New Zealand Honeymoon Week 3

Day 15

To start off our final week, we had a long drive up to our next spot - Lake Taupo. We had a couple of stops along the way, including the National Army Museum and a place to get food.

We arrived at our place on the edge of Lake Taupo in the early evening and had some pizza and beers at a nearby lakeside bar/restaurant.

Day 16

We had a fantastic day in Taupo. We started off with breakfast in town, followed by a hike around the Craters of the Moon. This was a really cool place, with lots of steam vents and bubbling mud pools. After this, we headed to Huka Falls to check out the waterfalls and rapids.

Finally, we took a Helicopter ride over the lake and to Tongariro National Park. This was one of the highlights of our trip and felt good after missing our chance to take a Helicopter ride on the South Island. This was a really cool experience, and we got to see some amazing views of the mountains and the lake. We had both previosuly done the Tongariro Crossing, though when I did it there was pretty bad weather, so it was great to see it from the air on a sunny day.

We then drove the relatively short journey up to Rotorua where we went into the centre for some food before heading to Fran's brother's house. We had planned to stay with them for our few days in Rotorua - but unfortunately they had Covid which we didn't want to risk catching so close to our flight home. We had a catchup outside and decided to meet up with them later in the week.

Day 17

We had a quick breakfast stop before heading to Te Puia Maori Cultural Centre where we saw some geothermal activity and learned a bit about the Maori culture. We then headed to the Redwoods Forest for a walk around the trees and next a walk around Kuirau Park - a geothermal park in the centre of Rotorua. In the evening we had a nice meal at Urbano Bistro before heading back to the Redwoods Forest for a nighttime tree walk along the Redwoods Treewalk which was lit up with lots of multi-coloured lights.

Day 18

We were really looking forward to this day as we had booked a trip to Hobbiton! We had a Mcdonalds brekkie on the way to the Shire's Rest where we got on a bus to Hobbiton. We had a great time on the tour, and it was really cool to see the set and learn about how it was made. We had a drink at the Green Dragon before heading back to the Shire's Rest and back to Rotorua.

On our back we stopped off at Skyline Rotorua and took the cable car to the top for a look around and a drink before heading to the hotel and later on a Polynesian Spa for a soak in the hot pools.

Day 19

We started the day by heading into the centre for Starbucks and breakfast and planned to meet up with Fran's brother and his family now that they were likely no longer contagious, so we met up with them at a park and played some football and had a catchup. We then went back to their house and had a look around before heading to the nearby Blue and Green lakes for a walk. We then went back to their house for dinner and later back to our hotel.

Day 20

This was our final day in Rotorua so we started off with breakfast at Urbano Bistro before meeting up with Fran's family again at a park by the lake. We then drove to Auckland, dropped off the car at the Airport and got a taxi to our hotel. We went up the Sky Tower next to our hotel, had a stroll through the casino and had some food and drinks before heading to bed.

Day 21

On our last day in New Zealand, we had a walk around the city and went to the Weta Workshop Unleashed! exhibition. We then had some food and drinks at the hotel before heading to the airport for our flight home.