I tried (unsuccessfully) to wake up early because I was planning to drive to Taupo, about 5 hours north of Wellington. Instead, I got out of bed around 9am and hurried to get all my things packed up and headed to my car. Before driving to Taupo, I wanted to stop at Zealandia, a nature reserve in Wellington, and did not know how long I would want to spend there. On the way to Zealandia I stopped at Tomboy, a bakery known for their pillow donuts, which were good but probably overpriced and overrated.

I drove up the mountain past the Botanic Garden and arrived at Zealandia. Zealandia is an area of about 1 square mile that is surrounded by a pest-exclusion fence. Most land mammals currently found in New Zealand were introduced by Maori or by Europeans, and the introduction of these pests proceeded to damage the ecosystems severely, so surrounding a forest with a fence enables indigenous birds to thrive.

When I entered Zealandia they gave me a map with pictures of many highlighted species to help me recognize what I saw. The highlights that I saw were the kaka (a type of parrot), the tui (a bird with a recognizable white tuft on its chest), the tuatara (a reptile that evolved separately from lizards but resembles them), and the takahe (a very rare blue flightless bird with a bright red beak).

I spent about an hour walking around Zealandia, but only explored a small portion of the trails that were there. It was cool walking through the forest and hearing such a wide variety of bird sounds, and there was even an area where you could press a button and hear the bird calls to try and understand what birds you were hearing as you walk.

After the walk, I headed back to my car to get the long drive underway. After about 2 hours I stopped in Palmerston North, home of the New Zealand Rugby Museum. The museum is full of memorabilia from throughout the history of the All Blacks (the New Zealand rugby team). Honestly, since I'm not too familiar with the All Blacks, I wasn't able to really appreciate most of it.

I drove another three hours through the beautiful landscape of rolling lush hills before making it to Taupo where I would be spending the night. I checked into Finlay Jack's Backpackers, and found that for the first time I'd be sleeping in a bed with a ladder that would not hurt my feet, which was a nice touch.

Taupo is home to the "World's Coolest McDonalds", so called because it has a DC-3 aircraft on top of the store. When the land was purchased to build the restaurant, it came with the aircraft, so they turned the interior of the plane into a seating area. I was hoping to try some special New Zealand McDonalds items (I'd heard of something called a kiwiburger, but it seems that is no longer on the menu), but the best I could do was an L&P (Lemon & Paeroa, basically a sparkling lemonade, which you can find all over the place) and a hokey pokey McFlurry (which is a limited time menu item). I also got a "Serious Angus" burger, which was nothing special.