Te Ika-a-Māui – Driving and Hiking New Zealand’s North Island

We waited until we retired to visit New Zealand. It’s so big and varied we knew that a two week vacation from work would not be enough time. As it was we found we still didn’t have time to do the country justice.

Our visit started on the North Island – Te Ika-a-Māui in Maori.  We drove over 1,600 kms from Auckland to Wellington at the southern tip. New Zealand is famous for its hiking – or tramping as they call it – so we made sure to set aside time to get out of the car and lace up our hiking shoes, in addition to seeing the usual tourist sites.

Auckland

Auckland was our introduction to New Zealand. The city is compact enough that we were able explore it on foot in a couple of days. Our first hike was up Auckland’s youngest and largest volcanic cone – Rangitoto Island, a short ferry ride from downtown. The government has taken extreme measures to eradicate alien pest species, principally rats and stoats (similar to weasles), to allow native species to regenerate. To protect the island everyone boarding the ferry had to clean their shoes and hiking gear and undergo an environmental briefing. Having passed the inspection, we dusted off our lungs climbing through lava fields to the volcano’s caldera.  

Northland

The next day we were off in our rental car. The Northland region, north of Auckland, is popular with locals but less well-known to international visitors. That’s where we headed. We stayed at a B&B in Mangawhai, a one-street town with fabulous beaches. 

The Mangawhai Cliffs Walkway hike is considered one of the most beautiful hikes in New Zealand. It is a loop along the top of the bluffs then back on the beach (or vice versa). It can only be done at low tide to avoid being trapped in one of the many rocky coves along the way. The trail offers majestic views of the beaches and the South Pacific. Scrambling over the boulder-strewn beaches and climbing 240 m to the top of the bluff gave us a good workout. The hike definitely lived up to its billing.

Next we circled back past Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula. It is a beautiful coastal drive. A narrow, winding road but lots of pullouts for photo ops. Coromandel Town attracts holidaymakers but mainly remains a fishing town. It’s one of those places you just know the locals yearn for the days before the highway onto the peninsula was built.

It’s also the place we were introduced to New Zealand pies. The Coromandel Bakehouse opened at 5:30 a.m. to serve the fishermen. It had a massive glass cabinet full of a dozen or more varieties of meat pies and bags of sizzling hot chips. We soon learned that every town has similar bakeries. Meat pies are everywhere, and they’re delicious. They became our “go-to” meal when we were hungry. 

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

We worked our way down to the middle of the country to Lake Taupo and Tongariro Mountain. Tongariro Alpine Crossing is one of New Zealand’s marquis hikes. It’s so popular that it’s mandatory to reserve ahead. It is a 19.5 km point-to-point hike up and around a volcano that last erupted in 2012. We started out before sunrise in chilly temperatures. As the sun rose the temperature improved and we had clear blue skies. An 886 m ascent later we were at the summit looking down on the aquamarine lakes dotted around the landscape – an Instagrammer’s dream. The seven hour hike definitely gave our legs and lungs a good workout.

South to Wellington

Stiff as we were, we had to be back in the car the next day to return to the east coast and continue our journey south. We happened to arrive in the quaint seaside town of Napier in time for its annual Art Deco Festival. The town was tragically leveled in a 1931 earthquake. It was rebuilt in the style of the day – Art Deco. Napier’s downtown has remained relatively unchanged since then. The annual festival celebrates its history. The town was full of vintage cars and dandies wearing 30’s styles.

The drive south to Wellington is dotted with numerous characterful towns – Greytown, Clareville, Martinborough and many more. We were struck by how tidy and well-maintained the towns are. They are rich with independent restaurants, bookstores and fashion shops with unique products. It was nice to see more small Mom and Pop shops and fewer generic international big box stores.

Wellington is a small but lovely capital. Two things stood out. The first was the spectacular and moving “Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War” exhibit at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. The second was the best ice cream we’ve ever had anywhere at Duck Island Ice Cream. Try the Toasted Marshmallow or the White Chocolate Pomegranate Macadamia (or both!).

A final note on driving in New Zealand

Two things stand out on New Zealand roads. The strangest was traffic cones. They are used in abundance, positioned every few feet for miles around anything resembling a work zone. It can look like a maze of orange as you approach them. The workers that lay them down or pick them up have secure jobs for life.

The saddest was the profusion of road kill. Hardly a kilometre went by without remains of an animal, often several, that had been hit by cars. Canadian highways have nothing to compare. The only good out of it is that most of the corpses belong to the despised and voracious alien stoats that decimate the native wildlife.