You will be fine without cathedral, as an alternative if your schedule changes, Three Sisters, on the west coast was actually nicer in my opinion. (Need to come at low tide tho)
Nah, we arrived late to the crossing, went to Taranaki waterfalls instead. 1hr walk from the gravel carpark
Private hot tub in hotel is always worth it dawg
Yeah the natural hot pools (both the ones you swim in, and just walk around) both have a fee of about 40$ per person. I mean it is a business, plus the maintenance costs and staffing ain't cheap. Some people spend 40$ in two days on cigarettes....
We went to Polynesian Spa, and Waiotapo Thermal Wonderland. I would highly suggest both.
The Spa is just a bunch of outdoors "natural" hot tubs with minerals, nice to lay around after x hours / days of driving.
The Thermal Wonderland was crazy, the colors of the pools really are neon, never seen anything like it before.
If you want to save money, there's a bunch of free thermal attractions and natural hot pools, we just didn't have time, crunched time budget for us.
At the end of the day, your blowing 1500 on flights, another 1500 on a place to sleep, and 1500 on food, PER PERSON, what's an extra 150-300$ in entrance fees.
You can pay off those entrance fees by working one extra day back home, ggnnaamm saayyyiinn. Plus, when will be the next time you get to see some of this stuff?
