I’m going to preface this post by saying we weren’t allowed to fish for the big trout. Sorry, Mum, we asked, but they were pretty against it.

After Hobbiton, we had some free time – nothing planned, and no pressing places to be – so we drove back towards Taupo to the National Trout Centre. Because fish.

It’s a museum, aquarium and nature walk all in one, and was a neat experience. The fish were huge (feeding from visitors will do that!) and the history of trout in NZ was really interesting. As were some of the native fish showcased in the little aquarium.

From there, we headed to a glassblowing place called Lava Glass. You’re not allowed to take photos there, but the glass was pretty awe-inspiring, so google it if you’re into that kind of thing!

We backtracked to Huka Falls (navigator error, bad Nicole) and while they were definitely fast-flowing, they were also pretty touristy and similar to other falls we had seen. (It’s also possible at this point in the trip we were getting numb to NZ’s natural beauty. There’s just so much!)

The last big highlight of our trip was the Redwoods Treewalk. It’s a walk among a redwood forest, on rope bridges (all very secure and safe) and platforms about 20m off the ground.

You can do it at night and during the day, and we would definitely recommend doing both. We started with the nighttime experience, but think the daytime one is probably the better starting point, to give you an idea of the scale of the forest first. At night, it turns into an artistic light installation, with lanterns and glowing lights, and even some projectors with interesting animations. A completely different experience, and a stunningly beautiful one.

There was also a cross-section of one of the oldest redwoods, which was over 2000 years old. Insane!

Above: Redwoods Treewalk in the daytime.

Below: Nighttime!

Below: The Giant.