Wednesday, January 2, 2008

NZ2007 - Northern Explorer Reverse: Day 1

Since I haven’t been to New Zealand before this and I had a great time travelling with Connections back in 2004 in Alice Springs, we decided to travel with Connections for New Zealand’s North Island.

Our travel map for the Connections tour

We decided to take the reverse route from Wellington to Auckland so that we could meet up with friends and spend New Years Eve together in Auckland.

Very soon, its Christmas Eve and we departed Sydney for Wellington via Brisbane with Virgin Blue. The whole plane was filled with the “Christmas atmosphere” where you have air hostesses dressed almost like Santarinas.

The funny part was there were several glitches during our air travel, like we were allowed to board early and were told that we will be ahead of schedule. Suddenly before taxiing onto the runway, we were told that the flight will be slightly late. When we arrived at New Zealand, all doors were disarmed but we were not allowed to disembark as the plane wasn’t close enough to the aero-bridge. All sorts of funny things were happening as though it was April Fool’s day!!

Day 1

Anyway, we safely landed and arrived in Wellington a few minutes after midnight. Merry Christmas everyone!! We boarded the taxi to our accommodation for the night, YHA Wellington.

Wellington City YHA

Next morning, we met the rest of the tour group at Nomads Capital Wellington. We were lucky to have met a shuttle bus driver who was willing to give us a lift to Nomads from YHA since it was raining. The unfortunate thing about that morning was our trip up to Mount Victoria. Since it was raining and was extremely windy up there, the tour just proceeded with the journey heading north towards Taupo.

So, we pretty much visited Wellington only to sleep there for a few hours and drive by some city sights. Not a good timing to start a tour probably. The other sad thing to know was the drive for the day will be the longest ever in the whole tour. Anyway, we continued with our journey for the day through farming country with a quick toilet stop at Hunterville.

Hunterville Township

Because its Christmas!!! …

Christmas greeting along the way

… and hardly any shops or restaurants will be opened on the day, we don’t have much choice for lunch, other than a quick stop at Flat Hills Park.

Sceneries around Flat Hills Park

Trying out the huge cement shoes..

After lunch, we continue driving through the farming country, where we head past the very active Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, the classical conical volcano that are most commonly recognised as Mount Doom from the Lord of The Rings trilogy. These mountains are located in the centre of Tongariro National Park, the fourth National Park to be established in the world.

Mount Ruapehu

Finally, we arrived at Taupo, a beautiful township by the side of New Zealand’s largest lake. Lake Taupo lies in a caldera created following a huge volcanic eruption approximately 26,500 years ago.

Lake Taupo