New Zealand Odyssey
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To see the guts of the North Island and have a few adventures along the way, hop on State Highway 1
(SH1) – New Zealand's longest and most significant road – in Auckland and head south to Wellington.
Lord of the Rings comparisons are so 2001,
but "magical" and "Middle-earthian" are apt words to describe a road that winds 360 miles through a landscape speckled with glowworm-lit caves, crowned with active volcanoes, and hemmed in by silvery shoreline, a desert, and a 610-foot-deep lake.
Roadside Attractions
The first 78 miles, from Auckland to Hamilton, is a taste of true North Island Kiwiana, or authentic New Zealand kitsch. If the South Island is dramatic mountains and ever changing scenery, as though it can't make up its mind, the North Island is fertile, lush and green, warm with sunshine, and teeming with life. Early morning mist clings to rolling hills, penned in by wood fences, where white tufts of sheep graze on grass.
Take SH1 to Cobham Drive and stretch your legs at the lush Hamilton Gardens (www.hamiltongardens.co.nz) with a takeaway flat white coffee from the Gardens Cafe before retracing your steps and picking up State Highway 3 (SH3) on Normandy Avenue. Head south out of the city. You're now entering the King Country, so named because it was the dominion of the Maori king who retreated here in the 1860s during the New Zealand Wars.
Kiwi Icons
Otorohanga, 36 miles south of Hamilton and a great place to fuel up with food, has labeled itself "Kiwiana Town." Visit the Otorohanga Kiwi House and Native Bird Park filled with New Zealand wildlife like the flightless kiwi. Or stroll down the Ed Hillary Walkway and view informative panels on such New Zealand icons as Sir Edmund Hillary, the All Blacks rugby team, as well as the origins of pavlova meringue dessert and No.8 wire.
Stop for lunch at the Thirsty Weta on Maniapoto Street, a corrugated iron and wood cafe decorated with photos of the local rugby club and serving bowls of hot pumpkin and parsnip soup, accompanied by crisp focaccia.
Go Underground
The Waitomo Caves are 10 miles (on Rte. 37) from Otorohanga. The area is named (wai-water, torno-hole or shaft) for the more than 300 caves that stud the countryside. Waitomo Adventures (www.waitomo.co.nz) lead expeditions into the Lost World, a cave so-named because "railroad surveyors in 1906 stumbled across the entrance, saw light streaming in through this cave and thought it looked like a window into a lost world – the name stuck," says guide Scott Culpan. To enter the cave, visitors (accompanied by a guide) rappel 328 feet into a misty, ever darkening hole before clambering over flowstone millions of years old and following the river into chambers lit with the cool blue light of glowworms. "I've been a guide for: eight years, and this cave still blows me away," Culpan says. "It's always like I'm seeing it for the first time."
Tour Tall Peaks
Pick up SH3 to Route 30 east, later rejoining SHI and heading south to Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake (238 square miles). Take some time, to enjoy one of the most scenic areas in New Zealand: Three active volcanoes – Ngauruhoe, Tongariro, and Ruapehu (9,176 feet and the tallest peak on the North Island) – pierce the horizon and are often reflected in the 610-foot, blue depths of Lake Taupo's waters. In the city of Taupo, shop at Hikoi for outdoor gear and Annah Stretton for unique dresses by the eponymous New Zealand designer.
The lakefront Waterside Cafe (try the grilled lamb salad) is a great place to dine if you're here during lunch or dinner, Or visit Tongariro National Park, a World Heritage site, and stay overnight at the historic Bayview Chateau Tongariro (www.chateau.co.nz). built in 1929 and the granddaddy of New Zealand hotels,
Spend a day hiking the Tongariro Crossing, often described as the best one-day hike in the world. This 12-mile trail winds upward through a lunar-like landscape, often eerily fogged in by mist. Just beyond the top of Red Crater is the payoff: the three Emerald Lakes, glowing like precious gems in a steaming and Mars-like surface. The Emerald Lakes give way to the Blue Lake, thermal vents, and then a descent through an ancient forest along the Mangatipua stream.
This is a tough hike, and the weather can change from sun to sleet in the irascible wink of a volcanic eye, but the journey is worth it. Tongariro Expeditions (www.thetongariro crossing.co.nz) runs a shuttle service and can provide information about the hike.
Volcano Views
Rejoin SH1 in Turangi. For the next 39 miles to Waiouru, volcanoes loom large in the rearview mirror on the North Island's legendary Desert Road, a barren environment known for deep, serrated riverbeds and an overwhelming emptiness. Fill up with fuel before leaving Turangi – no one wants to run out of petrol in the land of Mordor.
No Bull Town
Continue on SH1 for 68 miles to Bulls, a town that prides itself on its tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. The sign over the local police station reads "constabull," the information center is "informabull," and public toilets are "relievabull." The Mothered Goose Cafe, located in an old bank building that was the site of New Zealand's first armed robbery, is "delectabull" for lunch.
The aromatic Scully's sells New Zealand-made bath soaps and lotions out of a cozy, wood-floored old courthouse. "Judy and Gerry Scully started selling their products from a converted wool shed, and now there's hundreds of outlets," says Joy Gullery, who works in the shop.
From Bulls, it's 94 miles along empty stretches of coastline and small beach towns, eventually giving way to suburbs before reaching the buzzing hub of Wellington, New Zealand's capital city and the end of the North Island's ribbon of SH1.
