Annie's New Zealand Adventure!
North Island travels

Home

North Island travels | Auckland trips | Hamilton New Zealand | Daytrips around New Zealand | Taupo trip | Samoa trip | South Island travels | Lord of the Rings | Future travel plans, links and contact info

 
November 13, 2003
 
The pictures below are just a few from my travelling over the past few weeks.  Since my laptop died about a month ago I haven't been able to update the page as regularly as I had hoped.  This will likely be my last update picture wise until I get back to the states. 
 
Anyway, since school finished for me October 17th, I've been trying to travel as much as possible around the North Island.  I feel like I've just about covered every inch of it in the process.  I made two separate trips up to the Northland (north of Auckland) with different groups of people each time.  The first trip was just to the Bay of Islands where we stayed at a hostel in Paihia for a couple days.  I got to go sea kayaking for the first time there and also visited the place where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between the British and the Maoris.  The next trip up to the Northland I went up to Cape Reinga where you can see the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean meet up so the waves are pretty cool.  I also went snorkeling at the Goat Island Marine reserve.  I took a daytrip with yet another group up to the Coromandel to play at Hotwater Beach and hike and swim at Cathedral Cove. 
 
Then while my mom was here for 10 days we covered Auckland, the Coromandel and pretty much everything south of there on the north island all the way down to Wellington.  Probably the highlight of that trip for me was doing the Tongariro Crossing (where Mordor and Mt. Doom were filmed for Lord of the Rings).  It's got me excited for the last Lord of the Rings movie and seeing all the sites when I travel down to the South Island.

bayofislands.jpg
At the Bay of Islands

kayak.jpg
My kayaking adventure at the Bay of Islands

maori2.jpg
Carving on one of the Maori canoes

hotwater.jpg
The group of international students I went to Coromandel with

cathcove1.jpg
My first trip to Cathedral Cove - a gorgeous place

cathcove2.jpg
My second trip to Cathedral Cove with my mom

reinga.jpg
The top of New Zealand at Cape Reinga

reinga2.jpg
The group I went to Cape Reinga with

goatisland.jpg
Goat Island Marine Reserve - about an hour north of Auckland

goatisland2.jpg
The view from the backpackers we stayed at near Goat Island

bridalveilfalls.jpg
Bridal Veil Falls near Raglan in the Waikato region

rotorua.jpg
The museum at Rotorua

mtdoom.jpg
The bottom of the volcano used for Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings

emeraldlakes.jpg
My favorite part of the Tongariro Crossing - the emerald lakes

rivendell.jpg
Kaitake National Park where parts of Rivendell were filmed

wanganuisunset.jpg
The sunset at Wanganui

wanganuisunset2.jpg
Another shot of the sunset at Wanganui