Day 1: Auckland & Waiheke Island

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We arrived early in the morning on March 3rd after 23 hours of traveling. Grabbed an Uber from the Airport into downtown Auckland, checked our bags into the Luggage Hotel and had a delicious breakfast at Scarecrow. Coffee activated, we took to walking through the adjacent city and War Memorial parks. Ice Cream was the official lunch before hopping on the ferry to Waiheke Island. Afternoon beach exploring was just steps from our AirB&B followed by 2 Fat Buns.

Day 2: Waiheke Island

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Scooters! We were up early enough to coffee-up at Grocery Name before opting-into-fun with scooter rentals from Scooters and Boards. Fully mobilized, we were able to explore so much more of Waiheke had to offer, including all the beaches (within the legal limits of our scooter contract), the Empenade Road, Tennis Court park, a bread & cheese lunch, and lots of left-hand drive. After turning our 2-wheeled magic carpets, we walked back to the ferry port to catch the sunset and took the local bus to a roadside Fish & Chips gem.

Day 3: Rotorua

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Hot damn. Ferrying off the island early, we secured our rental car in Auckland and put a true test of our scooting keep-left training. 3 hours later we were ready to enter the seemingly extra-terrestrial (yet literal terrestrial) world of W Thermal Park. Pictures are the best way to describe the wonders created by 230°C earth water. We tested the water ourselves (after it had been naturally cooled a bit) at Spa Name and had an Indian take-out feast which would turnout to be the home country of our cave-mates the next day.

Day 4: Redwood Forrest & Waitomo Glowworm Caves

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We made it to the Redwood Forrest by 9:30 to take an hour walk through the largest trees I’ve ever seen and hop back on the road westbound to The Kiwi Cave Rafting Co.

The next part is difficult to truly describe but I’ll try with truly impactful, f-ing amazing and more than memorable. To me, this was “proof that there must be life on other planets” kind of stuff. Glowing worms like stars that never see sunlight on the ceiling of miles of underwater caves that has a true river running through it. We repelled, crawled, floated, climbed and eel fished as a group of 5. Priscilla made the first decent and first exit climb to bookend 4 hours of wetsuit-ed subterranean exploring. #1 spot on our list for the North Island and will be hard to unseat for #1 overall.