We took off from Penang International Airport by Singapore Airline. Even though we called this a backpacking trip, however neither of us traveled in backpacks. To our humour, EM and YL even came with big square suitcases. In later days of our travelling, these big suitcases did cause us some embarrassments.

After more than 8 hours of flight, we finally touched down Auckland early morning at 7am. Thanked for Lucia's arrangement, we were safely picked up and checked in to our first motel in New Zealand - Great South Road Motor lodge.

After settling in, eagerly we ventured off by taking public buses to renowned Auckland's Harbour Bridge and Antarctic Underwater World. Making travel arrangements were very convenient over here, only with a few phone calls and we managed to engage a 2 days 1 night tour to North Island Northern attraction - Bay of Island.

With tight schedule on hand, we started off our Bay of Island tour the very next day. We were taken in coach to Bay of Island.

Along the way, we made a tea break stop; the teahouse was located in a nice look-up point giving a superb valley view. We were then taken to Kauri Park to see a few hundred metres tall giant Kauri tree. Upon arrival, the tour took us to its famous historic Waitangi Treaty House.

On day two, we enjoyed the Hole in the Rock cruise to Cape Brett.

The cruise stopped by Urupukapuka Island for lunch. It was a very peaceful island; we did a short walking trail, but not managed to climb to the peak of the Island.

This day we went over to Devon port a seaside village opposite Auckland City. We took ferry across and made a hike up to its highest peak, Mt Victoria overseeing Auckland City.

At noon, the car rental company delivered our rented car, which was a small 2 door Honda Civic. We ran into problem trying to put our entire four luggage into the car boot. Luckily, both JP and I brought foldable travel bags. At the end, we folded our bags and stuffed our belongings into the two girls' luggage and squeezed them into the boot.

Before coming to NZ, all of us had applied for International driving License from Automobile Association for RM120 per license. We had no difficulty in getting use to NZ road system as they practice the same right hand traffic rules.

We intended to do own cooking for most of our meals. Hence, we made a brief stop at Victoria Market on our way out from Auckland City to stock up some groceries for later usage.

WE took turns in driving, we began our drive by following Western side of North Island using SH1 route. Our first stop was Hamilton 127km away from Auckland. It was a very peaceful town. We went to the rose garden, unfortunately there was not many roses by the time we visit, as it was still early in the season.

We continued with SH3 route for another 150km to reach Waitomo. We put up a night at Waitomo Juno's backpacker lodge. It was a cozy wooden lodge located in a beautiful horse ranges. Upon checked in, we noticed most of the patrons were seasoned backpackers. Knowing that, we were too embarrassed to bring in our huge luggage. Discreetly, we sneaked our changing through windows. Until now, the huge luggage remained our biggest jokes through out NZ trip.

The very next morning, we moved on to famous Waitomo Caves and Aranui Caves for caving experience of stalagmites and stalactites formation.

The highlight began when we cruised along in Glow-worm Cave, witnessed the magnificent starry view generating from thousands of unique insects, Glow-worm. Too bad, we were barred to take photo for this dazzling scene.

Only until much later years, back in Malaysia at Kampung Kuantan in Kuala Selangor, I came across the similar view but this time created by thousands of fireflies along riversides.

Rotorua located in the central of North NZ famous with thermal landscapes of mud pools, geysers and mineral springs. It is also a good place to experience Maori heritage.

Before departing, we went around Lake Rotorua and its flourish government garden. Next, we moved on to the renowned volcanic attractions-Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve. We had our first encounter with various volcanic formations of geysers, craters, violent boiling mud, steaming colourful pools.

At the Institute, we were told that we were able to watch live geyser eruption in Wai-O-Tapu Thermal reserves. Knowing that without much delay, we rushed our way to the scene. The very Lady Knox geyser erupts daily at 10.15am only and we had less than hour to reach the place.

On the way, all of us kept guessing and wondering how this natural phenomenon could be controlled. After paying for the entrance, we sped our way to the geyser area. As we approached the area, many spectators were waiting anxiously for the eruption.

After the unbelievable geyser show, we carried on travel to Wairakei Park for huge mineral springs - Huka Falls, geothermal valley and power generator plant. From there we carried on for another 82km to reach Taupo for a night. At night, we strolled along Lake Taupo, enjoying its peaceful night scenery. We even spotted a flock of black swans.

Taupo is famous with trout fishing and water sport, as none of us were into these activities; we took a brief morning city tour around Taopo and headed south. We made a brief stop at Napier to visit a winery vineyard.

It took us more than 5 hours to reach Wellington, the cultural capital of NZ. This was our longest drive of 378km. Once the town came within view, we started to feel the busyness of the city. All this while, except Auckland the rest of the towns we been to were all very quiet and with very little traffic.

We phoned up our ex-schoolmate Lucia who was working in Wellington. She came with Joyce, our fifth member who had just flown in from Malaysia joining us for South Island trip. 

We had a great gathering at Lucia house. It was more than 10 years since our high school graduation. We stayed up late down the memory lane recalling our old school days.

At night, we went up to Mt. Victoria to enjoy Wellington magnificent night scene.