On a beautiful sunny day we drive along the coast on State Highway 2 from Thornton Beach passing Matata & Te Puke the "Kiwi Fruit Capital of the World". We pass several classic cars & caravans. Finally driving alongside Papamoa Beach towards Mount Mangaunui and into Tauranga.

Ambient Sound Version.


This video is a small part of our 8 week trip around both North & South Islands of New Zealand.Starting in Auckland we rode the Kiwi Rail "Northern Explorer" to Wellington then crossed the Cook Strait to Picton.Most of these videos are in real time.

North Island :-

Landing in Wellington after a choppy crossing of the Cook Strait (50% of Driving New Zealand team were unwell) we stayed overnight in the outskirts of Wellington.The next day we drove to Whanganui(unfortunately we have lost the footage of this(Those micro sd cards are so small)).Then on to Stratford and the next day up Mount Taranaki to Dawsons Falls & Wilkies Pools    • New Zealand Scenic Drive,Stratford to...  
.Then from Stratford we drove the "Forgotten World Highway" Part 1    • A Beautiful Scenic Drive along The Fo...   . Part 2 going through the Moki Tunnel(known as the Hobbit Hole) 14km of this road is unsealed ie dirt road(lots of the hire car/van companies will not allow you to drive dirt roads) to Whakapaparoa at the base of Mount Ruapehu    • New Zealand Scenic Drive, Taumarunui ...  .At Whakapapa we walked to the Taranaki Falls and rode the Sky Waka gondola up Mount Ruapehu    • Video   .A short walk from the top of the Sky Waka is "The Wall" where they filmed some of the LOTR Two Towers sequences and you can look over to mount Ngauruhoe(Mt Doom) .After the trip on the Sky Waka rewalked to Taranaki Falls from Whakapa Village    • New Zealand Scenic Road Trip,Taranaki...   .Then via Taupo on to Napier where we walked the Art Deco trail around the town.Then on to Gisbourne the next day    • Scenic Drive from Napier to Gisborne ...   (part 1 to Tutira)    • Scenic Drive on the Pacific Coast Hig...   (part 2 Tutira - Wairoa) (Part 3 Wairoa to Gisborne    • New Zealand Scenic Drive Napier to Gi...  ) .North From Gisborne through the Waioeka Gorge to Opotiki    • Scenic Drive down the Waioeka Gorge t...   . Next to Ohope Beach    • Scenic Drive - Opotiki to Ohope Beach...   where we had a view of White Island(Whakaari) smoking in the distance from the campsite.Leaving Ohope Beach we pass through Whakatane and pause at Thornton Beach    • Video  . Then on to Tauranga    • Video  .From Tauranga we continue to Waihi Beach on the Coromandel where we walked along the coast to Orokawa Bay. Further on to Hahei for two nights where we walked to Cathedral Cove(with quite a few other people).On again to Whitianga stopping overnight (we had a good curry in town) .Then Coromandel town the next day and north from there we stayed overnight at Amodeo Bay where we watched he sun go down    • Relaxing Beach Sunset Over Amodeo Bay...   .Then back to Coromandel town and down the coast road staying just north of Thames for our last night of the trip(much sadness). And finally driving up to Auckland .

Sections

00:00:00 Leaving Thornton Beach
00:03:05 Classic car
00:10:32 Matata
00:15:20 Ford Mustang
00:18:50 Ford f-100 pickup & Classic Caravan
00:24:58 Route Map 1
00:28:09 AIrstream Caravan
00:29:46 Cherolet C10
00:35:46 Classic Caravan
00:41:16 Waitangi
00:42:33 Farewell
00:43:42 Te Puke
00:44:03 Route Map 2
01:14:16 Maoun Maunganui
01:17:35 Route Map 3