We spent our last week in New Zealand exploring the region north of Auckland. We based ourselves in Waipu and Whangarei. There are some nice beaches, beautiful coastlines and cliffs, subtropical forests, waterfalls and exciting caves. We went to see Abbey Caves in Whangarei, but these were not as easily accessible as the ones in Waipu. Going in would have included some serious climbing, and we weren’t really prepared for that, so we didn’t enter this time. Henry still…
If you want to explore a cave on your own and experience standing under millions of glow worms in complete darkness, we can highly recommend a visit in the Waipu caves. It’s absolutely amazing. And – in comparison to the more famous Waitomo caves – it doesn’t cost you 50 bucks per person, (it’s completely free), you can take your time and explore the caves as long as you like and even take pictures (if you have a good flash…
We spent two days in New Zealand’s capital. Went up Mount Victoria for a nice view over the city, had a look at the path where Frodo and his companions hid from the Nazgul (referred to as the “Get off the road”-spot), which was slightly disappointing, since you really don’t recognize it any more and took the weta workshop tour to learn about some of the props they manufactured for Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, Avatar and some other…
