Auckland, Hobbiton, Rotorua, Taupo and Wellington. Days 1-6 of the trip

January 23 (Day 3). We landed early in the morning at Auckland airport. The flight from Perth, on Australia's west coast, took about 6.5 hours. It went well: the plane was half empty, and we had three seats for the two of us. When we checked in in Australia, the woman arranged our seats so that nobody would likely sit next to us. She gave us seats 1 and 3, leaving one free seat between us. As I understood it, she did that so the automatic seating system would not place anyone there. Usually passengers who do not choose specific seats just indicate whether they prefer a window or aisle seat. Nobody asks for the middle. So the automatic allocation fills the outer seats first. And even if the plane had filled up, we probably could have asked that person to take either the aisle or the window so we could stay together.

After landing we went through biosecurity. They asked what we were carrying. We had written in advance that we had medicines and camping gear. The woman asked whether the medicines were for sale or for personal use, and when we said they were for ourselves, she crossed that box out. For sports equipment I said we had a tent with us. In the end the tent had to go through bio-treatment. Perhaps they scanned it with something, because it did not look like they even unfolded it. Still, back home we had washed and vacuumed it just in case, so we would not bring any seeds or bits of soil from Norway into New Zealand.

The whole airport inspection took about 30 minutes. Then we went outside and started looking for the mobile SIM stand. We found it, bought a SIM, put it into the router, and immediately had internet.

We stepped outside and it was overcast, with black clouds all around, but no rain. We waited for the rental company's shuttle to take us to their office. There I signed all the paperwork. Everything went smoothly and they gave us a Hyundai Getz. My first impression was that it was a tractor with 158,000 km on it. Compared to my Hyundai Accent back in Russia, this Getz felt disappointing, and I regretted not paying 20% more for a normal car with a larger trunk and a less crude interior. Last time in Christchurch they had given me a decent Toyota Yaris with only 7,500 km on it. We spent about 30 minutes getting used to the car, then slowly set off. I had driven a right-hand-drive car in New Zealand two years earlier, but I still had to readjust because I had forgotten everything.

On the way to our hotel in Cambridge, about 120 km from the airport, we stopped at a Countdown supermarket to buy groceries. Then we went to Kathmandu for foam mats and gas burners, and about two hours later we were already at the hotel. It was 2 p.m. We had a quick bite, and I lay down for a short nap. I woke up at 9 p.m. We had not slept properly for 30 hours, so I went back to bed and only woke up at 5 a.m. to start packing for the road. In total we slept about 14 hours. It was our first night in New Zealand, so there was a lot to sort out. We had to distribute our things so we could easily pull them out of the car during future overnight stops. The hotel itself looked like an old building from cowboy times. The woman who handed us the keys looked like a drunkard.

January 24 (Day 4). As I said, once we had packed everything into the car, we headed to Hobbiton. While we were still on the plane, I booked tickets for 1 p.m., but I wanted to arrive by 8 a.m. and try to change them to an earlier time so we could still fit a lot into the day. We arrived and they happily moved us to the next departing bus. We took it to Hobbiton. There were other Russian speakers on the bus, and they turned out to be the last Russian speakers we met on this trip. Hobbiton is delightful, even if expensive. We let the guide walk ahead while we took photos by the hobbit houses. We drank ginger ale at the inn and sat on the cart Gandalf rode in. In general, this place is worth visiting no matter what, because it is one of New Zealand's main attractions.

Then we drove to a river I had read about online. It really was beautiful. We did not want to leave. But time was already short, and we still had no idea where we would sleep that night.

Our next stop was the geothermal area in Rotorua. It was already getting late, and the park was due to close within an hour, so we bought tickets and hurried in to see what was there. The smell was awful, pure hydrogen sulfide. We walked around the whole park, watched a bit of a Maori ceremony, and drove on.

We decided that by the time we reached the next town it would already be too late, so we stayed in Rotorua a little longer. We drove to the waterfront, walked around the free geothermal pools there, and then headed to one more place that I thought we would simply be able to walk into. But it was closed to independent visitors, and it would only open the next day, so we decided to move on and look for a place to spend the night.

While driving, we saw a place with parked cars and tents nearby. Not wanting to lag behind, we pitched ours too. Later we found out the place was not free and that we were supposed to pay 8 NZD per person (344 RUB). We dropped the money and a note with the car number and the number of people into a box with a slot and called it good.

The evening was nice and warm at first, but as soon as the sun started going down we wanted to put on more clothes. While cooking, it got really cold. After dinner we crawled into the tent and fell asleep. That night was cold for us. I did not expect camping in New Zealand to be so chilly. Even Norway had felt warmer. I cannot remember us freezing there quite like this. But this was only the beginning.

January 25 (Day 5). In the morning we packed up and drove to other geothermal sites, Wai-O-Tapu. As usual, we were short on time again, because at 10 a.m. a geyser was supposed to erupt nearby at another location. So we quickly walked around all those stinking lakes and rushed off to see the geyser. It is started manually every day at the same time: someone throws a little bag with something into the vent, and within about five minutes the geyser slowly begins to erupt. In short, nothing special, and there was no need to hurry so much. Generally all those smelly lakes and geysers are not that interesting, so you could easily drive past them.

Then we drove to our place for the night. It was in a very sparsely populated area. Before the trip I had found it, and it was the cheapest hotel I had seen on Booking in all of New Zealand. When we arrived there was a guy and a girl. They opened the gate and explained everything about the hotel, but we still never understood who they were: the managers or guests like us. Everything there worked with code locks, and without them I would not even have known how to open anything. The email from the hotel had said nothing about the codes. The room was made of plywood and had a bunk bed. It was freezing there too, so we even slept in our sleeping bags, and there were no heaters.

January 26 (Day 6). In the morning we woke up, had some porridge, and started packing. At 2 p.m. we had a ferry to the other island, and before that we still had to drive there and find the departure point. The guy and the girl left a little earlier than we did, so we ended up locking the whole complex of three houses ourselves, with nobody left there after us.

On the way to Wellington, where we were supposed to catch the ferry, we stopped by the ocean, the Tasman Sea in fact, and saw it for the first time on this trip.

We reached the ferry two hours before departure, so there was nothing to do while waiting in line, and I started looking for a place to stay on the island we were sailing to. It did not take long: I found a cheap cabin for only about 2,700 RUB. When I had originally planned the trip, I could not find anything on the South Island for less than 3,700 RUB per night, so this felt like a stroke of luck.

The ferry itself was decent. We had booked nothing except transport for ourselves and the car from one side to the other. Of course, you could also book a cabin and food, but we decided to save money because by our standards the ferry was quite expensive. We had once taken an 11-hour ferry from Stockholm to Turku with a cabin, a porthole, and a three-course buffet for 16K, while here 14K bought us only a 3.5-hour crossing from one island to the other.

We arrived in Picton, and our place for the night was only 10 minutes from the port. We checked in, and it became our first really cozy accommodation on the trip.