I've always romanticized road trips. I think they're awesome because you have the freedom to go wherever you want and do whatever you want. But anyone who's been on one knows the realities of life on the road. Sleeping in a van is not glamorous. Washing your face in public restrooms is not glamorous. Cooking soup in a can is definitely not glamorous (nice change after 50 PB&Js though).

Beth adapting to life on the road

So I wasn't prepared for what the next 10 days had in store. None of us were really, especially since we were almost complete strangers. Seriously this trip was put together in like 20 minutes in a hostel bedroom.

Daily breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner and/or dessert: PB&J

I have to admit after the first night I wasn't too hopeful for a great time. It seriously sucked. I was worried every night would be like that: cold, toiletless, and next to the very loud highway. However, I was wrong on all accounts. After that dreadful night, all of our campsites had toilets (although some were so disgusting that some of us peed outside anyway), and they were far enough off the highway that massive semis wouldn't shake the vans as they thundered past. Also, the subsequent nights weren't cold. THEY WERE FREEZING.

Your typical campsite bathroom etiquette

After leaving Auckland, we hit up ten towns in total. We started in Otorohanga (where the Waitomo caves are) and ended in Wellington. I'll try to keep this brief.



Waitomo
Our very first stop, Waitomo, is famous for its glowworms, in case I haven't mentioned the word glowworm enough already. Although there is a wide range of activities to do in glowworm caves, including tubing and abseiling, our group opted for the more affordable cave tour by foot. The caves were awesome, simply put. After walking around for awhile your tour guides plop you in a boat under the glowworms and pull you back and forth under them by small ropes, kind of like a man-powered cable car. Looking at them is like looking at stars in the unpolluted New Zealand night sky, and they were so perfect that Caitie was convinced the whole thing was a hoax.

Matamata 
After Waitomo, we sought Matamata, home of Hobbiton. Less enthusiastic upon learning the tour prices, we stayed here for a grand total of 30 minutes. Basically, the visitor center people were not that nice and not that helpful and we didn't care for the attitude so we left.

Putaruru
This was one of my favorite stops because it marked a turning point in the trip. We were directed to Jones Landing, a free campsite outside Putaruru, by one of the visitor center people in Matamata (the one useful contribution they made). And after that first horrendous night, Jones Landing looked like heaven. Actually, compared to anything Jones Landing looks like heaven.


While in Putaruru, we also hiked to the Blue Spring, the source of 70% of New Zealand's bottled water. The Blue Spring is amazing. Especially when you're looking at it in real life. Really, it's the most beautiful water I've ever seen.

This is an image from a water company that uses the Blue Spring (SOH2O). It actually looks like this.

Rotorua
Rotorua is a geothermal town and one of the most interesting places I've ever been. When we drove into town, the sidewalks were actually steaming. The geothermal activity occurs because the town sits on the Rotorua caldera (a feature caused by a volcanic eruption and resultant collapse of land). Basically, it hot down there.


These pools were on the outskirts of a Maori village, where the people still use the thermal pools every day for things like cooking and bathing.

Lake Taupo
I wish we could have spent more time in Lake Taupo, but we heard from a tour guide in passing as we were leaving  Rotorua that we only had a day before it started snowing hardcore in Tongariro. So our visit was brief but the lake was beautiful and I'd love to return one day (preferably in the summer).

Yet another beautiful campsite

Huka Falls, nearby Taupo and beautiful campsite

Lake Taupo

Tongariro
The site of Mount Doom! We only hiked here for about four hours, but it was absolutely amazing.

And absolutely freezing.

Luckily we missed the blizzard that rolled in just days later.

Ice beside the walking track

The extremely well-maintained and isolated walking track

Middle Earth's obstacles abound

Approaching Mount Doom

Mount Doom on the left, fake Mt. Fuji on the right (from The Last Samurai)

Napier
I don't know if it was the weather (not pouring) or the fact that it was on the water, but I absolutely loved Napier. It made its way on the itinerary because of its abundant wineries (there were some big wine fans in our group), but ended up being a very cool and relaxed town overall. It boasts the title of World's Art Deco Capital, but I most enjoyed sitting on the black pebble beach. Also we got to play with some random puppies so trip made really.


Woodville
Possibly the weirdest experience of the whole trip occurred here. The vans got separated at this point and the other group went ahead to our campsite for the night, which they had found on a camper app. As we were about to pull up we received a text from a member from the other van that read something like: "you have to follow a gravel road for awhile to reach the campsite. just warning you it's freezing. also there's a guy that lives here named Faulty but he's cool". Okay, we thought, this is extremely weird. I'm driving at this point, and as I pull in I look to my right and there's a man grinning at me through the window and holding a pair of antlers. He looks like Captain Jack Sparrow. I roll down the window and whaddya know it's our campmate Faulty. Although we were initially weirded out, we figured 10 young adults could probably stand up to this guy if things got hairy. It turned out he was a great help, and told us where we could camp next while we tossed a frisbee with him the next morning.

Featherston
This was our last stop before returning to a city of significant population, urbanity, hipness, reputation, or anything related to the cosmopolitan life I'm used to in LA. As per Faulty's advice, we found our final campsite outside this very dinky town, and met our new campmates for the evening: an old hunter and a young Canadian. As usual, the campsite was striking.

And, after ten freezing nights, fire-happy Chloe got to build us a campfire to conclude the crazy journey. The next morning we enthusiastically pushed our vans out of the muddy grass and raced for the finish line.

Wellington
We arrived to our hostel in the early afternoon, dropped our stuff off, and drove happily to the Jucy rental hub to drop off our disaster on wheels. We halfheartedly cleaned it, but it really was a disaster. A disaster we were ready to be rid off. Covered in mud, dirty dishes everywhere (but our sink was out of water so really nothing to be done about that), broken window latch, and probably some residual dog poop from one unfortunate hiking boot incident (cough cough Caitie). Dropping it off was easy as. We didn't even feel the need to say goodbye to this dirty beast, so we ran to the bus stop and were whisked away. It was the fourth of July.

Over the next few days Wellington delivered us some of the best weather I've encountered since my arrival in June.

The sun was out and the wind mostly wasn't, at least considering Wellington is the "windy city" of New Zealand. The bar scene was very cool, the ice cream/gelato/sorbet was top notch, and so was the food (especially nachos). There were awesome sculptures everywhere and being right on the water again was incredibly fun. I love the water.

My last night in Welly

These last days were bittersweet because they marked the end of an era. A short era, sure, but an era nonetheless. Because leaving Wellington meant summer was officially over (you could argue that it was over the day I landed in the southern hemisphere, but I was still holding on) and the group would be breaking up. We represented three different schools, and within those schools, we'd be living in different places and taking different classes. We'd also be leaving the North Island for a very long time, if not forever. So it was sad. But I was so excited to end my homelessness and have a solid place to stay, and I was excited to see my new school. So I packed my life up yet again

Prioritizing

Smeagol watching over me

As I flew over the New Zealand landscape, I would have stared wistfully and nostalgically out the window but the plane was tiny and a very not tiny person was blocking my view. So I instead I whipped out LOTR and tried to mentally prepare myself for the rural life.