Te Ika-a-Māui 🇳🇿

According to Māori mythology, the North and South Islands of New Zealand arose through the actions of the demigod Māui. Māui and his brothers were fishing from their canoe (the South Island) when he caught a great fish and pulled it from the sea. While he was not looking his brothers fought over the fish and chopped it up. This great fish became the North Island and thus a Māori name for the North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui (“The Fish of Māui”). The mountains and valleys are believed to have been formed as a result of Māui’s brothers’ hacking at the fish.

The first part of our trip across Aotearoa (New Zealand) was from Auckland where we flew into down through the North Island to Wellington where we hopped on the Inter Island ferry that took us across the Cook Straight to Picton in the South Island.

Well add more to this later, but for now, here is the route we took, the places we stayed and some photos of the stunning countryside we travelled through.