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Published: September 12th 2010
Auckland skyline
Sky Tower dominatingI left the last blog with us having battled through the Friday night rush hour traffic on Auckland’s motorways and after seven hours on the road we finally made it back to the Manakau Campground. We rang the campervan company to report the fact that our waste water pipe was still leaking and they said that they would have a representative with us at 8am on Saturday morning to have a look at the problem.
A sunny and breezy Saturday greeted us as we awoke early, showered and changed ready to leave for a day in Auckland as soon as the Backpacker Campervan rep had been and sorted out the van. Unfortunately, both our mobiles and the internet (for Skype) had no coverage so we couldn’t call them when at 10.15am, this rep still hadn’t turned up! We decided to cut our losses and jump on the bus to Auckland, which after a convoluted route, dropped us off near the harbourfront. As we walked down towards the harbor, we passed through a little Saturday Morning Market, where we managed to have a very early lunch by sampling all the freebies at the stalls. Well, no one can accuse us of
not being thrifty!
Our bus ticket for the day allowed us unlimited travel on buses, trains and ferries in the city, so we hopped onto a passenger ferry to a village called Devonport on the cities North Shore. The half an hour round trip gave us some nice views of the Auckland skyline, which is dominated by the needle like Sky Tower thrusting up from the high rise buildings that make up the central business district. As we chugged across the harbor, it became very easy to see why Auckland is nicknamed the ‘City of Sails’, as many different boats of all shapes and sizes were either moored at various harbours or sailing across the water sparkling in the midday sun.
Our next stop on the whirlwind tour of New Zealand’s largest city was at the very grand Auckland Museum, which stands like a Greek temple on a hill overlooking the sprawling city. Rachel described the exterior of the building as looking like the National Library in Aberystwyth, I wouldn’t know having developed an aversion to studying and all things literary during my time in Aber! There was a small food exhibition going on in the entrance foyer,
Rachel Posing Like A Japanese Tourist
Every Japanase person we have seen on our travels poses like this for a photo, so Rachel thought she would try where people from the Samoa were preparing traditional food from their island, as well as performing songs and dance created by their ancestors. Rachel and I topped up our early lunch with some boiled banana dipped in coconut milk which was being offered around by the Samoans, and surprisingly delicious it was too! Rachel hates bananas like I hate Arsene Wenger, but she was very surprised that when she tried some (banana not Arsenal’s whinging manager) and liked it; it tasted more like boiled potato than Fyffes finest.
The first part of the museum we stopped in was a temporary exhibition on food in Auckland. The exhibition was showcasing the cities relationship with food, and showing details and artefacts from some of the huge feasts enjoyed by Aucklanders in times gone by. Something which caught our eye, was the delightful collection of china used at a large banquet in the early 1900’s in honour of the queen. This china came from a far flung place that Rach and I have a small affinity with…. Burslem in Stoke-On-Trent! We trek to the far corner of the Pacific Ocean and Stoke follows us! Typical!
We checked out the natural history
section and the exhibition named Scars on the Heart about New Zealand’s participation in various wars and conflicts through the years. As we explored the rest of the museum we encountered Maori and Pacific Island treasures including a whare (meeting house), war canoe, jewellery and weapons. We could have spent all day browsing through all the artefacts but unfortunately we didn’t have all day, so we had to pick out items of particular interest such as a number of large greenstone patu (clubs) to look at before we left to continue our exploration of the city.
The temperature seemed to have dropped and the breeze picked up as we walked down the hill away from the museum and back towards the centre of the city, where we got off the bus at the base of the Sky Tower. No sooner had we pulled out the camera and fixed our gaze skywards towards the pinnacle of the tower, was there some lunatic hurtling out of the sky towards us (and more frighteningly, the rather solid concrete beneath our feet) on the end of a thin looking piece of wire! As well as the ‘Sky Jump’, freaks everywhere can take part
in the ‘Sky Walk’ where they will walk around the external platform with no railings attached only to a safety wire. Rather them than me!
The rest of the late afternoon was spent walking around the streets taking in the atmosphere of the city. Rachel said that the nearest comparison to a city she has been to is Manchester with added water. Due to time constraints we didn’t get a chance to explore the picturesque outskirts of the city, which is ringed by volcanic mountains and hills. After a delicious dinner in a decidedly English style hotel/pub, we made our way back to the campsite on the ‘round the houses’ bus. Whilst on the bus, we discovered the extent of the earthquake we had heard murmurs about earlier in the day. We had seen a glimpse of breaking news about the Christchurch quake on a tv in a shop window and Dad’s text asking whether we were ok confirmed that it had been a biggie. We are due to fly out of Christchurch on 28th September and we are hoping that the large aftershocks that we have heard being reported all week have stopped by then.
Sunday started
with the ball-ache of taking the van back to the Auckland depot, where we were told we would need to change vans because of the leaky pipe. After an hour spent packing up everything in the van, emptying the cupboards and fridge and swapping it all over to the new van (that was actually 100,000 miles older), the manager of the branch decided he was going to be a bit of a knob. As far as we were concerned, we were taking the van back to be repaired because it was faulty through no fault of ours and the man hadn’t come to the campsite to repair it as agreed. When we went into the office, he said he wouldn’t be offering us any compensation because we hadn’t emptied our waste tank or filled the fuel tank up. This was despite the fact we didn’t know we were returning the vehicle! A few heated words were exchanged when he came back with another gem, if we went and emptied the waste tank and filled the fuel up, he would give us a days hire back as a refund. So if we went and put $50 worth of diesel in the
van and wasted yet more of our day because of their faulty van, he would give us $40. Brilliant, you tit. Eventually, we agreed that if we emptied the waste he would let us off the fuel and give us the $40 refund. Now, that wasn’t too hard was it?!
Finally, we were back on the road and heading towards the little town of Waihi Beach on the east coast at the start of the Coromandel Peninsula. This charming little beach town is home to Sally and Logan, friends of Lee (Rachel’s cousin) and Lucinda (his fiancée), who spent some of 2009 and 2010 in New Zealand. Sally and Logan had kindly offered to cook us dinner and show us around the area, and who were we to turn down such generosity. An uneventful drive took us to Waihi Beach where we were greeted by friendly faces and the wagging tail of Summer the dog.
We spent the afternoon getting to know our hosts over a cup of tea or two (Sally’s English so tea wasn’t in short supply! After refueling, Logan took us for a couple of little walks to show us the beautiful beaches and countryside
around their little town. We were taken to a great vantage point at the north end of the beach where we looked out to the Pacific Ocean and various islands in the distance, before we drove to Bowentown at the south end of the town where we got amazing views of Mt. Maunganui and Mayor Island.
At home, Logan and Sally rustled up a delicious Lasagne, and we wolfed it down. Great home cooking, something we have missed since being on the road. It was interesting to chat about various things including politics and religion with a real Kiwi in a relaxed setting and I think Rachel enjoyed some female company after being stuck in a campervan with me for the last two weeks! Our visit was all too brief I am afraid and we were back on the road on Monday morning (after kindly being allowed to use Sally and Logan’s computer to choose our wedding photos for the album finally).
The drive to our next destination was a short one, within an hour we had arrived at the foot of Mount Maunganui, 80 or so kilometers south. This is where Lee and Lucy lived for a while
so we took some photos and before we had a chance to park up ready to walk to the top (Its not a mountain in the true sense of the word, more accurately described as a medium sized hill, I wasn’t about to go all Edmund Hillary on you!) the heavens opened and we thought better of it. So instead of the energetic walk up a hill, we decided to vigourously wolf down a portion of fish and chips! This English sounding dish is very popular in New Zealand and we couldn’t leave the seaside without trying some and delicious it was too. Feeling full and satisfied we pottered along the winding roads through the driving rain to a town called Rotorua, where our next blog will begin.
By the way, I am sure you are all dying to know what the scores on the doors for The New Zealand World Championship of Games 2010 between Rachel and I are. Well here goes:
Rummy - Stuart 9 Rachel 8
Yahtzee - Stuart 0 Rachel 2
Uno - Stuart 11 Rachel 7
Finely poised I am sure you will agree!
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greg
non-member comment
NZ
Just wondered if you got to see Milford sound in NZ ?...apparently one of the most beautiful and unspoilt and beautiful part of the world.....