Hello Friends! A couple week’s ago I shared on Instagram the photo album that I ordered of photos from our trip to New Zealand! Mark & I took this trip about a year ago and the photos sat on my external hard drive (and a few on our phones) and we hardly ever looked at them! I knew I needed to take my own advice and get them printed! We choose a gorgeous green velvet cover for the album, we’ve kept it in our living room and we’ve looked through it so many times AND shown the photos to friends and family who have come to visit. Photos are meant to be printed… they get enjoyed so much more that way. My next step is to choose the best of the best and create a gallery wall in our dining room!

Mark and I love spending time in new places and exploring new cultures & landscapes and I love getting to explore travel photography as well!

Many of you mentioned on Instagram that you’d like to see more photos – so here you go! I didn’t hold back – there are professional photos as well as cell phone snap shots mixed in here! If you are planning a trip to New Zealand, I’ll leave a little commentary between the photos to read if you’d like!
Let me know if you have any questions!

Our first Airbnb & our trip to Hobbiton!

Our second city to visit in New Zealand was Roturua — we loved this place! Definitely could have spent more time here! There are Redwoods, lots of hiking opportunities, the tallest commercially whitewater rafted waterfall, lots of hot springs, a lake for water activities (though it was too cold while we were there for that) and even a fun food scene!
We loved our Airbnb hosts here – they were so welcoming and fun to talk to. They had alpacas, goats, and two sweet dogs – so that was a big plus too!

Who knew NZ had redwoods!?? These trees are younger than the California redwoods -but they are still huge & beautiful!

Before & after out white water rafting experience…. Mark loved it. I’m glad I did it, but I also have no desire to go down a waterfall that big again. ha!

The water at this natural spring was soooo blue!!

For most of our trip we just went jumped in a river hot-spring, but here in Roturua we went to a hot spring spa — it was fun to hear the history behind this place, as well as try the different temps! It was also fun to look out over the lake while soaking 😉

Our Alpaca hosts 🙂

Before leaving Roturua we went on a hike to Rainbow Mountain! This was a hard, but fun hike!

Taupo, NZ. We spent a day resting (and Mark bungee jumped!) to gear up for a big hike the next day.

The beginning of an 8-ish hour hike up the Tongariro Crossing. I like hiking, but I am by no means an avid hiker, however this is possibly my favorite day of our whole trip! If felt like such an accomplishment to complete this hike! There were lots of people around us, but it didn’t feel over crowded at all — more so a since of comradery! (I’ve never done a marathon… but I imagine its a similar since of community).

We got to see so many beautiful things and the landscape differed drastically on each side of the mountain. Started off dry with few plants, got even dryer at the top, then more plant life and color as we started to come down the other side … and then I stopped taking photos the last 1/4 of the hike— but we were in a forrest/rainforest type feel landscape!

Our faces on the van ride home after the long hike! We were tired! We spent the afternoon soaking in a local hot spring that fed into a river – lots of fun!

Making our way north – so some warmer weather and some beaches!

Cathedral Cove — beautiful! We were there right before sunset and it wasn’t crowded at all! (but it was about a 40 minute walk from where we parked, so if you are trying to time it — keep that in mind!)

Why its called Cathedral Cove 😉

Cell Phone shot below — can you find me?

This was called Hot Beach. People dig holes in the beach as certain times a day and heat literally radiates out of the sand – water pools in the hole and its like your own little hot tub!

Kaitaia, NZ

Glow worm caves!!

The 90 mile beach – we didn’t have a 4-wheel drive car so we didn’t drive this ourselves (rode in a bus – still fun!), but if we went back, we’d definitely make sure our car had 4-wheel drive and drive it on our own!

Went sand boarding – SO FUN! I want to do this again!

The bus that took us up the 90 mile beach, also took us to Cape Reinga — it was beautiful!

On our way home we had a 2 day stop in Fiji for some warmer beach time — didn’t take many photos here bc we were exhausted! We stayed in an Airbnb and while we did have a great time (Our host was kind, and we loved learning a little about the culture in Fiji from their kids… and the puppies below that were born on our first morning there were definitely a highlight), I’d recommend staying at a resort in Fiji instead if you are staying for a longer amount of time.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the photos!
If you are thinking of traveling to NZ and have any questions – I’m happy to answer!

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