An endless array of outdoor activities and a laid back vibe. Our main mistake was only spending one week there and not being able to explore the south island as well! We went over the week of Thanksgiving, and lucked out with incredible weather. While the wine was excellent, we were not overly impressed with the food. Tipping is not standard but if service was excellent, we were told that 5-10% was greatly appreciated. Since we were planning to be both hikers and tourists, we packed one normal carry-on suitcase with our basic needs and then our camping backpacks with our hiking gear. It was easy to check both bags and be able to leave the stuff we weren’t using in the trunk of our car. One other tip – don’t be fooled by the weather forecasts. Despite the expected top temperatures being shown as around 70 degrees, when the sun comes out there…it is incredibly hot! Pack light, breathable layers and lots of sunscreen. Below is our itinerary and a few of the trip highlights!
Type of Trip: Self Planned
Day 1: Auckland – Arrive in Auckland, direct LAX-AKL on American Airlines. We picked up our rental car at Hitch (fair priced and easy to pick up/return) and drove to our hotel. Get ready for driving on the other side of the road! We dropped our stuff at the B&B, where they greeted us with a complimentary glass of wine and coffee. We spent the rest of the day exploring Auckland – stopping at the Wharf for lunch, visiting the bridge bungee jump (didn’t do it though), and popping in a random bar on our walk home.
Hotel: The Great Ponsonby Art Hotel – lovely accommodation with a fabulous breakfast in the morning! Totally recommend this spot.
Day 2: Raglan – After a restful, jetlag catch-up sleep, we took our rental car and began the road trip down to Raglan. Beware of tons of road construction with gravel roadways and large trucks. Our first stop was the famed movie set “Hobbiton”, where the Lord of the Rings movies were shot (The Shire). While pricey, this turned out to be really awesome! Either make your reservation in advance (it gets slammed) or go first to the Matamata Visitor’s Center and book your tickets there at the same price. We ended up doing that and the bus picked us up and dropped us back at the Visitor’s Center. Before the tour, we stopped for lunch at Redoubt Bar & Eatery. The waitstaff was friendly and accommodating and the food was the best choice that we found in the small town.
Hobbiton was seriously cool. Such elaborate art design and the tours are spaced out well so you don’t feel overcrowded. The tour takes you through the set and provides fun movie trivia along the way. The tour ends with a complimentary drink at the Green Dragon (yes, the bar from the movie).
The rolling hills of farmland along the way was gorgeous. Lots of cows and sheep, which added to the ambiance. When we finally arrived in Raglan, the vibe shifted to chilled out surf mode. Our studio hotel room was perfect, and ideally located. We had an extended dinner at Orca Restaurant…the service was dismal (they didn’t come to the table for 30 min and when we did order, they forgot about our order)…so that turned into a 3 hour dinner of sub par food, but we didn’t seem to mind with the view of the water and it being the start of our trip.
Hotel: Bow Street Studios – Rachel quotes “this place is amazing to meditate in!” Two story apartment with lots of space and serenity. Very enjoyable.
Day 3: Turanji – We woke up early on our own and had a lazy morning, with breakfast at this great cafe called The Shack. Driving out of town, we detoured to the Bridal Veil waterfall. It was much bigger than expected and made for a nice, steep morning walk to stretch our legs during a long day of driving.
We tried to stop at the Waitomo Glow Caves, however all the main tours were booked up for the day and it seemed a tourist sink hole. There were people and tour buses everywhere and the cost of the tours were pretty hefty. We opted to skip it on our trip, though other people have said it’s pretty cool.
We finished up the day by driving to Turanji, where we would be staying for the night before our big hike. The town was a small trucker town, a bit run down. We stopped at the local Tavern for bad cheese pizzas and some penny slots. Rachel was the big winner, so that was decently exciting.
Hotel: Parklands Motor Lodge – simple, no-frills, inexpensive motel accommodation. Lots of truckers and few amenities. The rooms were clean and it was nice to be able to order breakfast the night before and have it delivered at a certain time in the morning.
Day 4: Northern Circuit – The BEST part of our trip. We got up early this morning, had a big breakfast at the motel and finished packing our backpacks. Our carry on luggage went into the trunk and we began the half hour drive down to Whakapapa Village (our starting point for the Tongagiro Northern Circuit loop hike).
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Info on hut accommodations and our hiking route:
We had reserved our camping huts five months before our trip – which is highly recommended since the hike is highly sought after and the beds book up. Booking information and availability is HERE. The huts are awesome and well maintained. Each has a Ranger that stays overnight and lays out important rules and information. The huts have varying numbers of bunkbeds, situated in a few rooms. Privacy is limited, but the amenities are great for a camping spot. There are gas stoves, bunks with bed pads, bathrooms (no showers) and heating/lights. There isn’t a place to charge devices. You should bring a sleeping bag, inside shoes (boots are not allowed), food and a pot to cook it in (along with dishware). The water is clean and can be consumed from the huts without treatment.
We opted to take the route counterclockwise, which is not the normal direction most hikers take. I opted for this for a few reasons: less people, flatter first day (elevation wise), and hut availability. Our original plan was to stop at two huts for the nights, the Oturere Hut and the Mangatepopo Hut. This plan would make our first day the longest (distance) at 23.5km, but our legs would be fresh. The second day would have the most elevation/climb (~1900m, and 12km) and the last day would be a short out back to the Village (9.4km). Our hike ended up going a little differently, as described below.
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Once in Whakapapa, we checked in at the Visitor’s Center and got our parking pass. We left our car in the designated lot and got on the trail about 9:30am. It was easy going and gorgeous from the start. We felt like we were all alone for many aspects of it. Given that we had a long day ahead of us, we only made two specific stops. The first was a side trip to the Tama Lakes (worth it). We dropped our bags and trekked to the lake with just our water bottles, making the extra distance a little easier. The second stop was for a late lunch at the old Waihohonu hut. “This was the first hut built in Tongariro National Park (1904) and is the oldest existing mountain hut in New Zealand. It was the base for the first recreational skiing in New Zealand. It was in active use for over 60 years and remains standing on its original site. The hut was registered as a category one historic place by the Historic Places Trust in 1993.” Pretty cool stuff! You cannot camp there but it’s neat to check out. We also made a brief stop at the new Waihohonu Hut to check out the amenities and use the bathroom. This hut was by far the newest and nicest!
Convincing ourselves to keep going after that first 5.5 hours was tough, but we pushed on to try and make it to our hut with a few hours of daylight left. The scenery begins to darken and become more volcanic. Really cool…especially when you realize that you are hiking through Mordor (Lord of the Rings) and circling Mt. Doom! Absolutely stunning and we barely ran into anyone along this stretch. Arriving at our campsite around 6pm, we immediately began an evening of easy dinner and endless gin rummy games. I think we were hard asleep by 9pm!
Recommended items to bring: sleeping aid and ear plugs! There are other campers at the hut with you, going to sleep/waking up at very different times.
Food we brought for the trip:
- Snacks: Clif bars, individual peanut butter packets, gushers/fruit snacks
- Breakfast: Oatmeal, instant coffee/tea
- Lunch: Tuna packages (with little mayo packets collected from fast food restaurants beforehand) and mixed nuts
- Dinner: Easy mac, instant mashed potatoes, hot chocolate
Hotel: Oturere Hut – best camping accommodation I have stayed in! Obviously, it’s a no-frills scenario but it was super nice to not have to lug thermarests, extra layers, stoves, etc. They have a campsite there that you can book for less money, but we found the hut to be totally worth it…and warm! Our main complaint was that the hut was shared among many people so sometimes you had to wait to use the stove and sleep still was difficult, given all the different sleep/wake-up patterns.
Day 5: Northern Circuit – We were woken up at 5am, when another guy in our bunk room decided to hit the trail at sunrise and needed to pack his stuff up. Once up, we just decided to get a move on as well. I don’t do well on limited sleep and our legs/hips were sore, so we made an executive decision to skip our second hut reservation and push through for another long distance day.
The first few hours were a gradual uphill climb with a few beastly ups that kicked our butts. The scenery was stunning though, as we were now totally immersed in the volcanic land.
We came across the first of the Emerald Lakes and took a lunch break before ascending the steepest climb of the circuit. These is also where the one-day “Alpine Crossing” intersects the main circuit. Hence, people of varying hiking experience levels were everywhere! It was a bit chaotic and frustrating to navigate the traffic, but it definitely solidified our decision to NOT simply do the Alpine Crossing and instead hike the full loop. Since we hiked counterclockwise, we were forced to climb the uphill in volcanic ash…which gives a bit with every step (like walking in sand). That was challenging but I preferred that to the opposite, where there were serious lines/waits to climb up the rocks. The view from the top was perfect, below shows “Mt. Doom” in the backdrop.
Once we came down the other side, we stopped at the Mangatepopo Hut to check it out and have a bite (it was around 1:30pm). This too was a nice set-up, perhaps a little cleaner than the hut we overnighted in.
The final hike out was deceiving. We noted that the signs said 3.5-5.5 hours, depending on weather conditions. We quickly realized why that was – most of the final few miles is an uneven and not-maintained trail. There are challenging rocky areas and trenches dug in, making it difficult with boots and a pack. We commented that if it had been raining, we would have been screwed.
We finished the 26 mile loop at around 5pm that afternoon, back in Whakapapa Village. After picking up our car, we made the hour drive up to Taupo, where we reserved a last-minute hotel room. Embarrassingly enough, as true Americans, we stopped at Burger King for a much needed fatty, delicious burger and fries. The hotel was perfect, with an excellent (well-needed) hot tub and free LAUNDRY! We threw our entire backpacks into the washer and were good to go. The hotel owners were really sweet and had excellent restaurant recommendations.
Hotel: Gables Lakefront Hotel – highly rated on TripAdvisor and worth the reviews. The rooms were very clean and substantial, with comfortable beds. Most rooms have private hot tubs, though those were booked up. So we settled for the communal hot tub, which we had to ourselves anyways! The rooms have home-made cookies and all the coffee, tea, etc you could ask for. It was also right on the shore of Lake Taupo, so this made for a beautiful sunset view. The laundry was an excellent addition.
Day 6: Taupo & Rotorua – Our trip was beginning to wind down and we were exhausted from the hike, with sore legs and bruised hips/collarbones. Hence, this day was more of a relaxing endeavor. We stopped by a few of the tourist attractions on the way out of Taupo, including the Craters of the Moon geothermal area. This was actually pretty cool ($8/person) and provided a nice excuse for a short walk around the grounds. There are meteor craters, geothermal hot springs steaming, and lots of cool colors in the landscape.
We decided to relax the rest of the day and drove up to Rotorua. We booked 3-hour massage treatments at our hotel (yes, this was overindulging for sure). They have an in-house spa and it was fabulous. One hour massage, followed by a honey scrub/mud wrap and then a facial to end it. Our bodies felt totally rejuvenated afterwards! We ordered great pizzas from Pizza Imperfetto in town and were in bed by 9pm. Perfection.
Hotel: Silver Fern – lovely accommodation with private hot tubs in the room and an in-house spa with reasonably priced treatments. The hosts are lovely people! Short walk into town. Highly recommended.
Day 7: Rotorua – It was nice to stay in the same hotel for two nights in a row. We spent this last free day completely chilling out. We took private hot tubs sessions in our room, and ventured out to the Redwoods Forest and walked along the treetops. That was cool and an educational experience.
Hotel: Silver Fern
Day 8: Back to AKL – The roadtrip back to the airport! Car return was easy, as was airport check in. The American Airlines lounge was a nice stopping point in the airport, where we enjoyed our final class of local Sauvignon Blanc.
It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Super peaceful and a great place to meditate and reflect. The landscaping is something to be admired as well!
From there, we hopped on the bus to Gora (where the loop begins). 
We found it a great time to chill out, instead of fighting the crowds of tourists with cameras. 🙂 The Fall foliage is simply gorgeous.
You order at a vending machine (cash) and take the ticket into a little bar area. You leave the ticket on a dish and they bring you your order. Each seat at the bar is closed off to the others, so you can eat semi-privately, if desired. We saw many solo Japanese business people come in for lunch. Theoretically, you could go there and never have to speak to anyone the whole time…wait staff included!
campsite! We woke with the sun and made our way to Cathedral Lakes (our second camp site). The meadows outside Tuolumne are stunning. They seem to go on endlessly. We passed Sunrise High Sierra Camp, where we stopped for lunch. We got to Cathedral Lakes fairly early, which gave us a pleasant break. We swam in the frigid water and set up camp. We enjoyed hot chocolate by the water’s edge and played cards. Perfect end to an excellent day.
stop there forst for the experience. This turned out to be a brilliant choice as we were some of the first ones in (it gets crowded). Freezing air, and warm sulfur baths with mud masks. Absolute heaven and well worth the price tag.
spent a day exploring town and had a brilliant time at a local (though touristy) English pub – http://www.enskibarinn.is/en/ . Lots of travelers during the week and locals on the weekends. The bar/club scene picks up tremendously over the weekend (it goes all night), when the locals come out. We also had trendy, wonderful (though expensive) dinners at the following:
glaciers, lava fields, etc. When I make my return to Iceland, I am certainly going to plan for a full week of driving the Ring route, and staying at the various B&Bs along the way. Another day, we drove north to some of the coastal towns.
a fields in the south. This adventure was an expected joy, as it was essentially void of people. It seemed that we had the whole world to ourselves, and the landscape looked what I imagine Mars to look like. Simply cool.
lt, the air quality is sub par and the gorgeous forests are disappearing.
how far he had come to Luang Prabang to study, leaving his family far behind and knows not when he will see them next. It is a honor and privilege to be training and these young men carry themselves so maturely (even though some seem as young as 8!). Every morning, the monks from the various temples walk a specific route around the city and collect “alms” from the locals, who bow on mats on the sidewalks and offer sticky rice and other food gifts to the monks. I participated one morning and found it to be a nice start to the day. After you give alms, you sit and meditate/pray until all the monks have passed. It becomes a nice time to reflect.
e of the city, called Kuang Si. I spent an afternoon there, taking pictures of the local flora (learning to navigate my new camera like a nerd) and swimming in the clear, aqua pools at the various stages of the waterfall. There were quite a few tourists, but it became a fun time to meet new people and challenge one another to a rope swing contest over the falls. Never one to back down to a challenge, I had a lovely red mark on my back following a failed flip. Nice move on my part.
However, my wise elephant (61 and blind -which they informed me of afterwards, thank goodness) took great care of me and thoroughly enjoyed the bath. She was spraying me with water from her trunk and submerging her head under for minutes at a time. She especially liked it when we scrubbed her ears with the thick bristle brush. It was awesome, though I think I had to bathe for days to get the smell of elephant off of me.
buses and cars, but transportation is essentially dominated by tuk tuks, motorcycles and bikes. I am absolutely impressed by the amount of stuff that people are able to load onto their bicycles…crates, at least 4 dozen coconuts, furniture, live animals, multiple children. There seems to be few traffic laws, if any at all – the only rule I’ve noted is that everyone gives way to the bigger mode of transportation. Walkers to bikes, bikes to motos, motos to tuk tuks, tuk tuks to cars, and cars to shuttles. Despite the seemingly chaotic structure, it seems to work well and honks are merely used as a warning of passing by. I am also amazed by the age of some of the drivers…I swear, mothers have their three yr olds driving these things. Either way, I’m sold on the tuk tuks.
es. The city of Angkor Wat has been around since the 12th century and at that time, boasted a population larger than London. The only disappointing part of the city is that it is operated (and therefore profited by) private companies. It would seem to me that the city/country’s biggest tourist destination and largest revenue producing venue would truly help the government to assist their people in emerging from the severe poverty that has evolved.
with Linda at the helm. In the Red Wall Cavern, the musical instruments saw their second appearance. Pictures do not do the cavern justice – it is an enormous amphitheater carved out by high river flows. A must stop for lunch. I completed my first successful “high side” maneuver today – where you avoid flipping a raft in rapids by throwing all our weight up against the high side of the boat. We finished off the day with Mike’s delicious halibut.
John needed absolute silence on his boat. Coyote has a calm that manages to make one forget that they were in a smaller boat with a leak on the bottom. Jess threw on his lucky bandana and smiled reassuringly. Christine turned, non-chalantly, towards the dukcy and got ready to take Hance head-on. Needless to say though, I think everyone was a little nervous despite appearances.
is marked the day when Brian ran Bedrock and won the understatement of the year award “Yabba Dabba Do!”. With a nonchalant, but somber, high-side instruction, Matt, Brian, Tom and Willy pin-balled down the water road less traveled.
beating out our exquisite chef, Mike. The tent caroling began with earnest. Caroler’s at Jim’s tent saw two full moons that night. We learned the true meaning of “hit ’em straight” and finding a “tight spot” on the river.
Tournament. The teams included Scorpions, Sacrificial Poles, The Hobbits, Wet Willies, Bleached Bums, Dos Beeches, Big Kahoneys, and the Trash Tours. The night’s festivities were made up of limbo competitions, Lava Falls shots in honor of the River Gods, tent caroling, Dick’s trumpet playing TAPS, wheelbarrow races, lap dances performed by men…and so it was, the “15-year laugh” resonated throughout camp.
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