Kategorie: 2023 New Zealand

My last day in New Zealand took me from Whangarei towards Auckland Airport. The next day I had to be early at the airport and so I booked a room as cheap as possible and close to it. That gave actually and still unexpectedly the possibility to visit the Coromandel Peninsula.

My last day in the north and finally already my second to last day in New Zealand. So I decided to go exploring around Whangarei. The area consisted of a myriad of small islands and fjords, countless lonely beaches and remote areas.

After my unexpectedly quite long drive to the north, I decided to drive to the northernmost point of the North Island of New Zealand the very next day in the morning. This is Cape Reinga. To the north it gets warmer and sub-tropical and I had expected a lot from the ride. Ultimately, the trip dragged on a bit, but was quite varied.

Finally, I was able to continue north after the cyclone. The choice of the destination was not easy at all, because at first it was completely unclear how the situation is in the north. There has been the greatest damage. So I made some calls to find out that some destinations were not reachable at all and were advised against a trip. There were floods and landslides, power outages and more. Whangarei, however, was accessible and so I booked an overnight stay there and tried to get to the north via Auckland.

The cyclone was now over and had cost me three days of my tight time budget. So I had to spend three days in New Plymouth without the possibility to go on Mount Taranaki. In the end I was not completely locked in and could do some sightseeing a bit outside. But the roads were already empty and partly not passable. The worst problems were falling branches on roads.

The cyclone was approaching and the effects were already clearly felt. The sky was overcast and at times it rained a little. The weather forecast did not predict completely catastrophic weather for the day, but at altitude it is a bit completely different. Wind speeds of over 150 km/h were predicted for the summit and that should be taken seriously. But of necessity I drove to the mountain and wanted to look around at least a little until it got worse. The cyclone should come only from night and the next day fully to the effect. In addition, no one knew where he now really pulls.

After learning about the arrival of the cyclone, I still wanted to go in the direction of Mount Teranaki, actually with the plan of an ascent. That this would become nothing more was actually completely clear. So I drove again in the direction of Lake Taupo, until I learned during my lunch break of the Forgotten World Highway, which would lead directly to Mount Teranaki. For me, of course, it was clear to drive this road.

After the excellent tour from Rotorua to Gisborne I had a quite cozy and relatively cheap accommodation at a campsite in a hut in Gisborne. Due to my still existing jetlag I could get up quite early again and continue my trip. The choice this time was to drive further south, or rather to drive west. I decided for the direction west, because in the end not so many choices existed regarding the roads and drove in the direction of Himatangi Beach to the west coast. In between I made a stop in Napier on the east coast.