Defeat from the jaws of victory (again)

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The Tumbleweed is blowing through the empty camps of the home nations teams and a second rate France team is on their way to getting stuffed in the Final game. The referee for the Wales/France game is hiring Salmon Rushdie’s bodyguard team and the Kiwi’s are all smiles now. Anyway Roy, Orbison will soon be singing “its over” and we can all go home, or in our case head north to Oz.
Earlier, on the road up from Wellington on our way to Auckland we stopped at Whangeria where the minor road that follows the river is constantly being washed out due to the rain leeching away the sandy soil taking the road with it. There is a permanent team who work at keeping the route clear, with part of the road being a gravel track and until recent times the best way to supply the Maori settlements along the river was by boat. Along the road we stopped at a Maori meeting place (Pa) and took some photos of the buildings and their carved exteriors. These are still in regular use by the locals. Heading a bit further north brought us to Waitomo where we took a tour to visit some limestone caves where there is a large population of glow-worms. Louisa our guide was a bit quirky and started the tour by feeding a large 30 year old river eel some dead goat, although a wild fish it nearly got out and followed her when we moved on. Personally speaking I would have knocked it on the head and smoked it; however there is a time and a place and it was neither of those. During the tour of the cave part of the roof started to collapse which raised the excitement level quite a bit. Louisa had assured us that although earthquakes were a common feature in the region, the geology of the cave made them relatively harmless. We also saw lots of Glow-worms.
Our campsite for the night at Whakapapa pitched us close to Mount Doom (real name Mt.Ngauruhoe), which is in the Tongariro national park. It was a sunny day and warm but as the campsite sits at nearly 4700 feet, it was freezing in the night.
Auckland was next stop and a campsite packed to bursting with rugby followers. We had a great time despite the result, met loads of fellow travellers and locals and drank more beer than was good for us.
We decided to head north and stopped at a Conservation campsite (Trounsen) where we saw some massive Kauri trees and then later on wandered into the same forest after dark in search of the elusive nocturnal Kiwi. Kiwis nil but we did hear one in the far off distance and stumbling through an unfamiliar rainforest in the pitch dark was quite an experience. At one point I headed off the track to have a look at some glow-worms not realising that Liz had not seen me do this. Some minutes later I heard a tremulous voice shout “Alan”, apparently she had turned around in the middle of this dark, strange forest on her own and I wasn’t there. Why that should have troubled her I don’t know.
Next day we kept our northern bearing and stopped for another forest trek to view the largest and oldest trees in the country. The huge Kauri trees some of which are over 2000 old are awesome up close and we consider ourselves fortunate to have seen these giants firsthand. They are only exceeded in size by the Californian giant redwoods.
Quick overnight at a campsite by 90 mile beach, ( actually closer to 90 kilometres) and we found ourselves at the top of NZ at Cape Reinga. A walk out to the lighthouse just about finished us off with hot sunshine, thundery rain, sheer drops to the briny below and steep slippery inclines. Anyway, as is now obvious we survived and returned to our wild campsite on the edge of the Pacific.
We were recommended by a local to camp at Maturia bay at the north end of the bay of Islands, it was a beautiful spot and within a short walk was the memorial to the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior which was sunk by those dastardly French. The ship was brought out to this picturesque bay and resunk. In the night as we gazed out of our bed to the moonlight sea we were sure we had at last spied the elusive Kiwi as one trundled to within 10 feet of the van, only to find when we shone a torch on it that a startled hedgehog ran off rather sharply as the are high on the bad predators list over here. Next stop was the town of Russell again in the Bay of Islands where the local townsfolk were all dressed in settlers’ period costumes for reasons that I never did discover. Our last few days taking us up to 12th Oct were spent on the east coast at Orewa and Wiatu beaches when it has been very stormy with rain and gale force winds. Next up we are making for Rotorua and the thermal springs with our continuing quest to see a live Kiwi.

PS has anyone seen Paul O’Connell (Ireland forward) and Herman Munster in the same room?

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