Hi everyone!
How’s your New Year going on? Mine started with a trip around North Island, New Zealand in 6 days. Since borders have remained closed, we don’t have many choices but to travel domestically. Our first stop was to visit Palmerston North, a city on the North Island.
Please don’t be mistaken with Palmerston in the South Island - a town which is 50 kilometers to the north of the city of Dunedin.
It’s now in the middle of summer but it’s foggy as in England, or Tam Dao, maybe Da Lat in Vietnam.
We departed before sunrise from Auckland. Perhaps we were too excited for our New Year trip, we couldn’t sleep as early as we expected. We rented an 8-seat KIA Carnival which was strong and spacious and much cheaper than using our private cars.
There was a special member in our crew, a 5 month-old baby who behaved super well during the trip. It was excellent for a baby at that age to travel thousands of kilometers road trip without crying or disturbing.
Join us there were three other families so in total there were six families of 20 people including a baby, kids, and adults.
Matamata
After 2 hours of hitting the road, our team reached Matamata I-site. We spent around half an hour here to rest and for mom to feed the baby. You probably heard about the Hobbiton Movie Set for the famous “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbits” films. Here it is the town.
It is a small town but green and peaceful. We love it. Next time we'll spend a whole day here to visit the movie set.
Taupo
Then we kept moving to our chosen destination. It took roughly 4.5 hours from Matamata to Palmerston North, so we decided to have another stop in the middle of the journey, and Taupo was the one. It was at noon, extremely hot. Everyone brought their food and we had a shared lunch on the grass near Taupo lake.
Many people chose Taupo for their holiday so it was packed everywhere when we arrived. It was impossible to keep a distance of 1m in that circumstance. My team wanted to take a picture with the symbol of Taupo "#ILOVETAUPO” but there was no way we could manage to have a good one without other people. So we had to leave in pity.
Taihape
Continuing on state highway 1, we saw a giant iconic gumboot on the entrance to a town called Taihape. The town is known as “Gumboot Capital of New Zealand”. No kidding, the Gumboot day Festival is hosted here annually. It’s worth stopping and taking pictures here during our trip.
Luckily our driver is multifunctional. He is not only driving safely but also a passionate tour guide and a willing photographer. Everyone was happy and satisfied with his services.
Palmerston North city
We arrived in Palmerston North in the late afternoon. But you know summer in the southern hemisphere, the sun sets at 9 pm. I was surprised when the first time I knew it. Kids moved straight towards to swimming pool. Swimming and ice cream are the best things for a hot summer day.
Fortunately, a Vietnamese lady invited us to visit the city she is living in and kindly welcomed us. She and her family own a hostel right in the city center. We never met before but we talked on Facebook sometimes. When reading the post about our New Year trip, she happily offered us free accommodation in her hostel. Wow, it was so wonderful to meet our kind Vietnamese people all over New Zealand.
She has a collection of succulents. She grows everywhere in her hostel. On the balcony outside the dining room, there is a small nursery for succulents from babies to big ones together with many other plants.
So when kids were at the swimming pool, adults went to the supper market to prepare for dinner. We all got a big dinner together. It was a memorial dinner with drinks and laughter when people shared their stories about their jobs, their ways of raising children, their stories that I admire a lot.
Many ladies in our crew are studying for Ph.D. after having families and kids. I haven’t got any kids now but when I imagine how busy it is to have kids around and still studying, I don’t think that would be easy. Too many stories to tell and the result was everyone hit the pillow quite late.
The next morning we packed and said goodbye to our warm host and took some time to visit the city before leaving.
We had coffee under a big tree in the park. You can see big old trees everywhere even in the city center.
We had a very good impression of this city for its flat terrain, green environment, peacefulness. This city doesn’t lie on State Highway 1 so traffic is not too bad. It’s not as modern and crowded as Auckland, or windy and cold as Wellington. Manawatu river flows through a part of Palmerston North which helps regulate the regional atmosphere. Therefore, it brings a pretty genial climate to this city.
Some main buildings in the city were built in 1945, quite old and unique. There is an airport if we need to fly to South island, otherwise, it’s easy to travel to other cities on the North Island. Plus, there are big universities in Palmerston North. The famous Massey University is one of those. It’s surrounded by farmland and most of it is used as a training farm.
We didn’t have much time to visit and discover more interesting places in this city but we’ll be back for sure. If we plan to move out of Auckland, my partner and I would like to move to Palmerston North. This is an ideal city for us and it’s worth giving it a try.
Thanks for reading! See you on my next journey 😃
