In the amazing year of 2019 we got married in the beautiful location of Sinaia Casino. Two days after our weeding, we started our journey to the New Zealand. By experiencing new cultures, discovering mesmerizing places on Earth, we can easily say that New Zealand is a top destination that should be checked as soon as possible.

At first we did not know what honeymoon destination would suit us best. What we knew for sure was the fact that we were going to be very tired after our wedding, but both of us agreed that we should not postpone our honeymoon after the wedding. To my surprise, we had a short brainstorming session and the decision was final: New Zealand was the chosen one. Both of us are outdoor lovers and it was relative easy to decide on which parth of the island to spend more time. The south island has amazing nature places,  beautiful hikes (don’t get us wrong, the north island is great too, but we kinda liked the south island more), so we have decided that we should spend 5 days in the north island and the rest of 12 days in the south island. Planning a trip to New Zealand was maybe the most challenging thing we have ever done. Why? Because it requires a lot of research and usually you don’t have enough time to see all the things you would want to(unless you have two to three months to spend 🙂 ) .

Don’t rush anything, take your time and enjoy every moment of your trip to New Zealand (we cannot stress this enough,but this should be your goal when going to New Zealand)

Plan, plan and again plan accordingly your trip to New Zealand. In this amazing country, I think almost everything is possible: from amazing hiking trails to scuba diving, from bungee jumping to a quiet day at the beach, from a fancy meal to classic burger.

You will need a car in your trip. Although, there are some options, where you can skip driving we do not recommend it. You will lose time and won’t travel at your own pace.  We rented a car from Apex and we did not have any issues with it. Although some might recommend to use loyality card when buying food and gas, I don’ think it is so much of a deal – in our three weeks journey we bought gas from local stations(by card with prepaid amount of fuel), way cheaper than the ones with the loyality card.

Look for good deals for flight and accomodation. For example, you can get a better deal if you have a flight that has  a stop in Australia and you have a separate booking for it. Also, don’t expect that a  5 star hotel in New Zealand is like your usual hometown 5  star hotel 🙂

Respect the Kiwi. New Zealand is a very friendly destination for all tourists, but this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to show respect towards their culture and especially towards nature itself.

We did not spend so many days in the north island,but we are going to share with you our four days itinerary :). After arriving in the capital city, Auckland, we took an Uber  and checked in to our hotel – we stayed only for two days in Auckland at the  City Lodge . We were quite affected by the jet lag and we only visited the Sky Tower that day. The nice thing about the Sky Tower is that you can buy tickets that are valid for two consecutive days, so we have visited again in the next day as well :). The view from the Sky Tower is really amazing and on top of that, if you are not afraid of heights you can  try  the the SkyJump – SkyWalk activities – we are pretty sure that either activity is a good cure for the jet lag.

Do you have a passion for wine? Are you a beach lover? To be honest, it doesn’t even matter, the Waiheke island is a really cool place to visit it. This island has beautiful white sandy beaches, like Oneroa or Palm Beach and it has so many beautiful vineyards. Being quite a small island, that can be reached via a ferry ride, getting around Waiheke is very easy. Of course that you can craft a romantic escape and book a helicopter ride, but you can as well rent an electrical bike and just explore the island. Sometimes it can be very windy outside, so do make sure to have a windproof jacket :).

After the one day trip to Waiheke and visiting the Sky Tower again is time to go to another  amazing destination from the north island: the Rotorua town. From Auckland to Rotorua, by car, it usually takes three hours, but we have decided not to skip the Hamilton gardens on our way to Rotorua. It was a great decision! The Hamilton Gardens is a public garden park of 54 hectare park – it consists of enclosed gardens, open laws and  a lake. We would say that the park  is more of a cultural experience transporter, where each garden has a different theme(e.g. Japanese garden of contemplation or the Mansfield garden – one of our favorites). If you are not bounded by time, you can easily spend here half a day: it is a free attraction and from our experience, only The Butchart Gardens are more spectacular than it.

So, you have finally arrived to Rotorua, checked in and probably your first thoughts are ‘What is this smell?’ . Trust us, it is not going to get better with time, the smell can be quite a experience if you are not used to geothermal water or bubbling muddle pools. If you feel the need of fresh air, you can always have a small detour to the Whakarewarewa forest. Only five minutes from Rotorua downtown, this beautiful forest awaits you regardless if you want to hike,walk,ride a mountain bike or just enjoy the nature. The Redwood Nightlights TreeWalk is a colorful experience that is stunning: you feel living in another world while walking so high in the trees, with different colorful lights that illuminate your path.

The two main attractions in Rotorua,without any doubts, are the termal wonderlands Wai-O-Tapu and Te Puia. It is so difficult to tell which one is more beautiful, as both places have their own magic- do try to visit both of them: ideally, start with the Wai-O-Tapu in the morning and then go to Te Puia.

In Wai-O-Tapu there are two main points of interest – the geothermal area and the Lady Knox Geyser. For the geyser, you need to be on a specific time, around 10:15 AM, so that you don’t miss the ‘fake but real’ explosion – a person from the park triggers this explosion by putting some substances into the geyser. Although this might not impress you, the real beauty of the Wai-O-Tapu is the geothermal area. Considered to be New Zealand’s most colorful and diverse geothermal sightseeing attraction, Wai-O-Tapu appears to be a gateway to another world – Half Life fans will be so thrilled of the colorful lake. Give yourself a few hours for truly enjoying the thermal area and taking great pictures and videos – the walking tracks are safe and well constructed,therefore you have  nothing to be worried about. As a pro tip, if you know for sure when you are going to visit the thermal park, do buy your tickets online prior to your arrival- sometimes there are considerable queues for tickets.

After the trip to Wai-O-Tapu, in the following day, in the early morning, we went to Te Puia. Here, you can take the free guided tour, that will teach you a lot about the Maori history and the culture or you can wander by yourselves and pick what traditional experience you prefer the most. If you were not impressed by the Lady Knox Geyser (and we totally understand it), the Pohotu Geyser won’t disappoint you. It erupts naturally and if you are luck enough,you can see it reach heights over 30 meters – stay assured, the geyser’s eruptions contain non-acidic water. In this way, if a portion of the water falls on you, you won’t be harmed 🙂 . We quite enjoyed staying under the geyser, although it was for a short period of time -the smell can be quite powerful. As a bonus, you get to see the beautiful kiwi birds. If you don’t have time for the full tour or you feel that the tickets might be too expensive just to see the geyser we have a solution for you. You can pick a nice short hike, the Redwood Quarry Track, that features beautiful redwood trees and from where you can see the Pohotu Geyser as well – some binoculars would be great.

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