ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

From the exciting Tongariro crossing, we headed through 4 equally quaint towns, all with something different to offer.  First was Taupo- located on Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake. Second was Rotorua- a clean and relaxing town to unwind and lay in the park, watching sea planes take off from the lake while hordes of ducks and geese strolled by.  Third was Gisborne- a really relaxed little beach town, one of the one’s that would be a nice place to live and not touristy at all.  Last was Napier- a gorgeous small ocean front town, entirely stylized in pastel Art Deco architecture from the 1930’s when the town was rebuilt from a disasterous earthquake.

In the winter Taupo is a popular homebase for skiers. Although quite touristy, Taupo is located on the north end of gorgeous Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake.  The lake is so large it appears to be a huge ocean bay. Looking south across the lake you can see the volcanoes and mountains from Tongariro – a perfect spot if you want to stop for a bite or hang out by the lake for a day. We only had one night and were exhausted from the hike earlier in the day, so we opted for the kind of night where we go to the hostel, eat, do laundry and sleep although the town did look like it had an abundance of restaurants and pubs.

After another equally brief stop in clean and cheery Rotorua, we headed to the far East Coast. New Zealand’s Easternmost city, Gisborne is also the first place in the world to see the sunrise each morning due to its proximity to the international date line. It’s a Main Street-type town of about 30,000 built around a bay with great beaches to the North and South. We found a well-equipped seaside holiday park with clean cabins and decided to rest for three nights. The surf was actually really good in the area as well so we spent some time in the water and exploring the nearby beaches. Chris found some waves as good as those in Costa Rica and got a little more use from the surfboard he had toted all the way from Bali. Afterward, we would sell it to a local shop, the start of the requisite lightening of our loads to go to Europe. Like our Isuzu Amigo in Nicaragua, we were sad to see this worn out friend go.

After a stop in beautiful Art Deco-themed Napier, another stunning little town on the sea, we continued to Wellington to catch our ferry to the South Island. New Zealand’s capital city is big and bustling like Auckland in the North but with a bit of edge and grime that we didn’t see in “The City of Sails”. We were also frustrated to find all of the hostels and budget accommodations full so we had to splurge for a Comfort Inn at $109NZ a night. Of course, we didn’t have much choice in the matter after our little Toyota Corolla finally died on the street out front. We spent the night before our sailing walking the performer-filled streets that had been taken over by a city-wide festival and getting our money’s worth at our hotel by watching all of their 3-channeled cable TV.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.