Black Water Rafting and Mt Taranaki

We realised in writing this that we’ve been up to quite a bit in the last week and a half - so settle in for a long post!

After completing the Coromandel loop, we opted to save the rest of the Bay of Plenty for later in our trip and cross over to the west coast of the North Island. This meant passing through the Waikato district and a stopover in the city of Hamilton. We spent the following morning ticking off jobs and decided to check out the Hamilton Gardens, a free public garden in the centre of the city, in the afternoon. This turned out to be a great choice and we had a lot of fun exploring the collection of 20+ unique displays that offer an insight into gardens through history. We’ve included photos of the Indian Char Bagh Garden and the Italian Renaissance Garden below.

Our next stop was Raglan, a small coastal town west of Hamilton known for its surfing and hippy culture. We had a lovely couple of days here over the Labour Day bank holiday weekend, enjoying the All Blacks defeat of Argentina, but England’s loss to South Africa not so much. However, our spirits were soon lifted by a stop off at the nearby Otorohanga Kiwi House, where we got to see the elusive nocturnal bird for the first time. This was a really special experience and another NZ bucket list item ticked off.

The NZ bucket list items continued as we experienced black water rafting for an adrenaline-fuelled birthday present from Josie’s parents. After gearing up in our 3-piece wetsuits we walked, scrambled and crawled 80 metres down into the Waitomo Caves. Once down there we were treated to thousands of glow worms illuminating our surroundings as we floated in rubber rings through the vast network of tunnels. The tour also featured some tight crawls, which Josie was less fond of; two underground waterfall jumps and a hot shower with complementary soup to warm us back up! Overall, it was a fantastic experience and a real highlight of our trip so far.

We then continued south to New Plymouth, which boasted numerous other South West themed road names to keep us entertained on quite a misty and cloudy day. After arriving we explored the free zoo and beautiful surrounding parkland in the heart of the city. Then we ascended into the clouds and up the northern side of Mt Taranaki. After popping into the visitors centre and being told a snowstorm was expected to hit overnight we went for a short walk up the mountain (which we still hadn’t actually seen because of the cloud) and then found a campsite lower down to escape the Antarctic-like conditions. 

We awoke to more rain and cloud but joined Surf Highway 45, named for its popular surfing beaches along the coast as it circles the Mount Taranaki volcano - sadly it was too rough to take a dip whilst we were there. After another wet night this time by the ocean, which treated us to some very dramatic waves, we finally got a clear day and got our first glimpse of the summit of Mt Taranaki. Naturally, we drove straight up to another visitors centre and went on an 11km hike this time around the southern side. After the TikTok algorithm worked its magic and produced a video telling us that the volcano we were on may only give 24 hours notice before an eruption, we decided to take our chances - it has been 250 years since Mt Taranaki erupted - and freedom camp up the mountain in what was the coldest night we have had in the van yet. The next morning we made our way back down to finish Surf Highway 45 before we head across to Lake Taupo.