North Island Trek

We wanted to have the flexibility to explore North Island at our own frantic pace so we booked space on the Interislander ferry for us and our car. To give you an idea of our pace we stayed in Plimmerton (on the west coast just north of Wellington), Napier, Rotorua, Te Kuiti, Whangarei, Paihia, Taupo, and then Plimmerton again. Kaitiki was the name of our ferry.
The ferry route takes you from Picton, among the islands of the Marlborough Sounds on the north end of South Island, then across the Cook Strait, and into Wellington Harbour on the south end of North Island.

It was fun driving up into the ferry.

We then went upstairs and staked out seats at the bow of the boat in one of the lounges.

The crossing takes about 3 hours and is pretty boring. There are observation decks, restaurants, bars, lounges, a cinema, and children’s play area. On the way up it was misty and foggy so we had just a slight view of islands rising out of the mist. The seas were moderate but the ferry is so big that we couldn’t really feel any of the swells. I read, bird watched, did Sudoku, and people watched.



Entering Wellington Harbour

A few hopeful breaks in the clouds over Wellington upon arrival.







The views were better on the way back with clearer weather.


NZ highways are generally two lane with pretty frequent passing lanes (depending on the terrain). The most fun sections are the one lane bridges. There are a lot of them. Here is a short one. The black arrow tells us that we have to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic.

So we are waiting

for the white pickup truck to cross.

There is a small pull out in the middle if you get stuck with oncoming traffic.

As you can see from the itinerary above we did not stop in Auckland. Doug has been there and says that it is just another big (make that very big by NZ standards) city of 1.2 million residents.

Here is my view of Auckland

We did spend a little time in Wellington - one morning at Te Papa, the national museum and one afternoon exploring Mt Victoria Park.

Wellington Harbour

Miramar Peninsula

Downtown Wellington

I wish we had had more time to explore Wellington.