1 Dec 2018 - 9 Days New Zealand (North Island) Self-Drive Itinerary

We arrived at Auckland early this morning and its time to bid farewell to our wonderful ship that we called "home" for the past 10 days.

Taking one last look at our stateroom before disembarking the ship.  We opted to carry our own luggage out of the ship.  This option allowed us to have more flexibility in terms of time of disembarkation.

Jerlene and Javier will miss all the new friends that they had made at Adventure Ocean Kids's Club.  Javier decided to take a few photos of the ship before leaving the port.

After filling up our water bottles at the drinking station, we tried to make our way to the car rental office to pick up our rented car.

Initially we thought we could walk to the office but after crossing a few streets up a slope with our luggage under the light rain, we gave up.  We then decided to call for Uber which brought us to the office in 5 mins.

I actually booked a medium-sized car for this trip but we had a pleasant surprise.  The car rental company actually gave us a free upgrade to a 4WD SUV (Mitsubishi Outlander).  This is fated because in actual fact, we do need a 4WD car to get to a farm up in the mountain tomorrow.  Without a 4WD, it is going to be quite inconvenient.  I will explain the reason in one of my upcoming posts on the farm, so stay tune.

After picking up our car and did the usual checks, we drove out of Auckland city towards Coromandel Peninsula.  As we drove into a small town called Tairua, it started raining quite heavily.  As such, we decided to take a break and make a stop here to have our lunch.

At this point, we officially embarked on part two of our New Zealand holiday, which is a 9 days North Island self-drive trip.  Below is our itinerary.
Day 1: Check in to Hot Water Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park, Hot Water Beach, Video Summary
Day 2: Cathedral Cove, Nightingale Falls Farmstay Cottage, Spectacular view with a Double Rainbow, Dinner with Sunset View and Night Hike in search of Possum, Video Summary
Day 3: Nightingale Falls Rangers Experience, Hobbiton Movie Set, Check in to Jack & Dis Lakefront Resort Motel, Redwoods Walk, Video Summary
Day 4: Agrodome Farm, Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Park, Waikite Valley Thermal Pools, Video Summary
Day 5: Huka Prawn Park, Huka Honey Hive, Huka Falls, Check in to Judges Pools Motel, Video Summary
Day 6: Tongariro River, Te Porere Redoubt, Whakapapa Village, Taranaki Falls Walk, Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom), Tawhai Falls (Gollums Pool), Mounds Walk, Check in to Mountain Heights Lodge, Soaking in Hot Tub, Video Summary
Day 7: Ruakuri Cave, Aranui Cave, Waitomo Glowworm Caves, Dinner and Check in to Quality Hotel, Video Summary
Day 8: Hamilton Gardens, Shopping at Te Rapa, Video Summary
Day 9: Flying back home


Click HERE to read on part one of our New Zealand Holiday, which was a 10 Nights Cruise from Sydney to Auckland on Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas.