ginger beer each.

And a pussycat busy snoozing.

It was a really impressive movie set and we were fed with details of the various scenes that they shot.

Because I saw so many pretty instagram shots of the Redwoods Whakarewarewa Forest, I planned it into our itinerary. We took the green trail, if you're wondering, the one to the quarry lookout. It was a one and a half hour hike.