Index:  Below are three pages of favorite images from my four trips to New Zealand:

Above: A Maori woman blows a conch horn, at Tamaki Maori Village (link to their site), a well-done cultural re-creation near Rotorua, North Island.

North Island Tips:

I rate the following activities as *** must do, ** do, or * maybe do, listed on a tour route from Wellington in the south to the far north: 

• *** First read "General New Zealand Trip Planning" and "South Island Tips" on Page 1. Relocation cars and campervans can be half price going one way from Christchurch to Auckland.
• For more images, see my 2007 trip galleries: North Island-C (81 images) ,  South Island-A (108 images) , South Island-B (59 images) [ require Adobe Flash ] & 2007 itinerary (18 pages)
• ** Wellington:
  
• ** Te Papa Museum (link to their site)
  
• * see the city & harbor view from Mount Victoria
  
• * Downtown walking tour: the Beehive (a symbol of the country) & neogothic Parliament House
• * Karori Wildlife Sanctuary (link to their site)
• ** The WOW live show (link) is a world-class nouveau art event, held in Wellington, North Island, September 20-30, 2007. ** Or see the year round museum at Nelson on the South Island: WOW, the World of WearableArt & Classic Cars Museum (link), a stunning array of wearable art that will take your breath away. Be sure to see the video if you cannot go to the live performance.
  
• ** Putangiura Pinnacles: weird gray hoodoos, featured as "the Dimholt Road", one of the most distinctive film locations used by "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, directed by Wellington's Peter Jackson (2001, 2002, 2003). The Putangiura Pinnacles are a day trip from Wellington, 3 hours drive each way. Hike 2-3 hours round trip on an uneven rocky stream bed.
• * Tararua Wind Farm: largest wind power installation in the Southern Hemisphere. Located 10 kilometres northeast of Palmerston North, sprawling across a 5 kilometre long ridge in the Tararua Ranges. Palmerston North is home of Massey University, New Zealand's largest educational institution.
• *** Taranaki / Mount Egmont National Park:
  
• Admire this perfect volcanic cone from any angle. Taranaki and surroundings were filmed as a stand-in for Japan's Mount Fuji in the Tom Cruise movie, "The Last Samurai" (2003).
• *** Hike the scenic but rough Pouakai Track 2-3 days (20+ miles), staying overnight in dormitory style huts. Bring your own stove. This track requires scrambling over rocks, roots, and washed out trail sections. At Stratford's i-Site, we picked up an excellent free Pouakai Track pamphlet published by Venture Taranaki, which was a much better value than the info at DOC offices.
• * Stratford to Taumarunui "Forgotten World Highway": A quiet back road with rolling hills and ranches mixed with native forest. * See Mount Damper Falls, highest on North Island.
  
• *** Tongariro National Park:
• *** Tongariro Crossing day hike, 10 mile traverse (2900 feet up, 4000 feet down). A bus drives you to and from this spectacular hike, one of the most crowded track in New Zealand, but well worthwhile. Base yourself in attractive Whakapapa Village, where I recommend the Skotel, which has a range of comfortable rooms and a public kitchen (highest hotel in New Zealand).
  
• * Tongariro Northern Circuit is a long backpack with huts, 3 days through a desolate moonscape.
• *** Take the ski lift up Mount Ruapehu, and climb to the top of North Island's highest peak to see the famous Crater Lake responsible for destructive lahars (mud flows). The tephra ash dam broke in March 2007 relieving pressure from Crater Lake, so hiking there should be safer for a while until the next eruption.
  
• *** Rotorua & Taupo area:
• *** Tamaki Maori Village (click here for my images) / (link to their site) : NZ$93 includes hotel pickup, Maori concert & Hakari (feast), with great food cooked in a hangi, steamed for hours on hot stones underground. You will see a performance of the challenging haka (or more precisely, the haka taparahi) and other dances. A hongi is the Maori nose press greeting (double or single). The Maori word for the New Zealand Longfin Eel is tuna.
  
• *** Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (click here for my images) / (link to their site)
  
• ** Orakei Korako Cave & Thermal Park (click here for my images) / (link to their site)
• [*** If you want to see the biggest & best concentration of geothermal features in the world, visit Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.]
• *** If you are a fisherman, you can reliably pull giant fish out of Lake Taupo and many New Zealand rivers.
• * Thundering Huka Falls is at the headwaters of New Zealand's longest river, Waikato River, flowing out of Lake Taupo.
• *** White Island (link to their site), 6 hour boat tour from Whakatane, to an active offshore volcano and former sulfur farm. Good photography. Gas masks provided.
• *** Waitomo Glowworm Caves (link to their site) are fascinating (more glowworms than at Te Anau on South Island).
• ** Otorohanga is one of the few places in New Zealand where you can see active kiwis, because this Kiwi House (& Native Bird Park) reverses day and night. Also see other rare native birds and the small tuatara, a rare dinosaur/lizard relative.

• *** Lake Waikaremoana, Te Urewera National Park: *** Day hike Panekiri Bluff, 5 miles round trip, 1900 feet gain. Or hike the *Great Walk 4-day circuit, hut to hut, through lush wilderness.
  
• ** East Cape Road: 1-2 day drive encompassing modern Maori culture, empty beaches, ranch life, & history.
  
• ** Shine's Falls on Boundary Stream: 2 hour hike to a beautiful high waterfall. Near Napier, the art deco city.
• * Coromandel Peninsula: pleasant Walkways through mixed ranchland and native forest. 
• * Moehau Track is nice, 2 hours round trip, alternating between ranch land and native forest.
• ** Coromandel Track: 7 miles round trip, alternating between ranch land and native forest along the ocean, with bell birds calling and cicadas buzzing.
• ** Hot Water Beach & Cathedral Cove (I haven't been there, but the seastack images look interesting)
  
• * Agrodome (link to their site): sheep shearing and sheep dog demonstrations, showing a dozen or more sheep breeds
  
• ** Auckland:
  
• ** Visit the Auckland Museum (link to their site) if you are not able to see Te Papa Museum in Wellington (or vice versa; or see both).
• ** Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World (link)
  
• ** MOTAT (link) (Museum of Transportation and Technology) and Science Center with tactile dome.
• ** Auckland Zoo (link)
  
• North of Auckland:
• * Mangawhai Walkway: native palms & tree ferns intersperse with ranch land
  
• *** Northland Forest Park, at Waipoua offers a pleasant walk to see tree ferns and the world's largest Kauri trees, which grow up to 153 feet high, 46 feet circumference & 1200 years old. Kauris are the second largest tree species in the world, next to California's Sequoia Redwood. This forest gives a sense of the wilderness before humans arrived. An interesting logging museum is nearby, detailing the near destruction of kauri forests.
  
• Kauris only grow half as fast as California's Monterey Pine, called locally by its Latin name Pinus radiata, which now dominate the huge tree farms marching across New Zealand.
  
• * Waiotemarama Bush Walk, near Opononi
• * Many remote beaches, with warm temperatures
• If the summary above leaves you wanting more glorious details, click here for our 2007 itinerary & travel tips (18 pages), for 6 weeks of tramping on both islands.

Rotorua, & Maori Culture:

Click here for a brief Maori & Pekeha history.

Above: Waka (Polynesian sea canoe) in the Auckland Museum, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand. The Polynesian navigator Kupe has been credited with the discovery of New Zealand around AD 800. Continuous settlement of New Zealand dates from about 1200 AD, following which a fairly steady migration of people came from Kupe's homeland of Hawaiki (Ra'iatea in modern-day French Polynesia). The polynesians mainly settled North Island, because South Island was too cold. Over about 100 years, they hunted one of earth's largest known birds, the moa, to extinction, which also extinguished the world's largest eagle. They were not known as Maoris until after the arrival of the Pakeha (European white people). British and Maori leaders signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, founding New Zealand along with Maori rights. Currently 15% of New Zealanders call themselves Maori, a group which is experiencing a renaissance of new respect and improved land rights.


Above: A Maori man gestures with a pole at Tamaki Maori Village, Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: A Maori woman blows a conch horn, at Tamaki Maori Village (link to their site), a well-done cultural re-creation near Rotorua, North Island.

Geothermal Areas near Rotorua:

Volcanoes have formed most of North Island's mountains. Magma is still close enough to the surface to heat the hot springs and occasionally erupt in volcanoes. See Tongariro National Park and White Island (link to their site).

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland:

Above: Carol walks through the steam of Champagne Pool, at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Champagne Pool, at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, North Island, New Zealand.


Above: Artist's Palette, at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, North Island, New Zealand.


Above: Devil's Ink Pots get their gray color from small amounts of natural graphite and crude oil percolated up from the depths, at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, North Island, New Zealand.


Above: Devil's Bath gets its color from excess water from Champagne pool mixing with sulfur and ferrous salts. Changes in color from green to yellow depend upon cloud cover and reflected light. Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, North Island, New Zealand.


Above: Champagne Pool, at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, North Island, New Zealand.

Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park:

Above: A short water taxi ride takes you across a lake to Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Mud pots bubble at Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park, New Zealand, North Island.

Above: Geothermal hot springs have formed this white travertine terrace, supporting orange algae at Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park, New Zealand, North Island.

Above: A visitor explores Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Visitors like to touch the water at Orakei Korako Cave. North Island, New Zealand.

Tongariro National Park:

Above: Hikers descend from Red Crater on the 10-mile Tongariro Crossing, in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand's first national park. Tongariro was gifted by a Maori chief in 1887, then legislated as a National Park in 1894, and later acknowledged by UNESCO as one of the 24 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. The volcanoes in this image are: Mount Ruapehu (far left; 2797 meters or 9177 feet; last erupted in 2006), Mount Ngauruhoe (upper middle; 2291 meters or 7516 feet elevation; last erupted in 1975), and Red Crater (foreground right; 1886 meters; last erupted 1926). Geologically speaking, both Mount Ngauruhoe  and Red Crater are vents of Mount Tongariro.

Above: Chateau Tongariro was built in 1929 on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu (2797 meters or 9177 feet), North Island's highest peak. Whakapapa Village, Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Mount Ngauruhoe (2291 meters or 7516 feet) last erupted in 1975. Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Mt Ngauruhoe (2,291 metres or 7,516 feet) last erupted in 1975. Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Hikers pause on the Tongariro Crossing, on North Island, New Zealand. Tongariro National Park served as a location for fictional Mordor and Mount Doom in the "Lord of the rings" Motion Pictures. 

Above: Mt Ngauruhoe (2,291 metres or 7,516 feet) last erupted in 1975. Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Panorama of Red Crater, with Mt Ngauruhoe (2291 meters or 7516 feet) on the far right, which last erupted in 1975. Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Hikers on Red Crater admire Mt Ngauruhoe (2,291 metres or 7,516 feet) last erupted in 1975. Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Above: Hikers on Red Crater, in Tongariro National Park, which served as a location for fictional Mordor and Mount Doom in the "Lord of the rings" Motion Pictures. New Zealand, North Island.

Above: Emerald Lakes, on the Tongariro Crossing, Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.


Above: Carol descends on the Tongariro Crossing, with views of Lakes Rotoaira (foreground) and Taupo (in the background, 40 kilometers away), in Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand.

Taranaki / Mount Egmont National Park:

Carol and I hiked (tramped) the scenic but rough Pouakai Track in two days (20 miles), staying overnight in dormitory style Pouakai Hut. A wood fired stove was provided, but cooking will be much easier if you bring your own portable stove like we did. This track requires scrambling over rocks, roots, ladders with missing rungs, and washed out trail sections. At Stratford's i-Site, we picked up an excellent free Pouakai Track pamphlet published by Venture Taranaki, and we purchased the required hut pass at the DOC office at North Egmont.

Above: Mount Egmont was featured as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in the Tom Cruise motion picture, "The Last Samurai". Mount Egmont or Taranaki (2518 meters / 8261 feet) is located in Mount Egmont National Park, New Zealand, North Island. This view is from the road to Whakapapa Village in Tongariro National Park. Mount Egmont is also called “Te Maunga O Taranaki” in Maori.

Index:  Below are three pages of favorite images from my four trips to New Zealand: