The bizarre road trip through New Zealand started in Auckland, took us to the most beautiful volcanic islands in the north, the beaches of the west coast and the central plateau of the north island. After a look at Maori culture and the craziest, most colorful natural phenomena on our planet, we travel along the east coast to the end of our road trip: the capital Wellington. From there it is just a short flight to the next adventure, where we continue road tripping on Australia’s Great Ocean Road.
A tour around the most beautiful volcano
After one of the most beautiful hikes in New Zealand, the Tangariro Alpine Crossing, we drive to the idyllic coastal town of New Plymouth. This city has more palm trees than paving stones and a fantastic location with a famous coastal walking route. We also visit New Zealand’s largest and most beautiful city park, Puke Kura, which covers about a third of the entire city; a kind of Central Park of New York.
What really matters is the Taranaki volcano, which looks exactly like how you would draw a volcano as a child. Okay, with a little less flowing lava and fiery figures around it.
We take a trip through the rainforest around the volcano and the most spectacular spot is a gigantic waterfall, which we can literally stand in. It’s not even that warm today, but it’s so cool that I jump under it for a moment. From there it is only a few hours’ drive to Wellington, where we will catch the plane to that other country down under: Australia. First we will of course make a small city trip.
Wellington’s ancient cable car
The capital feels like a large village and is not packed with top tourist attractions; the location is beautiful between the mountains and the ocean, making a trip to the top of Mount Victoria the literal and figurative highlight. In the center we then take a ride on the bright red and very old cable tram. More than a hundred years ago, this cart was invented as the ideal way to quickly transport people from the suburbs to the center. Today it is Wellington’s biggest attraction; The tram is pulled up over steep rails by a steam engine and a cable.
Quite a complicated history
From the mountain we walk down through the botanical gardens and visit the Te Papa national museum. Where we learn everything, read: about 1%, about New Zealand’s history. All those Maori names are so weird and complicated, they might as well be about planets and creatures from Star Wars and I wouldn’t know the difference. Let’s take the test: whanaungatanga, tamatekapua and … Star Wars figures or Maori history? When we also look at a giant squid of about six meters in a kind of capsule in strong water, I know for sure: this really is the Star Wars Museum. We park the car along the bay, with a fantastic view of the city, drink a bottle of wine and toast the adventure and our successful road trip.
Bye Kiwis, hello Ozzies
We say goodbye to New Zealand, but there is no time to mourn. Our car, the El Cheapo from the Jucy company, has served us faithfully. And now we transfer across the ocean into its bigger brother: the El Cheapo Sleeper. We can completely convert this large station wagon into a camper in the evening, putting Australia at our feet.
This App is a must!
We downloaded the ideal addition to our phones: the WikiCamps App. This means that we can see all campsites throughout the country, even when we are offline. Wild camping is officially prohibited, but the app can filter out all free camping spots. Proud as we are of our Dutch background, you understand that the ‘free’ filter was ticked throughout the entire trip! In addition, we can also see in the app whether showers, toilets, WiFi, tables, barbecues, beautiful views, foot massages and Playstations are available. Okay, not quite those last two, but otherwise it’s amazing how many free facilities there are along the road for us Cheapos.
Australia’s legendary Great Ocean Road
We land at Melbourne airport, but don’t go straight into the city. The first part of our road trip takes place on Australia’s most famous highway: The Great Ocean Road! This winding road starts about a hundred kilometers from Melbourne and continues for a few hundred kilometers past fantastic views of the Pacific Ocean. Along the roughest cliffs we look out to the end of the world; After all, there is only Antarctica on that side.
Along the way we pass legendary beaches and towns, where everything revolves around surfing. The waves are so rough and high that only the real pros go into the water here with a board. That’s why it’s all the more fun to watch how they do it from the side.
The Twelve Apostles
Halfway along the Great Ocean Road we come to the most famous part, the so-called twelve apostles; a group of rock pillars in the middle of the ocean and perhaps the most photographed place in all of Australia. And rightly so because it’s great. We have seen it dozens of times in photos, but in real life the nature here is overwhelming. The funny thing about the twelve apostles is that if you count carefully, you can see a maximum of eight or nine. The name ‘twelve apostles’ is therefore incorrect. Over the years, a number of rocks have been destroyed by erosion and in the future new ones will arise when the cliffs are split by the water. However, even the scientists can’t figure it out; Apparently there never were twelve and no one knows who came up with that name at the time.
Curious about what our adventure looked like in images? You can find the video here:
Great Ocean Road, Australia – Wout of the World
Sleeping in the jungle and wild Koalas up close
When night falls, we use the WikiCamps App and find a strip along the road with a view over a valley in the tropical rainforest. The sounds we fall asleep to give us an amazing feeling. We are high and dry in our comfortable camper, yet we are surrounded by wildlife: a unique experience. It turns out we have ended up in the Great Otway National Park, the most beautiful jungle along Australia’s Great Ocean Road.
That’s fine for me, but I notice that Suus wakes up all night with a start. She’s done some reading about Australia and watched half an episode of Australia’s Deadliest Predators or something and for months she’s been asking me if there’s any chance that a snake or spider or big monster that’s half spider and half snake could crawl into our car and killed us at night. Despite my very convincing argument that the chance is probably only about 25%, she can’t let go of the idea. As you can see, we survived the first few nights. The tarantula-cobra mutation hasn’t managed to get us yet.
Koala Hangout
When I wake up and Suus wakes up for about the tenth time, we look out over a misty jungle. There we have breakfast with our natural radio; a whole orchestra of tropical birds. But they are not the only residents of this area. If you are lucky you will also see koalas climbing in the trees.
The WikiCamps App is absolutely perfect for us when we see the next tip on the map. On a side road of the Great Ocean Road it says: ‘Koala Hangout, watch the trees!’. We drive less than ten meters into that road and on a low branch I see something that looks like a large teddy bear. Without another soul around, we quietly walk closer and see the koala eating his breakfast from a few meters away. Suus and I are completely amazed, on Borneo we saw two wild orangutans up close, but this was just as special.
The beautiful creature looks at us without fear or haste. In fact, when we leave he decides that it is time to leave. We see him climbing further up the tree as we walk away. The French couple that drives up quickly tries to take a moving photo with the telephoto lens. Haha, too late! Netherlands – France: 2-0!!
We then take another walk and enjoy what we have seen. Other tourists are still trying to spot koalas, but we are fully equipped. Delicious. We continue on the Great Ocean Road, which winds along the cliffs with spectacular views, and slowly return to Melbourne.
The Third World War: Man vs. mosquito
After a long day, Suus and I are exhausted and we stop at a truck stop along the highway. We did some shopping along the way so we could quickly put something together in our kitchen. Then we take the express train to dreamland. There are a lot of mosquitoes, so we are extra careful with light and keep the doors closed as much as possible. No one will disturb our sleep tonight! Once we make the bed, our eyes immediately close. Yet it takes about five minutes before Suus is already scratching the itch. Quickly turn on the light and I can go hunting for mosquitoes again. After a few blows and three smears of blood on the windows, I decide that we humans have won the war and that the mosquitoes have been defeated.
Lights off, eyes closed and sleep as quickly as possible. But after just a few minutes I wake up again to the most annoying sound in the world. The mosquitoes are back, where do they come from? After waking up three or four more times it’s quite a battlefield; so many streaks of blood from dead mosquitoes throughout the car that it starts to look like the end of a Saw movie. In addition, I am surprised that we are still alive, after so much blood loss. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start an IV. When we finally fall asleep, the alarm goes off to continue driving. What a hellish night! And it wasn’t until that evening that we would find out that the skylight was open four inches. Every time I went mosquito hunting with the lights on, new troops would sneak in.
To be continued..
After our excursion on the Great Ocean Road, the long exciting route along the east coast of Australia begins. We start in Melbourne and will arrive in Cairns in a month, for a dive in the Great Barrier Reef. In between we of course see Sydney, Byron Bay, Fraser Island, the Whitsunday Islands and much more. Australia here we come!
Do you want to know how the adventure continues? The next adventure can be found here: Backpacking Melbourne and Wilsons Promontory.
