Farewell Auckland, Kia Ora Rotorua

After a restful sleep, we got up early and had a great breakfast that was included in our night’s accommodation at the Best Western President Auckland. There were carbohydrates… so many carbohydrates. Muffins, croissants, pancakes, oh my!

From here, we drove across the Auckland Harbour Bridge to Devonport. Such a beautiful, seaside place, reminiscent of Merewether/Bar Beach in Newcastle. We first drove up to the Manugauika/North Head Historic Reserve and took in the amazing views of Auckland and Rangitoto Island. There are a number of ex-military buildings at the Reserve and the area was a hive of activity with lots of  doggos, cyclists and tourists like us.

Auckland city to the left, Takarunga/Mount Victoria to the right

We then had a meander around the shops in Devonport Village. This had a Northern Beaches kind of vibe, with many doggos enjoying breakfast and brunch with their humans. Unfortunately we were doggo-less, so I could not bring myself to stay. At this point I will insert a shameless insta-plug of my baby, Hunter the Frenchie, but this will help you to understand why I was missing my fur baby! As we drove out of town, we decided to also head to Mount Victoria, which provided more amazing views of Rangitoto Island and Auckland.

View of Rangitoto Island from the top of Mount Victoria

The GPS set for Waihi Beach, we hit the road. We did take a slight detour in Paeroa to see both the giant L&P bottle, and the V8 and motor cycle swap meet. Some beefy classic cars and biting sunshine later, we jumped back into our car and hit the road. Highlight for me was the second hand store named “Junk and Disorderly”.

As we drove toward Waihi Beach, we passed through Waihi. There was a massive Gothic looking building on a hill and we just had to stop. It turns out the large Gothic building is in fact a pumphouse and just toward the top of the hill, the land opens up into a humungous open cut mine! This is like maybe 100 metres from the main street of town! The mine was operational until 2015, when a landslide forced its closure. But they are looking at how they can clean it up and keep mining it.

Cue more beautiful scenery and winding roads, and before too long we arrived in Waihi Beach. This is such an amazing little place and reminded me a lot of Anna Bay in Port Stephens. Famished at this point in the day, we did a lap of the main street and settled for a pie and a vege quiche at the bakery. It is here that we caught our first glimpse of lolly cake, so I had to get a piece for Mr Harrigan and I to share! I will gloss over this for now, but will go into a more in depth blog about lolly cake later on.

Waihi Beach

Fed and watered, we clambered back into the car and set the GPS for Rotorua, via Tauranga. We had wanted to stop through here to see Mount Maunganui and I swear every single person in the local area was trying to cool off in the little bay along The Mall. We managed to score a park and so got out and kicked off our shoes and dip our toes in the water. There was some kind of ‘fun run’ or alike happening as there was a constant procession of sweaty people with running bibs on. I can tell you, there were no people looking like they were having fun while running!

Mount Maunganui – extinct volcano

The final leg for the day was onward to Rotorua, just over an hour away. There is a point in this trip that you round a bend and cop a whiff of sulfur and you just know Rotorua is near. We took a slight detour past Hells Gate, just to check operating times, and the air there is so thick and smelly, it is almost beyond words. But in the same way as you cannot have a rose without thorns, you cannot have amazing hot springs and mud baths, without that smell.

Once we were in Rotorua, we drove around for a bit, found where we had to meet the Hobbiton bus the next day, and then went looking for a cafe or restaurant that had wifi so that we could try to secure some accommodation for the night. And this is where it all started to turn to shit. There was a rugby league tournament on in town and a massive outdoor concert. We knew that it would be tricky to get accommodation in Rotorua itself, but truly underestimated how difficult it would be to find accommodation anywhere within an hour radius. We tried to book two different places through Airbnb, however, given the 24 hour standard response time, we left it a couple of hours for a response but with no reply from either host, we were rapidly running out of time. Over dinner, we discussed the prospect of sleeping in the car if we could not get any accommodation but at this point we were still optimistic that we could find somewhere to stay. We didn’t want or expect much, but did not want to pay a ridiculous price (observation – it is funny how your definition of ridiculous price shifts upwards when faced with the prospect of sleeping in the car). We didn’t mind if it was out of town, but we were mindful that we had to be back at the Hobbiton shopfront in Rotorua at 7:30 the next morning. So we drove, and drove, and drove. We went on what seemed like an endless tour of every single hotel, motel, and B’n’B from Rotorua to Tauranga. We found a Maccas and tapped into their free wifi to search any signs of accommodation. We rang any hotels that came up in searches, but their response was the same. No room at the inn, at any inn. Tired. Defeated. I did the only thing that I could. I burst into tears. Did this help the situation? Nope. It didn’t even really make me feel better. Now, over an hour from Rotorua, we accepted defeat and drove back. Once there, we found a parking area close to hotels, and called it a night.

Yes, I am very aware of how long and epic this blog post is… but I swear that all of this stuff happened in one day! So this blog serves to symbolise the long, drawn out, epic adventure that was our second day in New Zealand. But this also comes with a word of advice. Slow down man! Allow more time to stop and smell the roses. The North island is not a fast paced kinda place. And for crying out loud, look at foreseeable accommodation issues and if needed rejig your trip around it, because sleeping in your car is not that fun.

Stayed: In the car. Yes, the very same car that I have described the smell of in great detail. Hot tip, while flying by the seat of your pants and spontaneity is fun, sleeping in the car – not so.

Ate:  at Brew Pub. Shared a chicken, bacon and brie pizza and Mr Harrigan had the wings. Cheers for the wifi too guys.

Did: Lots of driving. Plenty of short stops along the way for some sight seeing, but huge drive from Auckland, and frantic searching for accommodation.

Oh Rotorua, I had such high hopes for us. I want to love you, but we are off to a rocky start!