2026-05-30 • Mt Taranaki - Hamilton

We took the “Forgotten World Highway” north, going towards Hamilton. Both highways going north were supposed to be very beautiful roads, so we decided to do both. There was nothing really in the way, we did a few viewpoints and old tunnels. After almost finishing the forgotten one we joined the coast through a secondary road that was even cooler, very much in the back country and we were on our own.

We arrived to the elephant rock and three sisters with low tide and a beautiful sunset, we walked through the mud to see the rocks and then back to the van to see the sunset, pretty good end of the day.

The next stop before Hamilton was Waitomo Caves, we thought it was only gonna be the main cave attraction but we found so much more - it’s a beautiful forest area where there are so many hidden caves. We did a couple of walks and the highlights were the natural bridge (looks like it’s going to collapse any time) and the night walk where we saw so many glow worms in the cave and the forest, felt like a magical walk.

We arrived in Hamilton and met Inés - Mario’s friend who is also doing the working holiday visa! We went for lunch and ice cream, and then walked around the river, it was nice to meet her maybe we cross paths again. Hamilton gardens are the main attraction and they are really cool concept - every garden is themed so you can see a lot of different gardens through time and space.

Before the Hobbiton day we spent a couple of rainy days and nights in the area, went to another cheese factory (the best one until now! over the moon) and saw the timber museum in Putāruru.

Photos

• The forgotten world

• The only town

• Its where we stopped for lunch

• Its black sand

• The elephat rock looks like an elephant

• Layers of soil

• The photo

• The making of

• Full moon and long legs

• Primitive settlement

• Into the mist

• We already had lunch before

• Going to the cave

• The cave

• Inside the cave

• Still inside

• The natural bridge

• The wall

• Glow worms night

• The constellation

• Glow worms for real

• Back in Japan

• Back in China

• Never been to India

• Ancient Rome

• Scissorhands

• Zeppelin Boat

• Back in time

• The rain

• Scare crows but not fantails

• Tea gang

• Chopping athletics

• Chain saws

• Take care

• No smoking automatic lights

• Find the dog

• Two windows in a door

• I was not alone

• NZ Canadian Moose

• From the bridge

• The bridge

Walks

• 20260530_Mount Damper Falls

• 20260531_Marokopa Falls

• 20260531_Piripiri Caves

• 20260531_Ruakuri Bush Walk