Finding My North Star in the North Island of New Zealand

March 2-9, 2023

Kia ora, friends and family. Despite the group adventures in the South Island coming to an end with my friends heading back to Hawai'i, I was excited to have more time to explore this beautiful country. I’d never solo travelled before, so I was a little nervous and unsure what to expect going into it.

This was my first time this trip (and in my life) solo traveling. The first day or so was a bit challenging. I think I’d grown accustomed to being around people, so I was unused to being on my own again. After some uncertainty in the beginning of my solo travel, I feel like I hit my stride and had a lot of fun seeing the places I wanted to see and doing the things I wanted to do on my own schedule. Being alone also forced me to break out of my comfort zone more than usual and, as a result, I talked to lots of interesting travelers, shared experiences, and made friends.

The first destination in my solo travels was the city of Wellington, in the southern part of the North Island. I arrived from Christchurch on the morning of March 2 and dropped my bags off at my hostel. Throughout New Zealand and Australia, I stayed in many more hostels because they’re much cheaper than hotels in comparison to Thailand. I was typically paying about $40 NZD ($25 USD) for a bed in a room with 4-8 beds each night. A hotel on the cheaper side would cost $150 NZD ($90 USD) per night, so it made financial sense to stay in hostels and it was also a great way to meet people while traveling.

I love exploring places by foot when I first arrive, so I walked around the city. I was looking for a café to get some coffee, plan my North Island itinerary (since I’d barely planned it at all), and catch up on journaling. I couldn’t find a good place to sit and work for a while so I ended up going to the Wellington museum, which had some cool information on the history and geology of the city, which lies right on a fault line between two tectonic plates. I found a café after and hung out there and tried a short black, a type of coffee popular in New Zealand and Australia. I’d mostly been having long blacks, which are two shots of espresso diluted with hot water. The short black is the same without the hot water, so just espresso. It was a bit strong for my liking, but I felt like I had to try it while in New Zealand. I explored the city a little more in the afternoon and then got a meat pie, another staple of Kiwi food culture which is a mini pie commonly filled with mincemeat (ground beef) or steak and cheese. I spent the rest of the day planning out my itinerary up north before going to bed early to catch up on sleep.

The next morning, I did the 12-kilometer Skyline Ridge Walk, a hike outside Wellington with views of the city and surrounding hills. It was relatively easy with some modest elevation change and decent views but paled in comparison with the hikes on the South Island. Still, it felt great to get out and take in the fresh air and scenery.

After hiking I moved my luggage to The Waterloo Hostel, my new hostel since I couldn’t book YHA for a second night. I planned to hike to some famous red rocks by the ocean south of the city, but couldn’t make it because the bus I would’ve taken wasn’t running. Instead I walked around town; explored the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa), which had plenty of fascinating history on the geology and environmental history of New Zealand; and walked the Mount Victoria trails, which gave a solid view of the port and the rest of city.

It was dark by the time I finished hiking and I got a massive plate of an Indonesian dish called nasi goreng from KC Takeaway & Café, a very cheap Asian restaurant. It was Friday night and the city was bumping more than I expected with bars playing loud music and people socializing outside.

The next day I caught a 7:45am bus to Taupo. Although the full journey was over seven hours, it didn’t feel long because the seats were comfy and we stopped for restrooms, food, and breaks. I needed time to plan the rest of my North Island agenda, anyway. When I arrived in Taupo, I checked into Based by the Lake hostel. There was an ongoing Iron Man race so the town was lively with supporters cheering and finishers drinking beers on the lovely sunny day. I found my way to the beach and dipped in the refreshing lake. The water was incredibly fresh and the perfect swimming temperature, and I was just enjoying being in the water and sun after a long bus ride.

Later in the afternoon I walked along the road to Huka Falls, not realizing there were walking trails in the woods. Though the trek wasn’t the most scenic, it was worth it to see such an impressively powerful waterfall. It wasn’t too tall, but the force of it was seriously stunning. All the water in a narrow, fast-moving river spilled over Huka Falls in a tremendous eruption into a wider part of the river, where it slowed down. It was one of the most amazing waterfalls I’ve ever seen.

I stopped at Pak’nSave (New Zealand’s Costco) on the way back and picked up basics and made a horrendous concoction of pasta, beans, eggs, and sweet chili sauce for dinner. I didn’t want to buy a bunch of sauces/oils/spices since I was only spending a night or two in each location, and the food I ended up making fell short even of my already very low bar. While eating dinner, I got talking with a Canadian girl who invited me with her group to drinks, but I had early plans the next day so I said no. Still, it was nice to be invited to go out as a solo traveler. It reassured me that I can meet and hang out with people on my own.

The next morning I got an early start to be picked up at 5:10am by a shuttle for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 20-kilometer (12-mile) hike across unique volcanic landscape. We arrived at the trail at 6:50am; it was nice to get there so early because there were relatively few people on the usually crowded trail. The hike was amazing, especially the first half, with stunning volcanic landscapes, craters, and the Emerald Lakes, which had an emerald color I’ve never seen before in water.

The second half was also cool, but it was kind of like a watered-down version of some Queenstown hikes. I finished hiking at 12:30pm after 5 hours and 40 minutes of hiking and the driver picked all of us that had ridden in the van over up at 2:15.

Back in Taupo, I moved my luggage to the Haka Lodge. As soon as I moved my luggage in, it started to downpour, which was actually kind of nice since I was looking to lay low after the big hike. I played a game of chess with a German girl and then cooked dinner and ate with an English guy, a different German girl, and an Argentinian guy. They were all on longer travels and it was fascinating and inspiring to hear about their adventures and lifestyles. Some of them were visiting a few different places over six months, while others were staying in New Zealand alone for a year on working holiday, where they work somewhere (often a hostel or farm) until they have enough money to travel to a new spot and hang out there until they need to work for money again. Through my travels, I’ve learned that Europeans are more fervent travelers than Americans, and they tend to spend much more time in the places they visit. It made me think that I’d like to keep seeing new places (and revisiting old places) and allowing myself enough time to really get to know them. The dinner also further reaffirmed my notion that it’s easy to meet people at hostels, and it was really interesting to meet people with such different lifestyles.

The next day was a relaxing one in Taupo. I’d strongly considered going skydiving and/or bungy jumping (there was a combo deal) but eventually decided not to for a few reasons: I didn’t want to be rushed to make the bus, I thought it would be a fun activity to do with friends, and it was expensive. In retrospect, I wish I’d planned it ahead of time and went for it, but hopefully they’ll have the same combo deal when I go back to New Zealand next time. I had a pretty leisurely day instead. I walked around town and went to the Otumuheke Stream, which is a small area alongside a river where naturally warm water from thermal vents meets the colder water of the river.

Then I swam in Lake Taupo before catching the bus to Rotorua, a city about an hour north of Taupo. I made dinner there and went to the Polynesian Spa, where they have natural thermal baths. The baths are filled with geothermally heated water, which is water heated from the earth that reaches the surface through fissures and cracks in the ground.

The water has that distinctive sulfurous odor (rotten egg smell), but the water feels great and it supposedly has many health benefits. I love thermal baths; they reminded me of the ones in I went to in Budapest, except this facility didn’t have steam rooms or saunas. Still, the pools were extremely relaxing. I was in such a state of bliss that I was on the verge of falling asleep. I decided that was my cue to get some sleep in a proper bed.

The next day I rented a mountain bike for half a day and biked over to the Whakarewarewa Forest Park, where there’s an extensive network of trails, mostly for mountain biking. The biking was fun, but much more tiring than I expected. I stuck mostly to grade 2 and 3 trails, which are intermediate level and below since I’ve only mountain biked a few times before. The biking was exciting, but it didn’t quite live up to the expectation I had. I’d seen in travel guides that the mountain biking was described as some of the best in the world, but I didn’t think it was good as Sedona, Arizona, where I went with my family a couple years ago. Still, it was fun getting out there and, overall, the trails were fun and challenging.

In the early afternoon, I caught a bus to Auckland. The bus ride was a few hours so I didn’t get in until the evening. The hostel said my booking was cancelled, even though they hadn’t notified me in anyway, so I looked for other hostels for over an hour but every single option I found was fully booked. Eventually they gave me a bed in the staff room, so I was happy to have a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in.

The next day I made breakfast at the hostel and then hung out at a breakfast place called Federal Square Café and drank a coffee. I planned to surf in Auckland but didn’t realize most of the surfing was an hour drive outside town with little in the way of public transit to get there, so I explored the city instead. In the afternoon, I took a ferry over to Devonport, a ritzy suburb across from the central business district (CBD) in Auckland. I walked up Mount Victoria, a big hill with a view of the city and a nearby island.

Auckland felt big while in the CBD, but from afar it didn’t look as large, or at least it didn’t have as many tall buildings as I’d thought. To be fair, it had way more tall buildings than any other place in New Zealand. The rest of New Zealand had felt quaint and rather undeveloped, especially in the South Island. The North Island I’d seen had some development but it still felt like the New Zealand I’d come to know through my experience starting in the south. Auckland, on the other hand, was a large city and felt like it could’ve been America.

On top of the hill, I took in the views and read. After a while, I walked down the hill and walked to a park where I watched some lads play cricket. I don’t know the rules of the sport, but I liked watching fathers and sons playing together on a beautiful day in the park.

I caught a ferry back to the city and got a quick dinner at a kebab place before going to a Julia Jacklin concert. She’s one of my favorite artists and I was stoked to have miraculously found tickets through a ticket exchange site after all show was sold out. The concert was awesome; she had an amazing voice and shredded it on the guitar.

On my last day in New Zealand, I slept in and did some logistics for Australia, the next stop on my journey. I walked around town, got a haircut and had a good conversation with the barber, and bought a t-shirt that was calling my name at a souvenir shop. I took the train to the airport and got on a flight to Sydney.

Wellington and Auckland were convenient cities to visit along my route, but the nature in New Zealand easily takes the cake. Wellington, though smaller, has some more charm to it and feels more like New Zealand. If/When I come back I’d barely spend any time in either of these cities and would focus more on the nature. In the South Island I’d love to make it up to Nelson, the French Pass, Abel Tasman, and possibly down to Dunedin. In the North Island, I need to revisit with access to a car. The public transit is alright, but it only goes to towns; from there, it was difficult to get around town and even harder to get to places outside of town. I would spend more time in Taupo and go to the Bay of Plenty, some surf spots on the west coast and up north, the Ninety Mile Beach, and Hobbiton. My one week here was a solid sneak peek and really whet my appetite for more.

The week of solo travel was really fun and convinced me that I could and would do it again. Traveling with others (family, friends, significant others) is great too, and I would still do those in a heartbeat, but I’m more open than I was to going somewhere I want on my own. The flexibility and freedom are awesome, but I think the coolest part is being forced out of my comfort zone. When I have people I know to converse and hang out with, I’ll do that. When I need to talk to new people for the socialization we crave as humans, I’ll do that. It’s the necessity of needing to socialize while on our own that leads us to meet other travelers, who are often cool, interesting, and friendly. Thanks so much for reading, folks!