Itinerary: North Island

After hiring a car in Wellington, we drove 2228 km over the next 17 days. That’s a lot. Here’s what we covered:

• Wellington to Turangi, where we spent 3 nights to visit Tongariro National Park
• Turangi to Gisborne, 5 nights visiting and getting a first-hand guided tour of all the local sights*
• Gisborne to Hick’s Bay along the Pacific Coastal Highway, 1 night
• Hick’s Bay to Whakatane, 3 nights
• Whakatane to Rotorua, 2 nights
• Rotorua to Whitianga, Coromandel, 2 nights
• Whitianga to Auckland, 1 night

* Not many organized tours go to Eastland – very remote. Gisborne figured prominently on our itinerary because we wanted to visit a good friend who lives there. That was a fabulous experience in many ways – of course seeing our friend (hello, Dianne :-)) and her family, meeting her friends, seeing where she lived and so on. It was wonderful. It also set us off on the Pacific Coastal Highway, when we left Gisborne and ended up at Hick’s Bay then Whakatane. More about that experience in a separate post …

Pohutukawa tree – imagine that covered in red flowers in December!

Tolaga Bay

Desert Road, approaching Tongariro