Rotorua
Next up on our New Zealand tour: Rotorua, the town that smells like a giant fart but somehow makes up for it with charm and geothermal wonders. When we arrived at the campground, the first thing I noticed was a glorious wood-fired pizza oven in the common area. I went straight to reception like a man on a mission and asked if I could fire it up. Tragically, it only runs on Fridays and Saturdays. We were there Monday to Thursday. Godamnit! My dreams of artisan campground pizza—crushed.
Rotorua has a ton to offer, and with only 4 nights, we had to make some tough choices. Thankfully, the price tags on some of the attractions made that process a lot easier. The treetop aerial park sounded epic, but at $600 for the family, we decided to skip the thrill and keep the kidneys.
Our first outing was to a Kiwi hatchery. Now, for those unfamiliar: in New Zealand, kiwis are not fruit (those are called kiwifruit), but adorable, endangered nocturnal birds. The kids were dying to see some, and while spotting one in the wild is about as likely as finding a unicorn, we managed to see three grown kiwis, several newborns, and even some unhatched eggs. Kiwis are roughly chicken-sized, but lay eggs that look like they belong in a dinosaur museum. Seriously, these things are massive. I feel bad for those mama kiwis.
The next day was luge day! Up the mountain via chairlift, then zooming downhill for 1.5km in a tiny cart with questionable steering. We did it three times. There were a few crashes (I won’t name names), but no injuries—just laughter and some mild whiplash. Totally worth it. Check out the video.
On our third day, we went on a tree walk—700m of suspended bridges through towering California redwoods. It was really cool to experience the forest from above. And none of us fell off the bridges.
That evening we hit the local night market for dinner and the kids scored some top-tier face paintings. Teddy got a snake, and Emma got a “forest elf”, whatever that is! They were thrilled.
Drive to Wellington
We decided to break up the drive to Wellington into two manageable chunks.
On our first day, we visited Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland—a park bubbling with geothermal activity. One of the highlights was a geyser… which, as it turns out, is fake. It has three layers of hot water at different temperatures, and every morning at 10:15am, someone drops in a bit of soap to break the surface tension and trigger an eruption. It's basically a scheduled explosion. Since I’d already seen the real-deal geysers in Yellowstone and Iceland, I decided to skip the rest of the tour and chill in the camper. Mylene and the kids carried on, though, and here are some of the photos they snapped along the way.
Next we drove 3 hours to the Desert Road, where we camped next to a dam. Not much to report, except for a seriously impressive gush of water from a pipe. Literally. Check out the video.
Second leg: we cruised along the scenic Desert Road through what I think was Tongariro National Park, though it was pretty cloudy, so we mostly saw mist and moody volcano outlines. Still managed a few nice photos that say, "Trust us, there’s a mountain back there."
The rest of the drive was… how do I put this delicately… nap-inducing.
Wellington
Wellington, sometimes nicknamed Windy Welly, certainly lived up to the name. Combine that with some solid rainfall, and our first day was an indoor-only affair.
We visited Weta Workshop, the place where they make movie props for The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and a bunch of other films. I haven’t actually seen those movies yet (don’t judge me), but it was fascinating to see how everything is made. The behind-the-scenes stuff is incredible—and now I really want to watch the movies so I can say “I saw that sword in real life!”
The next day we took the famous Wellington cable car to the top of the city, then walked back down through the Botanical Garden. Naturally, it rained. A lot. When we got to the bottom, I rented an electric scooter to ride back to the camper, with Teddy holding on for dear life. With no helmets. Definitely a parenting highlight.
The next morning was our ferry ride to the South Island. I was bracing myself for 4 hours of seasick boredom, but the ship had so much going on—cafes, lounges, movies, children’s playground, WiFi—that it felt like 30 minutes. Either way, great ferry ride.
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