A Trip in Pictures: New Zealand's North Island

A picture tells a thousand words right? I'm going to be taking a trip down memory lane, easily done by going through photo archives, to some of my past travels. I will tell the story with some of my favourite photos as a guide. I hope you enjoy!

I visited New Zealand in May 2017 as part of one of my 'big trips' on my 'gap year'! I arrived in Auckland from Melbourne but headed pretty much straight to the Bay of Islands, specifically Paihia. It was GORGEOUS! (See sunset picture from my Instagram photo at the bottom of the post).

From Paihia I went on 2 day trips. The first was to Cape Reinga, Ninety Mile Beach and Houhora Bay (second picture from Instagram). These pictures below are from the very northern tip of New Zealand, at Cape Reinga. It's so choppy in the water here because it's the meeting point of the Tasman Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

On my second day trip, I took the boat trip around the beautiful Bay of Islands. It was an absolutely glorious day which definitely helps. The last photo here is of the 'Hole in the Rock', which the boats queue up to drive through, (believe it or not).

Ideally I would have been swimming with the dolphins that we saw (you just join them in the water, and don't touch etc.) but there were babies with the pod (so cute!) so it wasn't possible. Fortunately we did see plenty though! Although I'm clearly not a wildlife photographer so apologies for that.

Then we headed to one of the many uninhabited islands in the bay (hence the name) which was absolutely a highlight of the day and is actually currently the cover profile of my blog! But seriously, that green... that blue...

Okay so only in writing this blog post have I realised how long this day was! Lastly we went to Russell Island which I really liked. I walked up hills, to bays, and ultimately soaked in the quiet vibes.

The next part of my trip was renting a camper van and hitting the roads/New Zealand countryside! I wanted to do the Middle Earth Trilogy (which is Hobbiton, Waitomo Caves and Te Puia), it was well worth the price!

Camping was very quiet and peaceful, and my van was a piece of s*** haha!

Rotorua is super smelly (nothing personal, it's the sulfur!) but oddly pretty...

And clearly Hobbiton is super picturesque clearly, since I took 1000's of photos.

Inside the Green Dragon!

I also visited Lake Taupo and other spots in the North Island, and from here headed south to start my South Island section of my journey. Stay tuned for my next post which will be another Trip in Pictures for this part of my journey!

If for some reason you need more pictures, check out my Insta'd pics from the trip below!