After nearly 6 wild, wonderful, absolutely bonkers-beautiful weeks zig-zagging across New Zealand, Day 37 landed a bit different. No big drives. No rapids to rescue strangers from. No glowworms or hobbit holes or volcanic beaches. Just a soft cruise north toward Auckland and a peaceful wander through one last patch of Kiwi green.

We packed the car like a well rehearsed pit crew at this point, pointed the wagon toward Auckland, and made one final detour… because of course we did. You can’t just drive past a huge botanical garden and not nip in for a look. It’s basically illegal.

Exploring the Auckland Botanic Gardens

The place was pure calm.

Wide lawns, big old trees, ponds smooth as mirrors, and enough paths to lose the kids three times over without realising.

Georgia and Dotty found a little weather-beaten wooden hut straight out of a Kiwi fairytale. Within thirty seconds they’d turned it into:

a shop a secret base and then a courtroom where Dotty and Georgia were sentenced to “no shouting for five minutes”

The lake looked incredible under the clear sky, everything reflecting like someone polished the whole world. For a moment the chaos of the last month melted away. Just the four of us, sitting by the water, letting New Zealand take a final bow.

Day 37: A Quiet Drift Toward Goodbye – Auckland Botanic Gardens & Our Last Day in New Zealand

After five wild, wonderful, absolutely bonkers-beautiful weeks zig-zagging across New Zealand, Day 37 landed a bit different. No big drives. No rapids to rescue strangers from. No glowworms or hobbit holes or volcanic beaches. Just a soft cruise north toward Auckland and a peaceful wander through one last patch of Kiwi green.

We packed the car like a well-rehearsed pit crew at this point, pointed the wagon toward Auckland, and made one final detour… because of course we did. You can’t just drive past a huge botanical garden and not nip in for a look. It’s basically illegal.

Exploring the Auckland Botanic Gardens

The place was pure calm.

Wide lawns, big old trees, ponds smooth as mirrors, and enough paths to lose the kids three times over without realising.

Georgia and Dotty found a little weather-beaten wooden hut straight out of a Kiwi fairytale. Within thirty seconds they’d turned it into:

a shop a secret base and then a courtroom where Dotty was sentenced to “no shouting for five minutes”

(Shockingly, she appealed. Case dismissed.)

The lake looked incredible under the clear sky, everything reflecting like someone polished the whole world. For a moment the chaos of the last month melted away. Just the four of us, sitting by the water, letting New Zealand take a final bow.

Last-Day Feelings

It hit us hard then.

This was our final full day in NZ.

Tomorrow… Australia.

Forty days of mountains, caves, glowworms, boiling geysers, dolphins, rapids, waterfalls, Hobbiton, fried noodles, windy beaches, sand-in-everything drives, and some of the friendliest people on the planet… all wrapping up quietly beside a still pond.

Georgia counted ducks.

Dotty chased butterflies.

Ali soaked in the sunshine.

And you – probably for the first time all trip – actually sat still for longer than three minutes.

What New Zealand Meant

This place gave your family:

confidence adventure a stack of stories Georgia will be telling her kids landscapes that smash every photo into shame and a proper reminder that travel isn’t about ticking places off It’s about moments like this – the little ones – the peaceful drift before the next chapter kicks off.

And mate… the next chapter is a big one.

Next Stop: Australia

Sun. Beaches. BBQs.

Ali’s home turf.

And a brand new stage of the Knight family adventure.

New Zealand, you absolute beauty.

We’ll be back.

Last day Feelings

It hit us hard.

This was our final full day in NZ.

Tomorrow… Australia.

Forty days of mountains, caves, glowworms, boiling geysers, dolphins, rapids, waterfalls, Hobbiton, windy beaches, sand-in-everything drives, and some of the friendliest people on the planet… all wrapping up quietly beside a still pond.

What New Zealand Meant

confidence adventure a stack of stories that Georgia will be telling her kids, landscapes that smash every photo into shame and a proper reminder that travel isn’t about ticking places off, It’s about moments like this the little ones, the peaceful drift before the next chapter kicks off.

And… the next chapter is a big one.

Next Stop: Australia

Sun. Beaches. BBQs.

New Zealand, you absolute beauty.

We’ll be back.

The post Day 37: A Quiet Drift Toward Goodbye – Auckland Botanic Gardens & Our Last Day in New Zealand appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

New Zealand really turned it on today. We packed a waterfall, a lake, a west-coast beach and a family adventure all into one day.

Bridal Veil Falls – Nature Showing Off

We kicked off with Bridal Veil Falls, a 55-metre drop that doesn’t just fall… it launches itself into space.

The walk down takes you through lush bush, little lookout platforms, and that classic New Zealand “Where even am I right now?” vibe. Then you reach the base and boom. A perfect white ribbon of water crashing into a circular pool wrapped in mossy cliffs and volcanic rock layers.

You can feel the mist before you even get close. Ali loved it. And me? I stood there soaking it in, trying to work out how many millions of years it took to carve that bowl out and how much water is spilling out!

Raglan – Wild West Coast Magic

After the falls, we cruised out to Raglan. The famous west-coast surf town. Black-sand beach, rolling sets, endless horizon. One of those beaches where you can breathe a bit deeper.

The girls found a rock covered in barnacles and turned it into a whole ecosystem drama. Ali wandered barefoot, loving the open space and warm air. And I stood in the middle of the beach and Ali carved “NZ 2025” into the sand like a giant kid claiming the coastline it was a mark to the end of our NZ adventures.

The waves were clean, the sky was bright, and the whole place had that raw, open feeling where you just want to walk forever the pictures tell the full story!

The post Day 36 – Waterfalls, Wild Beaches and Writing 2025 Into the Sand appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

Today was one of those days that felt like stepping straight through the screen and into the world Peter Jackson built. We hit Hobbiton, the real film set from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and the kids absolutely loved it. Even Ali even fell in love with it the moment we saw the old wooden sign swinging under the trees.

The drive in alone sets the tone. Rolling green hills, grazing sheep, and that classic New Zealand landscape that looks too perfect to be real. By the time we reached the entrance, Georgia was already on full excitement mode,.

You hop straight onto a bus that takes you down into the valley where the set sits, hidden away on the Alexander sheep farm. And honestly, it’s incredible how much detail has gone into making Hobbiton feel lived-in. Smoke drifting from chimneys. Fresh flowers everywhere. Laundry on the lines. Tools left out as if someone just stepped away for a cuppa.

We began in the East Farthing, wandering past our first hobbit holes with round doors and climbing vines wrapping around the wooden beams. The gardens are stunning real vegetables, herbs, and fruit growing everywhere. It’s all actual working gardens, cared for by a real team of gardeners, all to keep the Shire alive.

Dotty’s eyes nearly popped out when she found the stall filled with Hobbit style honey jars and preserves. She kept picking things up as if she was in someone’s actual kitchen.

A Peek Inside Hobbit Life

The best part is the brand-new addition the interior Hobbit holes. These opened only recently and the craftsmanship is unreal. Proper wood-burning fires, hand carved furniture, beds tucked into the walls, children’s toys on shelves, and little details like half-written letters and baskets of fresh produce.

Ali sat by the fire like it was her home. Georgia found the little bunk beds and immediately decided she could live here permanently if they let her.

Dotty, meanwhile marched around inspecting every pot and jar like a very tiny chaotic Gordon Ramsay.

The Green Dragon Inn

Every tour ends with a stop at the Green Dragon, the famous pub from the movies. Cosy fire. Wooden beams. Low ceilings. And drinks included. The adults get a choice of ale, cider, or ginger beer brewed exclusively for Hobbiton I had a cup it was ok, if a bit dark for me!

It’s warm, atmospheric, and one of those places you want to sit in for hours even though your tour keeps moving.

Hobbiton isn’t cheap let’s be honest but it’s probably worth it at least once.

The detail, the atmosphere, the storytelling… it all feels real. And doing it with the kids made it even better. Georgia kept pointing out which hobbit she thought lived where, and Dotty treated every door like it was the entrance to Narnia, knock knock.

A magical day. One we’ll all remember.

The post Day 34 – A Walk Through Middle-earth: Our Hobbiton Adventure appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

Today we went deep underground… twice.

And honestly, if we’d only done the boat cave we’d have felt a bit robbed.

But together, the two-cave combo turned into a massive, cracking day out.

Stop 1: Ruakuri Cave — The Big One

The first cave was Ruakuri Cave, part of the official combo and the proper adventure cave of the two. You enter through a huge spiral ramp that feels like you’re walking into the centre of the Earth, then the whole thing opens up into long winding tunnels and massive stone chambers.

Everything down there looks sculpted rather than natural.

Ridges stacked like pancakes, cathedral-tall ceilings, stalactites dripping like wax, and limestone formations that have been growing for millions of years.

Georgia was straight into explorer mode, torch in hand, poking into every corner. Dotty took it all in one corridor at a time, and the air had that cool, ancient quiet that you only get in big underground systems.

It easily took over an hour.

You feel like you’ve actually been somewhere, not just walked in and out.

Stop 2: Waitomo Glowworm Cave — The Famous One

After that, we headed to the one everyone knows:

Waitomo Glowworm Cave.

The walk-in bits are short and guided, and then you pile onto a silent boat.

Phones away, no talking, nothing but the sound of water and the roof slowly filling with thousands of tiny blue lights.

It’s surreal.

Like drifting under a living night sky.

Beautiful, but honestly… if we’d only done this one it would’ve been a bit light for the price. The glowworms are stunning but the ride is quick. Doing it with Ruakuri is what makes the whole thing feel like a proper day out.

Overall

By the time we got out, we’d done:

Two caves

Two totally different experiences

A couple of hours of walking

A peaceful boat ride

And about 50,000 years of geology in one go

Not cheap, but combined it hit the sweet spot.

Another full-on New Zealand day ticked off.

The post Day 33 — Ruakuri Cave & Waitomo Glowworms: A Full-On Underground Adventure appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

If you’d told me last year that I’d spend my birthday surfing white-water rapids, hauling strangers back into a boat, and then screaming down a river on a jet boat with my daughter… I’d have laughed. Yet here we are. New Zealand rewriting the script again.

I kicked off the day with two hours of Grade 3 white-water rafting. Sixty rapids in total, and every single one felt like nature’s version of a rollercoaster that didn’t bother with safety rails.

There’s something insane about being in a raft that’s being fired down a river faster than your brain can fully process. You’re steering, paddling, bracing, weaving around rocks, and then suddenly noticing how unbelievably beautiful everything is behind the chaos. Ferns leaning over the water. Sunlight hitting spray. Deep green gorges. It’s like your senses receive more data per second than you’ve got bandwidth to handle.

And just when I thought I’d mastered it, the last rapid hit.

A big one.

Someone from our raft went flying out and before anyone could shout instructions, we I already diving into rescue mode. i dragged them back in. Meanwhile the two girls in the front had no idea anything had even happened. They were too busy spinning and laughing at the wave that had just slapped them in the face.

Chaos, adrenaline, teamwork, beauty, and a bit of heroics. Not a bad way to spend a birthday morning.

Now you would think after all that I’d had enough water for the day. Nope. Bring on round two… Ali had more plans.

We headed straight to the jet boat experience, blasting back up the river to the base of Huka Falls the same waterfall we admired from above yesterday. The difference between “looking at it” and “being fired at it in a boat doing 360-degree spins” is night and day.

Georgia absolutely screamed her head off in that perfect mix of terror and joy. Every spin, every sudden skid, every spray of water sent her into fits. I held the rail and pretended I wasn’t getting drenched, but I absolutely was. The power of the water hitting you as you spins and then the falls hitting you almost blinds your senses, It’s like an alive wall of roaring water and mist.

Standing up there yesterday, it was impressive. Being level with it today… totally surreal.

By the time we made it home, we were soaked, tired, buzzing, and starving.

Picture perfect birthday? Honestly… yeah.

New Zealand seems determined to make every day feel bigger, louder, greener, faster, and fuller than the last. And today delivered all of it at once.

Rapids. Rescue. Roaring waterfalls. Jet boats. Kid laughter. Pure adrenaline. Pure joy.

Not your average birthday.

But absolutely one I’ll never forget.

The post Day 32 – A Birthday Spent Battling Rapids, Saving Swimmers and Screaming Through Jet Boats appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

Today was one of those lighter travel days that still somehow managed to feel massive. We started the morning by swapping locations in Taupō, and since we were already venturing across the region, we stopped to take in one of the most dramatic stretches of water we’ve seen so far.

Morning: Watching the Waikato Turn Wild

Our first stop was the Huka Falls section of the Waikato River that unreal bright blue water surging through a narrow volcanic gorge. The colour alone looks fake, like someone’s poured luminous food colouring into the rapids, but it’s all natural. The water here moves at 220,000 litres per second, which is probably the exact speed Georgia can run when she hears the words “playground ahead”.

We leaned over the railings watching the river thrash and whip itself into whitewater, and Dotty loved every second of the noise and movement. The power of it is unreal – one of those moments you just stand still and take in.

Later on we made our way to the Aratiatia Dam to watch the controlled release. If you’ve never seen it before, it starts with a calm, empty rock bed almost peaceful. Then the sirens sound, the dam gates open, and within minutes the entire gorge turns into a roaring torrent.

The whole thing looks like a fantasy movie set coming to life. Which is fitting, because it actually was a movie set.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug filmed the famous barrel escape scene right here. The crew dropped dozens of empty barrels into the rapids during each release, then later replaced them with CGI dwarves. Safety note: apparently not a single actor got wet. We can confirm that wouldn’t be the case if it were us.

We watched the water rise and accelerate, filling the gorge like someone hit fast-forward on nature. Georgia kept pointing out how fast the water changed.

By the time the surge settled into full flow, the river didn’t even look like the same place we’d arrived to an hour earlier.

Another simple but brilliant day on the road.

The post 🌊 Day 31 – The Colour-Changing River and the Power of Aratiatia appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

Day 30 in New Zealand felt like three days stitched together. One of those days where we walked through so many different worlds that by bedtime it was hard to believe we’d woken up in the same place we started.

We began the morning slow. No alarms, no rush. Just the sound of birds by the time we got the shoes on and water bottles filled, the air was that perfect Rotorua mix of cool breeze and faint sulphur “perfume”. Even Georgia didn’t mind it today.

The Gold Course River Walk

Our first stop was the stream walk that circles the golf course and leads to Hamurana Springs. We’d expected a nice stroll. We did not expect the water to look like someone had summoned it straight out of a fantasy film.

Clear. Blue. Almost glowing.

The kind of blue that makes you lean over the railing twice just to make sure your eyes aren’t playing tricks.

Georgia walked beside me giving a full commentary on every trout she spotted.

“Dad, that one is massive!”

“Dad, that one’s following us!”

“Dad, imagine if fish could speak.”

Dotty just pointed at every duck and shouted “DUCK!” as if she’d discovered the species herself she had a great time!

Next stop: the Redwoods. As soon as you step in, the air changes. It’s cooler, cleaner, heavier with that earthy forest smell that makes you feel like maybe humans aren’t meant to be indoors at all. Georgia kept running ahead and shouting, “They are massive!”

These trees are giants. Tall, silent, ancient-looking even though they’re younger than most of Rotorua’s landscapes

In the middle of the forest there’s this long straight path where the trees line up like pillars in a cathedral. We stopped there for ages, just listening. No cars. No people. Just leaves moving way above our heads.

Those moments don’t make noise, but they hit different.

Then…

Hamurana Springs was the real surprise. You stand there and watch 4,500 litres of water an hour surge up from beneath the earth, cold as ice and as clear as glass. I loomed at it and thought, “I’d drink that.” honestly.

Watching it was weird, it somehow feels alive. Like the whole river is breathing.

We followed the river back through the tall trees, sun flickering through the branches, and the girls chasing shadows on the path. Perfect morning.

The Buried Village – A Step Back in Time

After lunch we drove to the Buried Village of Te Wairoa, and the whole vibe shifted. Gone was the bright blue water and sunlight dancing on leaves. Instead, history wrapped around us like a story you can walk through.

The eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886 wiped out the village in the middle of the night. Six hours of volcanic fury. Over a hundred lives lost. The famous Pink and White Terraces – gone forever.

The huts are small, dark, quiet inside. Georgia stood in one doorway whispering, “It feels spooky.” Dotty just looked around wide-eyed like she was trying to figure out if she could play in there.

We read old newspaper clippings, stared at salvaged belongings, and followed the trail deeper until the sound of rushing water grew louder and louder…

Then the waterfall appeared.

A burst of white water dropping into a lush green gorge. The girls loved it. Even Dotty, who is usually more excited by slides and swings, clung to my back but kept peeking over my shoulder to watch the water crash down.

It feels like you’ve wandered through history and then stumbled straight into a rainforest.

You would think that would be enough for a day…. But by nightfall Ali and Georgia took on the Neon Geothermal Show

I was cooked. Dotty was done. But Ali and Georgia? Not a chance. They had one more adventure lined up: the Waiotapu Night Lights Geothermal Show.

So off they went, glow stick packed, jackets zipped. And they came back buzzing.

Imagine geysers glowing molten red. Steam clouds lit up with neon greens, purples and electric blues. Like the earth was putting on a nightclub show.

Georgia waved her glow stick around like she was conducting an orchestra of exploding steam.

Ali said the whole place looked unreal. Like the ground was alive… and having a party. They got home at 11pm, tired but absolutely beaming. The kind of tired that means a good day was had.

A Day of Worlds Within Worlds

What made today special wasn’t that we did a lot. It’s that every place felt completely different:

• a glowing blue spring

• a cathedral of towering redwoods

• a village frozen in time

• a rainforest waterfall

• a volcanic night show that looked like the earth had swallowed a disco ball

Rotorua never does a “simple” day. It gives you a full set of chapters. And today, we lived all of them.

Another memory stacked onto the mountain of memories we’ve somehow created in just one month.

Tomorrow? Who knows. But if it’s anything like today, we’re in for another belter.

The post Day 30 – Springs, Giants, Lost Villages and a Night of Neon Steam. appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

Today we headed to the Thermal lava pools and so we rolled into Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, just driving in its the kind of place that screams

“Mother Nature’s had enough of everyone’s nonsense”. Some parts look like the entrance to Mordor and the smell is like someone’s PE kit.

A massive yellow-rimmed pit is the Frying Pan Flat collapse crater, formed when the acidic geothermal ground underneath basically dissolved and caved in.

The Champagne Pool The signature Rotorua stinker. Biggest hot spring in NZ. 65 metres across. 74 degrees at the top and hotter below.

The orange rim is arsenic-sulphide mineral deposits. The bubbles are pure CO₂.

The smell is sulphur, which the Georgia lovingly described as “massive farts”.

The Devil’s Bath…

That nuclear waste looking green pool is perfectly natural. The colour comes from suspended sulphur and ferrous salts, it’s Shrek’s bathtub.

Lady Knox Geyser blowing her load for an audience At 10am sharp, she fired off like a shaken Coke bottle but naturally erupts every 24–72 hours however the park gives her a little help using biodegradable surfactant (soap) which breaks the surface tension and triggers her to erupt on cue.

While me and the girls sensibly said “nah, we’ve walked enough volcanic danger zones”,

Ali marched off and did the 1 hour 30 circuit like she was training for the Rotorua Marathon.

She smashed it. Give her a medal. Or at least a veggie sausage roll, photo to prove it.

Later that day we went to Wonder world Rotorua, has a big 3D maze with the coloured corners you’ve got to find.

We had a race to see who would win, a rematch I guess, this time we were just as confused but finally dotty and I won, the magic of a maze on this scale is the disorientation, bickering, and victory pics.

Georgia climbed, explored, chased QR codes, and used up enough energy to guarantee a quiet car ride home for once.

The post DAY 29 — 🌋 Let’s Visit the Place Where the Ground Is Trying to Kill Us appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

We set out with a simple plan: hit Hot Water Beach, dig a pool, and call ourselves geniuses. But New Zealand loves to rewrite the script.

When we arrived, the tide was roaring, the wind was blasting, and the only hot water was the kind falling from the sky. After a quick look, we admitted defeat and kept moving.

That “miss” turned into a win.

Driving deeper into the Rotorua region, the landscape shifted quickly pretty plains melting into thick forest, steam drifting through gaps in the trees, and that familiar sulphur smell rolling through the car vents.

The thermal mud pools were alive literally. Thick grey mud boiled like a witch’s brew, bubbling up and bursting in slow rhythm.

We stopped at the only free public pools and took a walk around before we checked in.

Steam curled around tree trunks, making every corner look mysterious, almost otherworldly.

We wandered along the paths, jackets zipped to our chins, stepping through warm patches of air drifting up from fissures underground. Signs explained how Māori used these places for generations: cooking food, treating injuries, even making coffee from roasted seeds. The mix of culture, geology, and raw nature made the whole walk feel like stepping into an old story.

We walked through drifting steam, the whole world around them humming and gurgling quietly. Even with the drizzle, even with the wind, it felt like the most New Zealand thing we could be doing.

A strange, wild, unforgettable day the kind that starts messy, changes completely, and becomes one of the memories you talk about later.

Tomorrow we will dive in to this more, let’s hope the weather is better!

The post 🌋 Day 28 – Mud Pools, Missed Beaches, and Rotorua Rising appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

This was one of those classic New Zealand days where everything feels stitched together by nature itself. We kicked off the morning at the legendary Driving Creek Railway a narrow-gauge wonder that snakes through native forest like someone dropped a toy railway set into Middle-earth and it somehow came to life.

Our carriage for the day?

Snake No. 3

A tiny red engine with more character than half the rental cars in the Coromandel.

The girls loved it. Georgia hopped on like she owned the line, and Dotty had that nervous look. We wound through clay artwork, tunnels shaped like faces, bridges barely wider than the tracks and finally reached the Eyeful Tower lookout. The view stretched all the way across the peninsula, green hills folding into blue bays like postcards overlapping each other.

After the train ride, we grabbed some lunch and headed inland for the afternoon’s adventure: a short walk to a hidden waterfall on the Waiau River.

The bush was thick, cool, and humming, and then out of nowhere the waterfall roared into view not massive, but powerful, pouring over dark rock into a deep green pool.,Ali took in the calm, and we just soaked up another pocket of this endless New Zealand magic. The kind you don’t plan; it just finds you.

And because we never end a day quietly, the evening pulled us back to Wharekaho Beach, our new little corner of the world.

The weather had finally cracked open blue sky, soft light, and the bay turning turquoise. The girls ran straight to the black-sand patches (which up close look like someone spilled charcoal and glitter together). They built one of the most chaotic sandcastles of the trip, a mix of sludge, shells, and determination. It looked… well, “textured”, but proud of it.

Ali was packing inside while I kept an eye on the tide and the two mini engineers one trying to make their castle survive the other dirty smasher trying to demolish it.

Families walked dogs. The whole beach had that late-day hush that makes you feel like part of the landscape.

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