NZ Part 4 : The North Island

This is our NZ trip route. On a whim I decided to chart this out..

Sangat letih buat route ni (there are moments I thought why do I bother. Tapi dah start, jadi I forged ahead). I could have been more productive elsewhere (sigh).

Nevertheless. You may want to use this route if you are going to NZ.. (walaupun saya agak 2 minggu agak cram. 3 weeks would be better for this I think. Lebih santai. And more time to explore). Depends on what you want to see and do actually.


In total we travelled more than 3,300km in two weeks. Fyi driving from JB to Arau is about 810 km. Hmm, tak jauh sangat pulak our NZ journey when putting it that way.

Apa2 pun tetap letih memandu (not that I drove that much) dan travel.

Namun tetap awesome. No question about this.

Semua orang kata tak ada apa sangat di North Island compared to the South. Sebenarnya cantik. I think the farms are more scenic than the south. Of course there are hundreds of miles of farms. And I am sure the beaches are more beautiful than here. Although kami tak pergi. Tak sempat.

In fact we didnt really do Auckland. We went to the mall to get food supplies. Then we were going to One Tree Hill but the road is so narrow dan mendaki (we were on our first day on the camper van after all). We decided to stop and have lunch at a park half way up the hill instead.

The park is shaded. We stopped at the end of a quiet street along the park where children walked home from school (if I were young again, I would love to go to school here).

Solat dan lunch under the cool trees. Auckland is lovely. Still in mild, beautiful summer weather.

That is our camper. It is a bit on the long side, I would say. We were at the mall and parked at the end of the parking lot sebab panjang sangat camper van tu.

After lunch we head out south. We had tickets to Hobbiton the next morning already booked for 10:00am. Jadi nak tak nak memang kena pergi ke Matamata where Hobbiton is; more or less 2 hours drive from AKL. The road was busy at Akl (a 3-lane highway) but then ease out and became smaller when we got out of the city limits.

The view was soothing and calming. Miles upon miles of green hills with sheep and cattle. And farms that welcome you selling fruits from their orchards, fresh veg and ice cream.

Sebenarnya we didnt do any camp site booking from Msia walaupun ada list yang kami dah prepare dan bawa. Kata anak2 we go there and call/walk-in. Which we did. And anyway the camper van came with an app called CamperMate that gives you all you need to know about travelling in NZ. Armed with these je lah kami cari camp sites throughout our holiday.

The first nite, confident with our self contained camper, we did freedom camping at a DOC site which is FOC. It was by the serene Lake Karapiro in Keeley's Reserve near Cambridge. Maghrib pun masih ada yang bermain bot. There was only toilet at the camp ground. No shower and no drinking water. Which was ok.

But the toilet was DARK at night. In fact the whole camp ground was very dark at night (save for the light from our camper). And there were only maybe 5 other vehicles on the camping ground. And later that evening our bathroom flooded. Hmmphf. We later figured out that happened because too much water was used.. We became smarter with the quirkiness of the camper van after that. More cautious. Kami terlupa tiada indahwater dalam camper van..

There was an owl that hooted that night (dan saya memang penakut!) haha.

Morning view. Kayaks on the lake first thing in the morning.

 The only other campers that night.

Breakfast was cereal and milk. Bread with peanut butter and jelly. And hot coffee and milo. Nothing tasted better.

We left the camp site after breakfast. Looking for a dump station (for our flooded bathroom) and to catch the 10am Hobbiton tour. Kata Waze, Hobbiton is only 15 mins away from our camp site and kata CampMate, there is a dump station in Matamata (relief!)

Hobbiton will be in the next post. Because it is too beautiful. Too cute. Enchanting.





~ xoxo