There and Back Again...

An excellent adventure, traversing around the north island of New Zealand for two weeks in a tiny Toyota Yaris Hybrid with mum, dad and the kid.. Read more

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Trip start
April 4, 2026
There and Back Again...
Day 1: Brisvegas to Auckland
April 4 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Welcome to Aotearoa, land of the long white cloud....

For our first ever family adventure away from Australia, we have flown to New Zealand north island for the school holidays.

We will be spending 2 weeks touring around trying to spot Hobbits and any and all LOTR related scenery we can.

We left home this morning at 8am via a Didi trip to the international airport for an 11.35am flight that ended up being almost but not quite on time.

A 3-ish hour flight later, we navigated a fast and extremely smooth transit through passport control, baggage collection, ATM money retrieval, hire car collection and 10km drive to our (very cheap and cheerful) overnight accommodation, getting here about 7pm (3 hours ahead of Qld).

After scoping out the rooms (the place is kind of like a boarding house), we located a local Indian takeaway and Cormac ate his body weight in food.

We are now back in our room, chillaxing and hoping the leftovers are still in the communal fridge in the morning, as that will be our breakfast.

All in all a very smooth start to our Hobbit Holiday....Read more
TravelerWe loved it, back in 2019. Not only is Hobbiton great, but there are LOTR links everywhere. We did the WETA studios tour in Wellington, and loved the Hairy Foot Tour on a film location. We’re going back to Hobbiton this year in August to do some feasting at the Green Dragon,
4/5/26Reply
TravelerSounds amazing. Won't get to Wellington this trip, but it is on the agenda for the next one.
4/5/26Reply
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There and Back Again...
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Day 2: Auckland to Paihia
April 5 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
This morning we drove 20 mins into Auckland CBD to visit Weta Workshop Unleashed, a movie set creation company that did a lot of work on the Hobbit and LOTR characters. We booked into a 90 min tour and then a 60 min workshop for Cormac to make a prop out of cardboard.

The place was amazing and even better we were the only folk in the workshop so got 1:1 personalised attention. We ended up with a Thor-like hammer, which is pretty cool, a hoodie for Cormac and some amazing photos

After lunch at a kebab shop, we hit the road to drive about 3 hours north to the Northland area of North Island. We are staying in a small town called Paihia (pronounced pie-here), on the east coast of Northland, Bay of Islands area, where we arrived about 5pm.

Dinner was pasta and tacos at a local bar come butcher, which was a somewhat odd combination.

Tomorrow we were due to do a 1.5hr speed boat trip to visit to a place off the coast called the Hole in the Rock, but I got an email to say there is going to be bad weather and it is likely to be modified to just putter around the islands, if it goes at all.

Then we got another email to say our day long bus excursion the following day up to Cape Reinga (the tippy top of NZ) has been cancelled because of forecast bad weather. So now we have to work out a change our plans for the next couple of days. Sigh...Read more
Traveler Adam Savage of MythBusters fame modelled for this chap
4/6/26Reply
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There and Back Again...
Day 3: Paihia & Bay of Islands
April 6 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 18 °C
Today has ended up being an excellent adventure despite the uncertain start with our itinerary.

Our 9.30am speed boat trip to the Hole in the Rock got cancelled but we got switched over to a 4.5hr cruise around the Bay of Islands, leaving at 10am. It too was supposed to visit the Hole, but was going to be unlikely, according to the staff at the check-in. However, once aboard the boat, our fearless captain told us she was just going to poke our head out into the rough seas just to see how rough the winds were actually making it. Lucky for us, she decided it wasn't that bad, all things considered, so we actually ended up making it all the way to viewthe Hole. We just didn't manage to go right through it, which they usually do in calmer weather.

Then the boat stopped at Otehei Bay on Urupukapuka Island (apparently author Zane Grey lived here in the 1920's and wrote about the spectacular game fishing in the Bay of Islands) for 90 mins and where we bought lunch and climbed a very windy hill before getting back on board for the 45min trip back to land.

We arrived back about 2.30pm and jumped in the car and drove straight to Waitangi Treaty Grounds for another tour that we had pre-booked. In theory we were supposed to have had all afternoon there, but with the change to the mornings plans we only had 2 hours to race in to catch a 30 min cultural performance and the 50min tour of the grounds, before it closed at 5pm.

The cultural performance was great. The guided tour followed straight after and I believe our guide was really keen to finish up for the day and avoid the incoming rain because he speeded through his talk and tour, only allowing time for questions when he paused for breath, which wasn't very often. So we were all done and dusted with that part in about 35mins.

That did however, allow us time for a quick visit to the Price of Citizenship Museum, which is basically a very moving war memorial opened in March 2020 for a brief moment in time before it closed again for Covid Lockdown. It is obviously open again now...

There is a second museum on the grounds that we didn't get to see, but our tickets are valid for 2 days, so we might get back there tomorrow afternoon...

From there we stopped at Woolies for provisions and came back to hotel to have hot chocolate and hot cross buns for dinner....Read more
TravelerI'm feeling rushed on your behalf after reading that!
4/6/26Reply
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There and Back Again...
Day 4: Waitangi again, Paihia & Russell
April 7 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 20 °C
Today the rain really set in, so any self drive trip further north up the peninsula towards Cape Reinga got knocked on the head pretty early. Instead, we drove the 3 kms back to Waitangi Treaty Grounds to visit the main museum, that showed the history of the country from around the declaration of independence through the Treaty of Waitangi and on to modern day. Very interesting. After that we headed back to Paihia stopping on the way at Haruru Falls which are just 5 minutes from Paihia, and lookout over the river that leads down Waitangi.

From there we drove back into the main drag, found an op shop to get a better rain jacket for Paul, and a bakery for some lunch, before heading back to the apartment for a rest and to wait hopefully for a break in the wet weather.

About 2:30pm we roused ourselves and walked down to the jetty to see if ferries were still going to Russell, which they were and we caught the 3:00pm ferry over to that village on the other side of the Bay. We wandered around there not finding any op shops unfortunately, but we did find a cemetery where we looked at the gravestones, and a supermarket to buy a freezer bag to take our cold food stuff with us tomorrow. Then we found a pub where we had a couple of games of pool and then dinner.

We were aiming to catch the 7pm ferry back to Paihia but by this time the rain and wind had started to pick up a lot more and the ferry never showed up. After a quick look on Facebook we discovered they had all been cancelled for the evening and we ended up racing through the rain to catch a bus that we discovered waiting back at the start of the jetty.

The bus took us the long way round the peninsula via the vehicle ferry which was further along the sheltered side of the Bay, so was still running. We ended up back at Paihia jetty about 8pm and got soaked hot-footing it back the 1km to the apartment.

Not the day we had originally planned at all, with the ending definitely an unexpected journey, but fun nonetheless.Read more
TravelerPity about the weather - hope it improves.
4/9/26Reply
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There and Back Again...
Day 5: Paihia to Whitianga
April 8 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 20 °C
One of the problems with pre-booking accommodation on a holiday is that it is very hard to change plans, so despite the day looking to be sunny, we had to pack up and leave Paihia to make our way back to Auckland and further down and then around to the east (ish) to get to Whitianga (with the Wh pronounced like an F) on the Coromandel Peninsula.

We left just after 7:30am and arrived at the holiday park in Whitianga just after 2pm (our longest driving day of the trip). We encountered more rain as we headed south and we were driving in and out of it the whole journey.

First order of business after unloading the car was washing and drying our wet and dirty clothes. Then we trekked off to the supermarket for more substantial provisions. This place has a kitchenette, so we can actually cook meals!

We are here for 3 nights and hopefully the weather will be only lightly rainy for a couple of days, until the cyclone currently travelling south from Fiji hits Northland on Sunday.Read more
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There and Back Again...
Day 6: Coromandel Peninsula
April 9 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
Today started off raining and pretty much continued most of the day. So, after a slow start and a search of Google on rainy day activities nearby, we loaded up the car and headed out for a day trip on a loop around the Coromandel Peninsula. We travelled south out of Whitianga (located on the east coast) and took the 309 Road, a mostly gravel road that runs up and over across the peninsula to the west coast and the small town of Coromandel. On the way we stopped to look at some really huge and very old Kauri trees and a cool waterfall that looks like it would be a fantastic place for a swim on a hot day.

In Coromandel we strolled through town visiting an obligatory op shop or two, before having lunch in a local park. After that we drove to the Driving Creek Railway to do zip lining which was a lot of fun. Fortunately, the rain had eased off for the afternoon on that side of the coast and we only got lightly sprinkled on for the most part.

The trip back across the top of the peninsula took an hour and we arrived home about 5pm, just in time to do nothing much for the evening.

( GoPro video footage of zipline to come once we edit length)Read more
TravelerOMG! that zip lining looks frightening...
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There and Back Again...
Day 7: Hot Water and Cathedrals
April 10 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Hot Water Beach is about 30 minutes drive south from Whitianga and is famous for, surprisingly enough, having hot water on the beach.

You go there within 2 hours either side of low tide and dig a hole in certain sections and burn your feet on the 60 degree hot water that is just under the surface.

It works better when the low tides are not being made not so low by cyclone-induced weather and you can dig a hole large enough to sit in and have cool water mix in with it. With a cyclone causing havoc, we ended up with only a small area of beach that was exposed enough to dig down into. Fortunately, low tide today was a 6.32am so by the time we got there about 7.15 there were only a dozen or so others that were all trying to find the only exposed bit of sand.

By taking turns and with the help of a friendly local, we all got a chance to burn our feet at least, if not dig ourselves a spa size hole to sit and relax in.

We then had breakfast in the adjacent park before jumping back in the car and driving 10 mins up the road to a small town called Haihe, which has another famous beach called Cathedral Cove. You can only get to that by parking at a local carpark and walking about 30 mins to get access down a steep-ish set of stairs to the beach. And then back again, of course....

Our day's activities were done and dusted by 10am, so we drove back to Whitianga, picked up food for dinner at Woolies, and came home for a coffee and a shower before heading into town centre for a poke around op shops and an amazing bargain shop come hardware store and haberdashery. Our goal was fish and chips for lunch, which was achieved and then we found another op shop and second hand book store on way home again. Woohoo!

It was a pleasant day, if not action packed, and the rain held off most of the day. We even got a nice sunset!Read more
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There and Back Again...
Day 8: Whitianga to Rotorua
April 11 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Today we were scheduled to travel to Rotorua where we will be staying for the next four nights. After seeing a news post early this morning talking about flooded roads near Coromandel, we decided to get an earlier than planned start to the day, to avoid getting stuck on the road anywhere. We hit the road before 9am and made the almost four hour journey with only a little rain and no significant delays.

Our early start saw us arrive in a dry and even a bit sunny Rotorua before 1pm. We were early enough to have time to check out one of the local attractions and we chose to go Zorbing - rolling down a hill in a giant inflated ball, and then driving back up to the top and doing it again. In Cormac's case he did it four times all up! It was a little bit terrifying and a lot of fun, and very wet. Also cold when you get out of the ball. So the hot tubs at the bottom are very welcome.

Seems we made a good decision to do the zorbing today, as they told us that the place is going to be closed tomorrow because of the cyclone. This whole area we are in has gone to red alert for dangerous winds from 4am Sunday, so I assume other places will also close and it might be a quiet one for us.

After the zorbing we had a bit of a drive around town and checked out a couple of lake-side viewpoints, before stopping yet again at Woolies for food for dinner. Then it was back to our motel to settle in for the night, and potentially the next day or two. We are not particularly concerned about the weather but have taken the small precaution of filling some empty bottles with water, just in case....Read more
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There and Back Again...
Day 9: A motel room in Rotorua
April 12 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 16 °C
With an ex-tropical cyclone in the vicinity, all the tourist attractions we are interested in seeing were either closed or too wet to make for an enjoyable experience. As a result, we had a very quiet day hanging out in our motel room, looking outside at the rain.

Like during the cyclone that didn't quite happen in Brisbane last year, Rotorua has been fortunate to have missed any major wind damage or flooding, although other areas have not been so lucky.

We spent time this morning working what geo-thermal and cultural experiences we wanted to do whilst we are here, and how we're going to fit three days activities into the two days we will have remaining to us here. Thankfully we got to do the zorbing yesterday.

The rest of the day we spent food grazing, rain gazing, phone scrolling, tv watching and then finally tonight we ventured out to get pizza for dinner. Luckily enough we didn't go too stir crazy with us all in one small room, but I really hope the rain eases off tomorrow so we can get out and about....Read more
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There and Back Again...
Day 10: Rotorua in the sun, a little
April 13 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
We woke today to no rain, some patches of clear sky and a desire avoid crowds. So, keen to take advantage of any and all breaks in the weather, we left the motel just before 9am to get to the Skyline Gondola 🚠 that takes us to (close to) the top of Mt Ngongotaha, to go luging. A luge turned out to be like a three wheeled go-cart that you get to scoot back down the mountain (really just a hill) on, and the catch a chair lift back to the top to go again.

We bought tickets for three rides each and it was heaps of fun. Afterwards we had a coffee and milkshakes in the cafe and did their short nature walk. People also come here to mountain biking, zip lining, slingshots (see video) and other fun stuff.

We certainly made a good call getting there early. When we arrived there was us and three other people doing the luge. Once we finished our nature walk it looked like there were 100s all queued up waiting their turns.

After we caught the gondola back down to the car park, we drove the short distance to the city centre to visit the free Sulphur Bay Wildlife Refuge (yes, it was as smelly as it sounds) and the Kuirau Park free foot baths.

From there we found a laundromat to do some much needed washing and then went back to the motel by about 2.30pm.

Again we had great timing in that series of activities because shortly after we got back it started pouring rain and kept raining for the rest of the afternoon. So we got to know motel room even better!!Read more
TravelerThe luge looks like cool fun!
3wReply
TravelerIt was, very fun!!
3wReply
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There and Back Again...
Day 11: Redwoods and geysers
April 14 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
The day dawned will lots of blue sky and actual glarey sun, which boded well for the outdoor activities we had planned.

Leaving the motel about 8.45am we drove a whole five minutes to the Redwoods & Whakarewarewa Forest, a plantation of Californian redwoods planted years ago as a timber source. They didn't end up being useful because they grow too fast here and are therefore too soft to build or make things out of (is the story, I believe...).

There is now a (paid) treetop walk there, which we chose not to do, and instead we did a walk through the trails at ground level. Very peaceful and relaxing way to start the day.

From there we headed five minutes further along to Te Puia, where we had booked in for 90 minute tour of the geothermal pools, kiwi bird conservation centre and Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. The tour was followed by a 30 minute cultural performance and then an all you can eat hangi buffet lunch.

It was all very cool, and we went back to see the kiwis and the mud pools and geysers again after lunch, because we were interested, but also because we needed to do something to start digesting all the food we just ate!

Again, we lucked out with the weather and rain held off until we got back to the motel about 3.30pm. Needless to say. We did need to eat dinner tonight...Read more
TravelerSo I hope you have excel filled everything so I can just follow yr trip
3wReply
TravelerGood timing with the weather....
3wReply
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There and Back Again...
Day 12: Hobbits and Green Dragons
April 15 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
Our focus of action for today was the main focus of our whole trip - a visit to Matamata to do a tour of the Hobbiton Movie set, located on a private farm 15 minutes drive out of that town.

We left our Rotorua motel early for the hour drive to Matamata. The rain accompanied us for most of the journey and came pouring down just before we arrived. Fortunately it seemed to stop once we had got there, whilst we stopped for coffee, toilet and to take photos of the Hobbiton inspired visitor information centre located there.

We then drove to The Shire's Rest which is located just outside the farm gates to board the 10.10am tour bus that would drive us into the farm to get to Hobbiton.

It was amazing how they have nestled the movie sets into the hills on the farm, recreating only in 2023 two actual Hobbit holes that you can walk through.

The tour also included another brief deluge of rain (that left us all damp and with muddy shoes), a drink at the Green Dragon Inn, followed by another all you can eat buffet lunch and then another bus trip back to The Shire's Rest so we could spend an exorbitant amount of money at the gift shop on The Hobbit map and a mini figure of the Witch King of Angmar.

Once our wallet was that little bit lighter, we jumped back in the car and drove 90 minutes south-ish to get to Lake Taupo, our next stop for two nights.Read more
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There and Back Again...
Day 13: Lake Taupo and Huka Falls
April 16 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 13 °C
We are currently staying at the (not so) Grandeur Thermal Spa Resort. It might once have been grand, and associated with a thermal spa, but no longer, sadly. However it is located a short walk from the Thermal Spa Park, which is a car park and again has no locatable spa. But is the start of a walk to the Huka Falls, further down the Waikato River which flows out of Lake Taupo.

There is actually a small spot on the walk that is supposed to be the thermal bit, but it was not particularly hot when we got back to it at the end of our walk. More just luke warm.

The trip to Huka Falls is about 4kms from our accommodation and the return journey took just over two hours all up, there and back again, including the brief dip in the 'thermal spa'.

It started raining on the final leg of the journey and we arrived back at our accommodation a bit damp, so it was hot chocolate all round.

Once we had all warmed up and got into warmer clothes, we drove into the town centre, for a bit more of a look-see at the Lake (very choppy, because of the wind that had come along behind the rain) and find somewhere for lunch out of the cold. Then we took a wander around to visit some of the local op shops, where I discovered a Neighbours Christmas Carol record! Who would have thought....Read more
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There and Back Again...
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Day 14: Taupo to glowing poo maggots
April 17 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
Today is our penultimate day and final night in this beautiful country, and we had one last adventure booked in.

Leaving Taupo about 9.30am we headed northwards again towards the village of Waitomo, which is famous for its underground caves that are home to a population of glow worms.

You can be boring and just walk into the caves to see the glow worms, but if you are feeling adventurous, you can go black water rafting (i.e. clambering through caves in rapid running, 13 degree waters, dressed in a full wet suit, gum boots and helmet, toting an inner tube that is intermittently used to float along to view the glow worms living on the cave roof).

At one point, we were given an introduction to the life and biology of glow worms. Turns out the bit that makes them glow is their excreted poop and mucus, used to attract prey to eat, and they are actually the larvae form a type of fly.

A.k.a they are glowing poo maggots.

But that name tends to put people off, so 'Glow Worms' they became!

Anyways, pooping aside, the whole experience was super fun and we all had a blast. We also very much welcomed the hot shower and hot soup at the end!

We started the Black Water Labyrinth tour at 1pm and ended up leaving there about 4pm and drove 30 minutes to our accommodation just south of the town of Te Awamutu.

By sheer chance we have chosen a delightful place for our last night in Aotearoa. Called 'The Old School House', it is a complete stand-alone B and B type accommodation, complete with fresh flowers, fresh eggs, home made fresh bread and even Vegemite!

Instead of going out to hunt for a place for dinner we decided to stay and enjoy the freedom of lots of space and cosy surrounds, and so we got pizza delivered and a couple of loads of washing done.

We certainly know how to live life large!Read more
TravelerWhat a wonderful cave experience! All yours though. Have so enjoyed following your travels again. Safe trip home to Brissie! x
3wReply
Traveler Amazing photo
3wReply
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There and Back Again...
Day 15: Home again, home again....
April 18 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Our main task for today was to get back to Auckland by 1.30pm to drop off the hire car and catch our 5.45pm flight back to Brisvegas. Given we were less than two hours drive away, we didn't rush to leave the School House and instead had a leisurely breakie fry up and tried to use up all remaining food items we wouldn't be able to take back home. We left behind or binned a few items but did not have too much waste, fortunately.

We left by 10am and drove the short distance Hamilton and took a short drive around their lake. Then we headed further north to Auckland to visit their dormant volcano, and site of prehistoric village, called Mount Eden or Maungawhau, located in central-ish Auckland somewhere.

From there we finally hit the hire car drop off place and international airport.

The flight was uneventful and on time and we got back to home, sweet home just before 9pm.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip for our first overseas family adventure. Hopefully, we can start planning another one soon.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.Read more
TravelerThank you to Lynette, my fabulous wife, for organising and coordinating a great family holiday. We dodged and weaved a cyclone, enjoyed great accommodation and engaged in spectacular activities. Love you big time.
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Trip end
April 18, 2026