Day dot — Tauranga to Wellington. Today marked the beginning of Celina…
By: Mark Ballantyne
Tags: Travel, New Zealand, Vanlife, Nature, Traveling

Huka Falls, Taupo

Today marked the beginning of Celina and mines epic road trip to the South Island, NZ. We packed up, the still unnamed van, last night in preparation to leave first thing this morning. The goal was to leave at 7am, but you know how these things go, you say 7am and that ends being 9am. Believe it or not, however, we got fairly close to the targeted time and hit the road at half past 7. The first destination in question was Wellington, the nation's capital and the gate to the South Island.

We tossed up the idea of spending a few days working our way down to the capital over a couple of days but decided against it as we are both fairly excited to see what the South Island has on offer. This first legwas to be the longest stretch of driving we would be doing the entire trip. Close enough to 7 hours that it didn’t matter. No where near the longest piece of driving I’ve managed but still nothing to gawk at. We decided to split the road up by stopping in at Huka Falls near Taupo. I had never been there before but had read that it is the most photographed place in NZ. We pulled into the Huka Falls carpark and followed the 15 minute track down to the Lookout. Safe to say, it was easy upon first impression to see why Huka Falls is considered the most photographed attraction in NZ. The utter power of the falls and the amount of water moving through them was breathtaking. This partnered with the cool, icy, blue water puts it up there in the category of world class waterfalls. I would consider myself a big waterfall advocate and have seen some very impressive waterfalls worldwide and this was right up there, unofficially pushing into my Top 5. Though it lacks the scale of Niagara in Canada or Gulfoss in Iceland the power is very much the same. No wonder it is responsible for 15% of NZ’s power.

Sightseeing and chasing waterfalls are not the only goals of this trip. Celina and I have anointed ourselves official pie judges and are on the lookout for the best mince and cheese pie in NZ. We have worked up quite a list already but took the Huka Falls side trip to as an opportunity to add to that list in nearby Taupo. We took an early lunch at The Classic Taupo Cafe. Quite a cool little place on one of the main streets of picturesque Taupo. It had a sort of old school, retro feel to it with an entire wall dedicated to old style film cameras. The food didn’t disappoint either. We sat ourselves down on a table outside and ate while we watched an unusually high amount of old people pass us by. The flat white was a bit sub par but the mince and cheese pie brought the heat. The pastry was buttery and flaky. The mince extra saucy and there was a fantastic amount of cheese. Not enough to bump Port Road, Whangamata from first place but does cement itself in the top 3. For now.

Port Road, Whangamata Waiuku Bakery, Waiuku Classic Taupo Cafe, Taupo

Following lunch we moved on from Taupo. Not quickly however. We wanted to savour the mouth watery scenery that the Thermal Explorer Highway presented. It’s been a while since I have driven it but this was the first time I’ve really found myself appreciating its beauty. The drive around the lake is worth the price of gas itself. The diversity of New Zealand scenery is something that you’ll be hard pressed to find any where else in the world. After thinking it couldn’t get better than the lake views that were on offer, in a matter of minutes we were dropped into the flat, desert-like central plateau surrounded by horizons littered with mountains. Most notably Ngaruahoe (Mt. Doom). The drive between Taupo and Waiuru has got to one of the best sections of road to drive, in terms of scenery, in New Zealand. I regretted not stopping to get a few snapshots of the mountains in the distance.

The rest of the drive was still very good but after the treat we were offered very early on in the journey its hard to pick anything that stood out in comparison. I do remember being surprised at how lively Levin is. I was also surprised to hear Uncle Google tell us that it had a population of 21,000. I would have thought it was far less. I should have known it was more populated than I thought when I first saw the McDonalds. When you see a McDonalds in a small town in NZ you just know that that town goes off. The approach into Wellington was also a good one. The bays leading up to it were unbelievably flat. It was like an endless flat, blue pancake. They looked very inviting after a long day driving.

We made it into Wellington just after 4pm. Our spot for the night is the Barnett Street car park just next to Te Papa. We paid $14 for 12 hours of parking, which gets us through until our early ferry time tomorrow. Whilst we would like to make use of free parking and freedom camping spots as much as possible, the location was too good to resist. A 100m walk to New World, waterfront views and best of all a 2 minute drive to our 7am check in at the ferry terminal. After a brilliant sushi dinner we took a nice walk through Wellywoods CBD area, specifically Cuba St. It was extremely lively, even though its only Wednesday and there were plenty of places I could see myself enjoying more than a pint at. After Cuba St was done and dusted we set our sights on a sunset from the top of Mt Victoria. Beautiful view. Prick of a thing to walk up. If you are a Mauao veteran then you should have no worries whatsoever. Its roughly the same size as the mount but takes a little bit longer to get up. However, there are none of those stupid steps. We managed to drag ourselves up, heaving and huffing in time for the sunset. And what a sunset it was. It was a fantastic reward for a bit of hard mahi. It offers excellent views of the harbour, CBD and surrounding areas. Must do if you find yourself in Wellington. The sunset topped off a quick start out of the blocks for us. I am currently writing this from the Barnett St carpark dreading the early rise tomorrow. In saying that, we are both super excited for our South Island adventure. I just hope this ferry has a buffet.

Highlight of the day |Huka Falls

Song of the day|Nothing like you Ft Eric Church — Luke Combs

Km today| 507km

Km total|507km