Life Update – 1 Month In New Zealand

Last Updated on 6th July 2023

We’ve now officially spent 1 month in New Zealand; one whole month of exploration, adventure, adrenaline, learning, tears, happiness, plus so much more!

In some ways it feels like two minutes since we stepped on the plane from Heathrow and began our 30+ hour journey around the world; in other ways, it feels like we’ve been here a lifetime and it’s often like I can’t imagine my life before we came…

Whatever it feels like, our 1 month in New Zealand has been absolutely incredible and we’ve done SO much that I thought it was about time I updated you with a mammoth post, full of pictures!

P.S. If you want to keep up to date with our travels on a daily basis, make sure to follow me on Instagram as it’s full of my pictures of New Zealand so far! You can also follow Matt’s Insta here!

Our first 1 month in New Zealand – in pictures!

Being anywhere new for an extended period of time can often be quite daunting anyway, never mind the fact that we’re 12,000 miles from everyone we’ve ever known, as well as all our home comforts.

While I’ll admit that I’ve had a couple of wobbles and a few bouts of homesickness, all in all, our 1 month in New Zealand so far has been extraordinary.

We’ve been on countless walks and day trips; exploring things that you could never even imagine existed. New Zealand is a haven for natural and spectacular beauty and we’re so lucky to have experienced even a tiny bit of it.

One of my absolute favourite things about New Zealand is the sheer amount of beauty everywhere you look. Whether it’s a Kauri Tree Forest, bountiful beaches or lakes that seem to go on forever, I’ll never stop being amazed by just how beautiful this country is.

When I lived in New Zealand when I was 13 years old, I always knew that I’d come back one day. Living in New Zealand for those eight months taught me so many valuable life lessons and I’ll forever be grateful to my parents for showing me just how big the world is.

Our first 6 weeks or so in New Zealand are being spent housesitting in Katikati; literally next door to where I used to live!

Katikati may be an incredibly small town, but it’s teeming with its own unique and individual charm. It’s known as ‘the mural town’ and is also cited as the capital of avocados in New Zealand; just a short drive through the town and you’ll see why it’s often cited as these things!

Another great thing about Katikati is that it’s home to The Big Avo; a sort of grocers that sells amazingly affordable fresh produce, as well as these incredible fresh fruit ice creams.

They taste exactly like I remember them from when I lived here and they do a plethora of different fruit flavours with ice cream or frozen yoghurt!

As I mentioned before, we’ve been doing a lot of walking during our first 1 month in New Zealand and despite me still not looking like Em Ratajkowski, I do feel so much fitter and healthier than when we lived in York.

If you’re visiting the North Island of New Zealand then one of the top things to do is to climb to the top of The Mount.

While it’s not the easiest hike in the world, it is definitely worth it for those views and it was even better at sunrise. Matt and I got up super early so we could be at the top for sunrise and those views are something that I’ll never forget.

Mount Maunganui really is such an incredible thing to experience and the views out across the sea and the town below really are mind-blowing.

This rock provided the perfect Instagram opportunity, but it wasn’t the safest so I’m not sure I’d do it again!

After our remarkably early start and a strenuous hike to the top of Mount Maunganui, we rewarded ourselves with the Big Kahuna breakfast from Astrolabe Brew Bar which was a very good decision on our part.

The food here was absolutely unreal and despite the enormous portion size, it only cost £9 each!

One thing that I remember doing a lot of when I originally lived in New Zealand was hiking (or tramping as the Kiwis call it).

There was one particular waterfall walk that I remember doing with my mum so Matt and I have spent the last month trying to find it! I’m still not 100% convinced we know where it is but the above waterfall was still pretty spectacular!

I’ve never, ever been someone who suffers from homesickness but the last month has been pretty trying on my ability to cope away from home.

Ever since I was a toddler, I’ve been sleeping out at friends’ and family houses and even when I moved in with Matt, I didn’t struggle too much being away from my family.

Perhaps it’s the 12,000 miles of distance or just the fact that we’re doing something so monumentally epic, but I’ve struggled at times with feeling homesick.

As well as talking constantly on FaceTime to my family and friends back at home, one thing that’s helped immensely is having Matt by my side in this adventure. He really is a true rock.

Another one of my favourite things that we’ve done since spending 1 month in New Zealand is visiting Te Puna Quarry Park.

It came highly recommended to us of things to do in the area and I definitely would recommend it to you guys as well.

The spectacular nature at Te Puna Quarry Park is so diverse and unique and makes for an incredible Instagram photo opportunity!

Te Puna Quarry Park is also home to this formidable dragon which made me feel like a true Targaryen!

We actually loved the Quarry Park so much that we went twice in just a few days; it’s a definite must-see if you’re in the Tauranga/Aongatete area!

After a busy few days of exploring in a row, we decided to have a more relaxed day at the house and tried our hand at baking.

It’s safe to say that our attempt at making cookies wasn’t overly successful; they look atrocious but they did in fact taste delicious!

Another incredible day trip that we took was to McLaren Falls, just a half an hour drive from Tauranga.

It’s currently autumn/winter here in NZ and the stunning colours of McLaren Falls truly reflected that. I’ve never seen autumn look so good!

Another must-do in Tauranga is to pay a visit to Bobby’s fish and chips shop; it’s voted as one of the best chip shops in the area and after our visit there, it’s clear to see why!

While fish (or sausage in my case) and chips will never be as good without curry sauce, Bobby’s still served up a delectable delicacy!

Neither me or Matt had ever heard of the Trigg walk before we met a friend of the family’s who introduced us to it!

It’s a beautiful, albeit slightly exhausting, trek to the top of Trigg Point; with spectacular views of Waihi Beach below.

In our attempt to live more sustainably while in New Zealand, we’ve been making the effort to use as many local and organic ingredients as possible.

When we saw liver in one of the freezers at the house, Matt was determined to cook up a storm with it.

While I appreciate his valiant efforts, liver really just isn’t that nice and tasted way too ‘gamey’ for my liking. Matt on the other hand, really enjoyed it so I suppose if you like ‘gamey’ meat, then you’d love this!

Karangahake Gorge is an extraordinary place, just a 40-minute drive from us. It’s so vast and impressive and the many walks that you can do through it and around it are well worth the journey.

When we first visited Karangahake Gorge back in 2011, my brother and sister and I took the above picture under an inscription of our surname (Dickenson).

When Matt and I went back a couple of weeks ago, I tried to recreate the adorable picture, to no avail.

While the picture of me on my own isn’t quite as cute as the one of all three of us, it was still pretty surreal to be back in that exact same spot, but this time with Matt and not my family!

One thing that Matt and I loved doing back at home in York was trying out new places to eat and drink.

While we’re not sticking to an incredibly strict budget while we’re travelling, we are trying to save as much money as possible so the meals we eat out are probably going to be few and far between.

Having said that, we’d heard great things about The Talisman hotel and restaurant in Katikati so we decided to give it a whirl after an eventful couple of hours exploring Karangahake.

The food was scrumptious and the restaurant itself was so lovely; I’d highly recommend stopping here if you’re passing through Kati!

After our somewhat disastrous attempt at making cookies, our (Matt’s) attempt at making brownies was infinitely better.

They were a recipe from a Hummingbird Bakery recipe book and they were absolutely delicious!

One of the best experiences we’ve done so far was our day spent at Velocity Valley where we did a number of adrenaline-fuelled activities; including a 142ft bungy jump!

You can read my whole post about our time at Velocity Valley here and if you’re ever in the Rotorua area, I really couldn’t recommend it enough!

After a couple of hours at Velocity Valley, we refuelled at Scope in Rotorua; a small deli-style restaurant that served the most delicious steak sandwich and curly fries!

The Redwoods Treewalk in the Whakarewarewa Forest is an incredibly popular thing to do while in Rotorua.

While we didn’t actually do the Treewalk itself (it cost $29 each when you can just walk underneath the trees instead…), we did have a wander around some of the trails through the trees. Whether you pay to experience the Treewalk or not, seeing the Redwoods is still a definite must-do.

Waihi Beach is around a 20-minute drive from where we’re staying in Katikati and it’s actually the place that I spent Christmas Day when I lived in New Zealand so I was so excited to go back!

The walk from Waihi Beach to Orokawa Bay is absolutely stunning and the views out to sea are honestly magical.

I think if it were possible, I’d build a house right there with it looking out to sea!

Orokawa Bay itself is home to a stunning beach of white sand, surrounding trees and logs, as well as a beautiful bit of sea.

Even in the height of summer, we never found the beach to be overly crowded, especially when you consider just how aesthetically pleasing it is.

This is obviously the least pleasing picture ever but I wanted to document the rash I got from spending so much time with my arms and hands stuck in the garden!

Despite getting a rash, it actually sort of felt good to have proof of just how hard we’d worked in the garden!

Another crazy cool thing we’ve done is visited Hot Water Beach in the Coromandel Peninsula. You can read my whole post here about Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove, but basically there’s a small part of the beach where you can dig a hole in the sand and hot water swarms in it; temperatures of the water can sometimes reach 64°!

Cathedral Cove is also cited as one of the best things to see in the North Island and it’s really not hard to see why.

The towering cave lends itself to a cool perception of the giant rock behind it and the beach that it resides on is so beautiful, too.

It was only a few months ago that Matt insisted (read: made me) that we watch the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

After watching the movies, we were even more excited to head to Hobbiton in Matamata (Matt’s mum bought us tickets for my birthday shortly before we flew out).

Apparently, 40% of the people who visit Hobbiton haven’t even seen any of the films and while it’s obviously not necessary to have seen them, I do feel that it makes the experience more enjoyable. I’d definitely recommend adding a visit to Hobbiton to your travel bucket list!

Our 1 month in New Zealand wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Cider Factorie in Te Puna.

Unfortunately for me, I was the designated driver so I only had a tiny sip of all of them but Matt thoroughly enjoyed indulging in various fruity cider flavours.

A couple of days ago, we decided to celebrate our 1 month in New Zealand in style and took a road trip through Rotorua, Waimangu, Taupo and Tongariro.

Our first stop was Rotorua where we did the Skyline Gondola and Luge rides. These were so much fun and the views from the top of the mountain at Skyline were immense!

After Rotorua, we made our way across to Waimangu Volcanic Valley which is one of my favourite places/things we’ve done so far.

I’ll have a whole blog post dedicated to our time there soon, but if you follow me on Instagram, I’m sure you’ll have seen just how unbelievable it is!

After a very busy day, we drove to Lake Taupo and checked into our first ever backpackers hostel!

While we stayed in a private room with our own bathroom (we weren’t quite ready for dorms just yet!), we did get a feel of what it’s like to stay in a hostel and we were both very pleasantly surprised!

Our travelling premise of ‘affordable luxury’ was met perfectly by the Tiki Lodge Backpackers Hostel and I’d definitely stay again!

The next morning we were up nice and early to get to Huka Falls before yet more driving to get to Tongariro.

It was a little miserable and grey when we were at Huka Falls but we were still astounded by the incredibly blue coloured water that shoots out over 220,000 litres per second down the gorge!

The drive to Tongariro National Park took just over an hour but we still had plenty of time to complete the Taranaki Falls walk.

Tongariro National Park is home to many different walks; most commonly known for the Tongariro Crossing which takes around 8-12 hours. While we didn’t do this walk (or the 3-4 DAYS one), we still thoroughly enjoyed wandering through dessert-like terrain and rainforest-esque landscapes to reach Taranaki Falls.

Tongariro National Park is also home to the infamous ‘Mount Doom’ from the Lord of the Rings trilogy (real name Mount Ngauruhoe) and is a real life active volcano!

Pictures and videos really don’t do it justice at all, so we felt so lucky to be able to see it up close and personal!

And that concludes our 1 month in New Zealand so far! Looking back through this post, it’s honestly crazy to think how much we’ve done so far. My dad also reminded me that if we are only travelling for a year, then we’re already one twelfth of the way through! Here’s hoping for many, many more months of travelling and to an exciting next few months exploring New Zealand!

Thank you so much for sticking with this 1 month in New Zealand update post and good job if you got to the end!

Would you like to visit New Zealand one day? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @imjustagirl_16.