New Zealand - Auckland (25.-27.02.)

Stop 3: New Zealand - chasing summits :) 

Auckland / Waiheke Island

The time has come - in the morning we got back from our tour through NZ and dropped off our campervan in Auckland. We had an absolutely great time living life in "camper-style" and we'll miss the waking up right on the beach, the sleeping under the stars, the ice-could showers at public toilets in the morning, the curvy roads and most of all the freedom of going whereever we wanted ;)

Luckily, we met our dear friends from Mannheim Esther & Konstantin that day as they just got started with their camper-tour through NZ - it was so cool to catch up with them and to finally see someone from back home again :)

The last day in Auckland we decided to take a ferry out to Waiheke Island and it was a beautiful day :) We walked along the scenic coastline of Waiheke Island and passed by multi-million dollar luxus-villas and some of the many local vineyards. Judged based on these impressions Waiheke is for sure a nice place to grow old (and of course to grow vine!!!). Of course we had to try some of the local vine so we went to Cable Bay Vineyards and had a lovely wine tasting - the favorite wine was their 2013 Pinot Noir :)

After getting back to Auckland we packed our stuff and prepared for the long journey to Hawaii that waited for us. 

Mannheim-Reunion in Auckland :)

Walking along beautiful Waiheke Island

Owhanake Bay 

Island Bay 

Wine tasting at a local vineyard 

Neuseeland - Northland / Bay of Islands (21.-25.2.)

Stop 3: New Zealand - chasing summits :) 

Northland / Bay of Islands

The last stop of our tour was in the Bay of Islands at the very north of NZ. From Taupo we drove all the way up to Whangerei where we first visited the Whangerei Falls and then had a short walk through the AH Reed National Forest with its more than 500 years old Kauri trees. The next day was filled with our very last hikes in NZ. First we went up Mt. Manaia from where we had a great view over Whangerei Heads, the Bream Heads Reserve and the adjacent islands. After that we drove down to the coast and walked along the Whangerei Heads ridge which gave us a great view over Ocean Beach. From Whangerei we headed northeast to explore the Tutukaka Coast - we stopped at Whale Bay and had a swim in the cold but clear blue water :) From there on we continued further north to Kerikeri and Waikapapa where we walked around the Rainbow Falls (sadly we didn't get close enough the to edge of the falls to capture the three rainbows that one is supposed to see there). The last stop for us was at the most northerly point of NZ - Cape Reinga. We visited the lighthouse from where we could see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean mix with each other - in the middle of the sea waves kept crashing into each other which was really stunning to see. 

After a very long drive back down to Whangerei we cleaned up the campervan and stayed our very last night in the car :)

Whangerei Falls

AH Reed Kauri Forest

Mt. Manaia from below...

...on the go...

...and from above :)

Down there is our camper :)

Whangarei Heads Ridge track

Well-deserved "after-hike beer" ;)

Rainbow Falls

Swimming in Whale Bay 

Lookout to Te Warehi Beach

The Cape Reinga lighthouse...

...where oceans meet :)

The great sand dunes at Te Paki

New Zealand - Taupo (19.-20.02.)

Stop 3: New Zealand - chasing summits :) 

Taupo

We arrived in the beautiful city of Taupo from where we drove 1.5h south to the Tongariro National Park the next morning. The famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing was on, it's claimed to ne one of the top ten day-walks in the world so we figured - let's give it a go :) The track lead us about 800m uphill (Mt. Tongariro summit is at about 1900m), winding its way along water streams with iron-coloured algae, through fields of dried-up magma bombs, over two old lava streams from the 1870 and 1975 erruptions and through the breathtaking (and still active) volcanic scenery between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruheo. The latter one became popular as "Mt. Doom" - remember Frodo dropped the ring there ;) The Tongario Alpine Crossing is 19.4km long and usually no round trip. As we had our car parked at one side, we decided to hike the first 9km all the way up to the highest point of the track and then walk the same way back to our car again. That way we sticked to our New Zealand slogan of "chasing summits" ;) The walk was fairly easy at the beginning but got really challenging towards the end where we had to find our way on loose gravel up to the Red Crater. On our way up each view was a superlative of the last one and only one word can describe what we saw up there at the Red Crater - breathtaking! 

Thus we stayed close to the National Park for the night in order to chase another summit the next morning. After having hiked 18km the day before, we took a shorter 3.5h walk the next day onto Mt. Urchin to grasp the vulcanos we hiked the day before as well as the lakes around from above. 

We really enjoyed our time in Taupo and the Tongariro National Park - but sadly these were probably our last big hikes in New Zealand!

Good to go ;)

Iron-coloured waters

Pretty easy...

...not so much...

...now we're talking :)

In midst of the old lava streams

Mt. Ngauruhoe (alias Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings)

At the South Crater 

Red Crater

View over Emerald Lakes and Blue Lake

On our way to Mt. Urchin

We have made it again!

View over Lake Taupo

View over Mt. Ngauruhoe

Driving back along Lake Taupo