Just returned from my summer vacation where I explored Bay of Plenty, Waikato and East cape.
Fun fact about New Zealand: Summer is in December. You’re welcome!
Anyway, as stated in the title of this post, I had 8 days to spend with my friends this summer. We decided to explore the east coast of the North Island. Here’s the full video of our adventure! Our summer itinerary in brief:
Day 0
The meeting of friends
Kapil and Abhi arrived Palmerston North from Auckland and Invercargill, respectively. Abhi had left Invercargill way before the our trip. His mate was driving up North so he decided to join him on the road trip to arrive Palmy on Christmas day 2021. They drove through West Coast; how lucky!! I have never been to the West Coast (#bucketlist). Kapil came in the day before Abhi so I would say he arrived on day T-1. Leemao!
I took them to the Te Apiti Wind Farm. Although access is closed to till further notice, they still could see the experience and be impressed by the height of those turbines.
Day 0 again
Rental collection
This was meant to be the day 1 but we pushed it forward. Nothing much happened except that we collected the rental car then raced each other to the house and finally sat to plan our trip.
We hadn’t planned things to do. Kapil had left all the planning for us saying he isn’t good in planning. In the end, he was the one who initiated and facilitated the planning.
I bet you he wasn’t impressed with our lazy asses at all. Leemao!
D-day
This is the actual day of the trip. We set out to Gisborne but made a quick stop at Napier. In Napier, we played Mini Golf at Par 2 Mini Golf, had dinner at Aroy Thai, visited the Perfume Point and ice cream on Marine Parade.
We had to leave Napier to arrive Gisborne before 9pm because the receptionist called to tell her that pe, they will close reception oo. Nobody wan sleep outside mek mosquito use us do buffet. We did arrive on time.
Stayed at Waikaene Beach Holiday Park part of the Top 10 Holiday Park in New Zealand. The drive from Palmerston North to Napier is approx. 2 hr and from Napier to Gisborne is approx. 3 hr.
Day 1
Day 2
Rere day
Activities today included Rere rockslides, Rere Falls, Waikaene beach walk, volleyball at the park and sleep. It should have included riding in a locomotive but we missed the timing because Abi lost his phone. Poor guy was not happy.
We also moved rooms today from a double room to a small family unit that sleeps four. So, one queen bed and one bunk bed.
MOVEMENT!!
We left to Rotorua on this day but before we moved from Gisborne, we visited the museum, bike ride at beach and ate better chow.
Stop-overs: Waioeka gorge stop over, Opotiki, beach in Kutarere, along Pacific coast hwy; Ohope beach in Whakatane
Gisborne to Rotorua: 3 h 55 min but all those stops moved our arrival time by 1 hr 17 min
Upon arrival at Rotorua, we went straight to Polynesian Spa, stopping to check-in our motel, Braeside Holiday In
Day 3
Day 4
Surprise! Surprise
Surprised my friend who is really surprised thanks to her detective skills. The aMAZEme for the maze experience, skyline for the luge and zipline experience and Redwood for the night tree walk experience.
MOVEMENT.
This time around to Tauranga. Accommodation were booked out every where so we didn’t have any place to stay. Then we saw the Tauranga is only 45 min away from Rotorua. Luckily we found somewhere ( 4 bedroom room in a hostel) in Rotorua. Pheww
Enjoyed Tauranga, came back to Rotorua to change for the new year in Tauranga.
Day 5
Day 6
Coromandel
Drove to Coromandel.
The lounge was nice. Has to be cos we paid $600+ for a night. Anyho! We went to Waiua falls today. Also learnt that the road the falls is on is a tourist attraction known as The 309 road.
Bad road be tourism for here oo. Naija!!
The beginning of the end.
We did Cathedral cove, New Chums beach and Hot water beach on this day.
I also lost my drone to the strong winds and the waters of Cathedral Cove. It cost me $850 to get the drone and just like that, the winds were so strong, I lost control of the drone then the worst happened. It fell in the water. Salt water and electrical wires etc are not friends. So, yeah!!
Day 7
Day 8
All good things comes to an end.
We left Coromandel for Auckland. Drop off Kapil. I stopped over at Esthers’ then picked up Chai!! Chai made a rather spontaneous decision, which I liked, to join me in Palmy
So, me, Abi and Chai drove back to Palmerston North
Did you enjoy the video? Have you ticked off any of these activities yet? If no, start to tick. Cheers.
