Paths Less Traveled

We’re back from our 5th trip to New Zealand. This time, we decided to explore North Island a bit more in-depth and had 21 days to do it.

Briefly:

4 nights in West Auckland (to explore Waitakere Ranges and beaches, and Kumeu wineries)

2 nights on Coromandel (1 night Coromandel, 1 night Cooks Beach)

2 nights Karapiro (evening Hobbiton banquet planned from there)

2 nights Turangi

3 nights Ohakune (Old Coach Rd and Whanganui jetboat/canoe trip)

2 nights Mokau (planned our timing around low tides for beach exploration)

3 nights New Plymouth (Mt Taranaki exploration)

2 nights Waitomo

I’ll break it out by area and random observations. Our style of travel has us self-catering for the most part. I plan around low tides and booked our accommodations almost a year in advance to get what I wanted. I figure if the weather goes pear-shaped, we’d better have a comfy place to stay in. Generally, it worked out. The weather deteriorated the last week. My only regret is that the place we stayed at Waitomo (although really cute, had a great view, and its own glow-worm grotto) didn’t have laundry or wifi. Being able to do laundry before heading home would have been great and having wifi when stuck indoors because of weather, even better.

Speaking of wifi, it has become more common at accommodation and is much faster!

Other random observation – no sandflies on North Island! Ya-hoo!!!

My Single Rant:

Apex Car Rental. Oh gee. They are praised over and over on the TripAdvisor NZ Forum.  I hate to be the voice of dissension, but we will never use them again. Our first time in 2015, we were given a car older and in worse shape that booked (got refunded the difference later), and our ferry ticket was not booked – even though our confirmation stated it had been. This time, in Auckland, it took 50 minutes to get our car with only 2 other customers ahead of us! Not acceptable. The return process was confusing. There was no agent to check us in and no explanation of the procedure for doing so. The office was packed with waiting incoming customers and I could only see 3 agents at the counter at the opposite end. There were about 4 of us returning cars, wondering what to do.  We had to flag down an agent to ask return procedures after standing around for 10 minutes. We found out when the shuttle comes, the driver gets the manifest of cars being checked in and will check your car and accept your keys. Why was there no signage about this?  Never again.  /Rant

The Adventure Begins>>>