Charis: The flight from Sydney to Auckland was quick and straightforward. Wrangling the hire car didn’t take too long either and we got into the suburbs before it got too late. We headed for Al’s house – Derek had met a lovely gentleman about a year earlier when he asked for help on a radio project. Al had been volunteering in kiwi preservation and part of that was to do with tracking the movements and mating behaviours of the birds, which could be done with a small radio tracker placed in an anklet. When he heard we were headed to New Zealand he very kindly offered to have us stay with him.

His house was a great base for us over the first week. Whilst he and his partner were working, we took a ferry out to the nearby Waiheke Island, known for its ‘posh hippie’ vibes and vineyards.

We got a gorgeous coastline walk in, taking in views of Auckland in the distance and landed at a vineyard for a couple of delicious glasses of wine before taking the ferry back to the mainland.

Luckily, Al had a day off shortly afterwards, and we headed out to Motuihe Island on his boat – a preservation island full of incredible native New Zealand fauna such as fantails, tuis and tuataras (living fossils whose closest ancestors are the dinosaurs!).

New Zealand has fascinating native fauna being so isolated and only being discovered by humans approximately 800 years ago, when the Maori first arrived. There are no native mammals aside from bats, who were able to migrate by air to the New Zealand islands. As such, when Maori and then later Europeans brought small mammals such as rats and stoats to New Zealand, a massive imbalance was brought into the ecosystem. The native prey birds had generally grown larger (sometimes too large to fly) as that gave them a competitive edge against other predator birds, however large flightless birds are not too difficult for a stoat to take down! As such, there are now a large number of traps set up across New Zealand to catch predatory mammals and several islands or peninsulas where it is feasible to put up a separating fence have been cleared of predators and are now used as preserves for the native fauna.

A further preserved area is the Tawharanui peninsula, which we visited late at night to try and spot some Brown kiwis in the wild. Another survival strategy for the kiwi was to become nocturnal to hide from raptors and their keen eyesight, so they are almost impossible to find during the day. Luckily Al also had some mating calls recorded on his phone, and almost got charged by a hot blooded kiwi whilst playing it!

It was pretty amazing to see these creatures in the wild, and I have a lot of respect for all the work the New Zealand government and all the volunteers have put in to ensure the native fauna can continue to flourish.

Another jaunt out from Auckland was to the Coromandel peninsula. We stayed in a cheap and cheerful cabin at the Hahei Beach Resort and, armed with a spare shovel from Al, headed out to Hot Water Beach just as the tide was beginning to come in.

The beach is fascinating – half way along is a small outcropping of rocks which, thanks to the vibrant volcanic activity, pours out hot water through the sand down to the ocean. It was great fun trying to find the right spot to dig a shallow pool in the sand which would fill with water that was warm enough to sit in with just a swimming costume on and with the cool wind blowing over you, but not so scalding you couldn’t sit in it at all! It became extra tricky when the tide started coming up high enough to breach our outer sand wall so we bailed after about 45 minutes, and had to run back up to the car in the wind and drizzle to dry off!

On our way back to our cabin, the staff member at the gate mentioned off-hand that one of the guests had seen bioluminescence at the beach by the campsite the other night, so we decided to head down when the sun had fully set to see what we could see.

Initially, nothing. Derek had gone ahead and came back to report there were some little glittering lights in the sand, I joined him and as our eyes acclimatized we could see not only lights in the sand (if you ran across it you could see glowing footprints behind you!) but swirling blue lights in the surf as it crashed on the beach. Absolutely incredible to see, and you can understand when seeing natural phenomena like this how awe-inspiring and magical it must have seemed before we understood the science behind it. I don’t think I realised this was on my bucket list beforehand but now I highly recommend it goes on everyone’s!

Derek: We had driven up the western side of the peninsula to reach the campsite and returned by going down the eastern side and then crossing through the Karangahake Gorge where we stopped for a hike through an Old Railway Tunnel and more of the amazing fern forests.

Nearby is the Victoria Battery Tramway and Museum which shows off some of the gold mining history of the area. Because of the abundant forests in the area they brought the locally mined stones carrying gold to this site and poured it into a set of furnaces dug into the top of the hill. They layered wood and ore and melted the ore over several days. From the side of the hill a “U” shaped tunnel was dug to let the smelted ore be collected into carts. The tunnel is damp and covered in ferns near the entrance. Inside, if you look carefully, there are a few glow worms attached to the ceiling, producing long strands with little beads of moisture. It was too bright to see the blue glow, but fun to see them anyways.

Charis: And of course, no trip to New Zealand is complete for fantasy nerds unless you go to Hobbiton!

We left Al’s to start our long drive south and our first stop was the set for Hobbiton, just outside of Hamilton. It is very impressive how real and cosy they have made the whole place – when the set was rebuilt for the Hobbit trilogy, the farmer who owned the land insisted the set be made permanent, after multiple fans showed up after the LOTR trilogy asking to see the bare fields and hills! It’s now an incredibly popular tourist spot and it was pretty magical getting to walk around all the hobbit holes and pretend I was in one of my favourite films.

They’d even built a couple of 80% scale hobbit holes that you could explore, to further bring the lore to life and show off some of the incredible design and artwork inspired by Tolkien’s books.

Continuing south we visited another of New Zealand’s volcanic features, Rotorua. This area is very active with sulfur vents, bubbling hot springs, and geysers. We arrived in town and walked out to the lake and along the Sulphur Point Wildlife Refuge. It was occasionally a bit smelly but sure enough the path went by a series of mud pits and steam rose out of the ground.

The Polynesian Spa on the edge of the lake has 28 hot pools fed by the acidic Priest Spring and the alkaline Rachel Spring. Charis found out the fun way that the sulphur in the hot water instantly tarnishes silver, nothing that a quick scrub couldn’t take off. We soaked for an hour enjoying the sun then had massages, bliss.

The Whakarewarewa Village is home to the Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao maori people who have lived in the area for centuries. The villages runs tours of their public spaces. Our guide met us at the entry bridge and introduced us to the long history of guides within the village. They’ve been showing the volcanic region and their lifestyle to international visitors for generations, including American presidents and British royalty.

They continue to cook food using the hot springs and steam vents that emerge between homes. Wooden boxes built over the steam vents get so hot inside that they can safely cook meat and vegetables. We were able to try corn on the cob cooked by hanging net bags into a bubbling hot spring.

Just past the cooking area the hot water pours through channels to a set of bathing pools. These are used daily and the temperature is adjusted by blocking and unblocking different streams of water.

I loved the many carved statues and decorations. Red Ochre paint is the primary color, with rich green and bright white really popping out. Most homes didn’t have ornate carvings, but the fences and communal buildings here and across many areas of New Zealand did. The guided tour ended at this point and we went to walk around the surrounding hot springs and pools.

The tour had had about twenty people on it, and we could see the group behind and ahead of us. The trails were almost empty though and we spent our time going around the lakes and looking into each pool. In some crevasses the water was at a rolling boil, frothing and steaming vigorously.

Back in the village center we rejoined the group to watch a performance of music, dances, and games. Many were used when communities met each other, to show ability, tell stories, and build hand-eye coordination. All were lively and I joined into the final, a tutorial on the Haka.

From Rotorua we continued south and overnighted at Lake Taupo. We considered renting kayaks or taking the tour ferry there to see a famous recent wall carving, but instead pushed on fairly quickly. We did take a look in at Huka falls just on the north side of town and had another tasty breakfast at The Cozy Corner. We wanted to make it to Wellington, we were eager to get to the South Island.

The Pukaha National Wildlife Centre was on the way. They care for several species of Kiwi birds, though they were hiding and sleeping when we visited. It had rained in the morning and was just breaking as we arrived, leaving the entire center to us alone.

In Wellington we had a full day off before our ferry so slept in then headed to the Te Papa Museum. Their huge exhibits of New Zealand history were brilliantly done, some of the most interesting interactive displays I’ve seen. One had a large scale model of the two-hulled ships which the earliest Māori used to reach New Zealand from other islands in Oceania, then seating area with a window to look at the model ship. The window was a see-through display which overlaid crew members sailing and showing off pieces of the ship to accompany the narration.

An active political topic we’d begun to hear about in the previous week was around the continuing challenge of applying the original Treaty of Waitangi between the British Crown and the many Māori nations to present day laws. This treaty, first signed in February 1840, is tricky for a few reasons including that two versions exist. One is the originally written version in English and the second is translated into Māori. Translation has difficulty capturing nuances in meaning at the best of times, and between very foreign cultures and with low literacy rates this resulted in incompatible meanings in the documents, particularly around ideas of ownership over the land and rights around cultural autonomy. There was a large exhibit dedicated to the discussion and a modern take on the marae communal meeting house, called Rongomaraeroa.

We skipped visiting the exhibit about Gallipoli, but later found out that it had been designed in large part by Weta Workshop which would have been fascinating to see.

We went to Weta Workshop the following morning for a tour. The two trolls at the front door certainly don’t leave any room for thinking you’re in the wrong spot. I’ve seen some really good behind the scenes tours of Weta by Adam Savage from the Myth Busters, but nothing compares to being able to get your nose an inch away from the armor from Lord of the Rings, or touch models from Tintin. We particularly were enchanted by this dragon, made from crushed tinfoil and plaster.

We didn’t stop in the nearby woods to see where the Nazgul chase Frodo and the Hobbits through the forest, but did catch our ferry to cross over to Picton and the South Island. We’re nearly at the end of our travels, but have saved some of the most magnificent for last.