North Island, New Zealand

March 17 – April 27, 2026

On St. Patrick’s Day 2026, I started my second leg of travels. This time, I was solo. I flew from Indy to LAX then a long flight to Auckland, New Zealand. I was lucky to have an empty seat next to me for the long flight!

Arrived in Auckland!

I spent three nights in Auckland getting adjusted to the 16 hour time difference. I explored the city a bit and visited vineyards on Waiheke Island, a short ferry ride from Auckland.

I explored most of the North Island via the Kiwi Experience bus. Kiwi Experience is a hop-on hop-off bus tour experience, primarily targeted towards young backpackers. I quickly made friends with other backpackers from across the globe.

We stopped by the Auckland Domain to meet everyone and receive an introduction from our driver, Tawh.

Our first stop was at a walk through cave on the beach made popular by the movie Narnia.

We spent our first night at a holiday park hostel near Hot Water Beach, a strip of beach heated by geothermal activity making hot pools of water in the sand at low tide.

The Kiwi Experience helps organize activities at stops along the route, making it easy to explore with new friends from the bus. At our second stop in Waitomo, a group of us went ‘black water rafting.’ Basically, we were tubing in a cave, made unique by the glow worms that lined the roof of the cave.

Following Waitomo we headed for Rotorua, stopping at Hobbiton along the way. Hobbiton is the preserved movie set for ‘the Shire’ from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie series.

Rotorua is considered the adventure capital of the North Island, and we went white water rafting and visited a local Māori village for a haka performance and learning more about the Māori culture. Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand.

We rafted the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world!

On our way to Taupo, we visited a Redwood forest, a geothermal mud pool (smelled of sulfur!), the Haka Falls made popular for the bright blue water, and I tried a roadside pie!

My trip with the Kiwi Experience bus ended in Wellington. Fortunately, I was later able to meet up with many of my friends from the Kiwi bus on the South Island as well!