It’s the end of another cruise. The ship was like a home away from home, but now we’re on our own again. We disembarked around 9pm and boarded the metro into Auckland to pick up a rental car. Our first touristic stop was the Waitomo Caves, which are known for their glowworms. The tour through the cave was an interesting experience. Silently looking up at the cave ceiling from our boat was like looking up at a starry sky. Unlike most tourists, we then drove further along the Waitomo Caves Road to some lesser known touristic stops: a waterfall, a cave, and a lookout point. None of them were particularly amazing, but it was nice to see them since we were already nearby. We stayed the night at a B&B near Lake Taupo where we enjoyed a fine meal of Dominos Pizza.

On our second day, we started by driving to Huka Falls. Huka Falls seems like a bit of a misnomer because the water doesn’t really fall vertically, but rather horizontally as an impressive series of rapids. It’s definitely worth a visit for anyone in the area. Next, we drove to Mount Tongariro. We drove up to the ski resort for the view, but didn’t take the chairlift to the top because it was raining. On the way up, we stopped by the side of the road to look at Mt. Ngauruhoe, known for its role as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. It was getting late, so we didn’t take any of the long famous hikes near the mountain, but instead hiked to a small falls near the visitor center. We stayed the night at a B&B in Te Arona.

On our third and last day in New Zealand, we started the day by heading to the Hobbitton movie set for first tour of the day. The Hobbiton set is surprisingly well maintained for a movie set and is definitely worth the steep admission cost for LotR fans. Next, we drove to the Karangahake Gorge, where we walked along the Window Loop Trail. Unfortunately, the trail was closed part way through due to rock movements. Finally, we returned car to Auckland and boarded our plane to Sydney.