Coromandel Peninsula - Western Bay of Plenty - Rotorua

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23.11.07

Finally the day especially Eskil had been looking forward to arrived. We were going to pick up our camper today. Everybody was a bit excited to see what our home for the next 5 weeks would look like.

After a long and thorough introduction to all the technicalities we finally were allowed inside the van. It looked really nice with a lot of luxuries such as tv, dvd, microwave etc.

Drove off towards Coromandel Peninsula and Hahei Beach. We started with some beginner difficulties and while driving everything in the kitchen made an enormous noise because we hadn’t packed things properly. Originally we had planned to go directly to Rotorua but we had decided to see a bit of Coromandel first. The road was very, very winding and Paul had a challenge in getting used to such a big car.

Eskil, Freja and Tine immediately unpacked. Yes, what a wonderful thing not to live in a suitcase for the first time in almost 6 weeks and we also had a chance to wash all the dirty laundry. We had tried in Samoa, but it was hard to get it really clean and dry. Eskil wanted his bed made at once, he had wished to sleep above the driver’s cabin. Tine had promised to make ‘frikadeller’ for dinner and the children were happy not to eat at a restaurant. After dinner the children watched a movie, while Tine and Paul listened to the rain. Paul had parked the van on a very uneven spot, which we could feel when we went to bed. It also took some time to make up the beds, but that’s perhaps the fun of it!!!

24.11.07

We had already paid for two nights and as it was still raining a lot, we saw no reason to get up very early. Freja has chosen the bed in the middle and because she is very difficult to get out of bed she might not have chosen the right place, since it is also our ‘dining room’.

Went to Hot Water Beach even though it was quite cool and a bit windy, we thought we might just have a look. A was rather chilly, and it looked really funny with all the people lying in swim gear in pools while others were wearing sweaters. After a while we went to get some shovels. Freja, Eskil and Tine found a place where we could feel that the sand was hot under our feet when we stuck our toes in it. And the sand was extremely hot. If you’ve made a hole you can’t stand on the sand where it is really hot. Dug our hole but it was too warm, so we dug another hole next to it to get cold water and temperate it.

Eskil and Freja laid down and enjoyed it. After a while Paul stripped to his underwear to try it too. In the end so did Tine.

After 1½ hours we went back to the camper. Had lunch, it is ingenious with your own home on the road. Drove back to the camping ground. Found another spot. Paul, Eskil and Freja went to the dump station and to fill water on the camper. Something wrong with the toilet it won’t flush and one cupboard can’t open. Have to call the rental company tomorrow.

25.11.07

Had to check out by 10. Started another beautiful summer day with visiting the second major sight around Hahei: Cathedral Cove. As we missed the sign to this sight it took a little detour for us to get there. We parked our van in one of the few remaining parking spaces for large vehicles and had breakfast. Afterwards we enjoyed the superb panorama of the bay, supplied ourselves with bottles of fresh water and started the 45-minute walk to the big limestone arch. Paul and Eskil soon got ahead of the female part of the family and reached the target long before Tine and Freja. We all got rewarded with a magnificent view of the Cove and the lovely beach with a strong surf and isolated rocks - which once where arches. Eskil didn't need any recovering time and spent more of his energy on running away from the waves and chasing seagulls.

We were driving on to Tauranga and Mt. Maunganui where we had found a camping on the beach. Again a very winding road with steep cliffs and very narrow as well. This was very tiresome for Tine because she had to help Paul brake all the time. It didn’t seem to help much and Paul probably didn’t notice it! It wouldn’t be so bad to drive here if it hadn’t been for the fact that we now know for sure that Kiwis are the worst drivers in the world. They drive too fast, they have no patience, they take horrible risks - endangering not only themselves but others as well and - do we need to go on. This and the fact that you see squeezed Possums everywhere on the road are the two things most remarkable about driving in NZ.

And there is a third thing as well. In really many places they have so called ‘wash outs’. This actually means that a part of the road has fallen down the hill and sometimes it’s almost half the road, which of course doesn’t make it easier to drive there. It also means that there is road work many places and that is good because then the Kiwis have to slow down. Actually we are a bit surprised about the condition of the roads here in New Zealand.

It was a nice trip down to Tauranga, but tiring. All along the road we see wild growing. We drove on to Mt. Maunganui and passed through a small street that looked as if its sole purpose was to entertain tourists in the busy summer months, which luckily have not yet started.

We got a very nice spot with a wonderful sea view, it was almost on the beach.

Enjoyed the last of the sun and nice weather and later the incredible big moon hanging just over the water that we could see from our window, we went outside to look at it and tried to take a photo of it but it wasn’t that great because of the sparse light.


26.11.07

We split up this morning as Paul wanted to conquer the mountain and the rest didn’t share his desire. Tine, Eskil and Freja went in to stroll in the main street and do some window shopping. Tine got a shirt and Eskil a pair of flip flaps (?).

There wasn’t really much to see thus after 1½ hours or so we returned to the van where Paul was already waiting for us.

Took off towards Rotorua which was a short trip of about 80 km. It wasn’t the most interesting drive. A lot of deforestation which meant that we were looking at bare hills with nothing on them or with tiny trees just being planted. These forests here are the biggest man made forests in the Southern hemisphere. They consist of pine trees that grow quite quickly about five times as fast as in Norway, but this means that the quality of the wood is not very good, it is too soft.

And then we were in Kiwi fruit country. Km after km of Kiwi orchards. They grow on a stem to about 1½ m and then they are entangled into each other making a roof of leaves so it looks like one big green square. They are all surrounded by tall trees on all sides, probably to protect them against the wind. And we have tasted the Kiwi fruits (not Kiwis they are the people here) and they do taste much better than in Denmark, we find that the quality of food is excellent here - and that goes for vegetables, fruit, meat. Cheese is a bit uninteresting and their bread is absolutely awful.

Found Rotorua and decided to try the cosy camping close to Lake Rotorua. It was quite easy to find and it looked ok perhaps a bit run down. There were some very noisy and obnoxious birds on the campground. They were bluish black and everywhere. It was a very warm day so we hit the swimming pool and had some fun time there. Eskil had bought a small plane that could fly with an elastic and we flew with that a lot. The campground is fuming and bubbling some places and it is possible to cook your food in a Hangi, a traditional Maori steam oven that uses the steam from the underground which is very active in this area.


27.11.07

Nice and warm morning. Drove to the Buried Village of Te Wairoa 15 km southeast of Rotorua and took a walk around there. It wasn’t as interesting as the brochures made it out to be and to say that it is the Pompeii of New Zealand is highly overrated. We had a nice walk though and went to see the waterfall and feed the trout in the river and to have a look over Lake Tarawera and the extinct volcano of the same name.

Mt. Tarawera used to have a sensational beautiful area called the pink and white terraces. These were terraces build up from the silici in the water running down the mountain. The water starts up being extremely hot at the top of the mountain and then slowly gets colder on its way downwards until it is rather cold at the bottom. On the way down all kinds of minerals and chemicals are deposited creating these terraces. Unfortunately, they were destroyed in the 1886 eruption which also killed quite a lot of people as it came with practically no warning. So now all there is left of them are some paintings and photographs and descriptions.

Went to a ‘look out’ where you had a view of the Blue and Green Lakes. Paul went the wrong way and came back 15 minutes later a bit irritated that there wasn’t any ‘look out’ towards the lakes, so Tine pointed him in the other direction 20 m from where he had parked!

Because it was good weather we could actually see the difference in colours. We drove down to the other side of the Blue Lake and Freja and Paul went for a swim. A tiny bit cold but not too bad.

Went back to the camping and Freja, Paul and Eskil went for a swim in the pool before dinner and Tine went to do the laundry.


28.11.07

Woke up from the noise made by the blue and black birds with the red beak. Don’t know what they are called but they make a horrific noise and they chase each other and the ducks all the time.

Paul went to dump our white water, but ….. that was not possible because we didn’t have our hose anymore. It must have been left in Hahei Beach. Asked in the reception where we could get a new one and they told us that perhaps we could get one where we could get the van repaired.

Drove there but they couldn’t help us and they were not very helpful in suggesting another place where we could get it. Went to a large DIY store and after a loooooong time Paul came back with a hose. Oh and by the way some screws as well because part of the bed had collapsed when Freja decided to stand on it. The screws that held the pieces together were not more than ½ a centimetre but now we’ve bought some long ones and hope it will keep things together.

At last we could drive up to the Skyline Skyrides centre where a gondola takes you up to Mt. Ngongotaha for a panoramic view of the lake area, then fly back down the mountain on a luge. Eskil did not like the ride up the mountain in the gondola and first he didn’t want to try the luge either. A luge is a small vehicle that you use to go down the hill on some tracks that are made in different categories of difficulty, according to how steep and curvy they are. Paul and Freja went in one each while Tine and Eskil rode together. It was quite fun and if you didn’t brake it went very fast. Tine and Eskil used the brake a lot which was a bit hard because you really had to pull it hard towards you, and they were soon overtaken by Freja and Paul.

We had to take a ski lift up and in the beginning Eskil didn’t like it very much but after a while he rather enjoyed it. So perhaps he’s ready for downhill skiing next winter, don’t hope so it’s too expensive.

The next ride Tine and Eskil went somewhat faster and Eskil found out that he would like to try it on his own a bit later.

Had lunch looking out over Rotorua and the lake and then Paul and Eskil took one last ride while Freja and Tine went to have a look at the giant swing on the other side. Unfortunately no-one tried it when we were looking so we could just watch the video they were playing of some other rides.

Went to downtown Rotorua and looked at the black swans and their little ones. Tried the playground and went to have an ice cream and a cup of coffee.

Not a very interesting town Rotorua and combined with the sulphur rich air (= smell of rotten eggs) we went 1½ hour later back to the camping after buying our groceries.

Had a quiet evening and slept well even though it got very cold in the night.

29.11.07

Had to get up a bit earlier than usual because we were going to see the Lady Knox Geyser spout off at Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland located about 30km south of Rotorua on our way to Taupo. Actually one could argue if it’s worthwhile to go there and watch it, as it is an utterly manmade eruption. At exactly 10.15 am each day one of the staff pours organic soap into the crater to make it spout. It starts slowly but very quickly spouts about 10m or more up in the air. It continues for about an hour but the initial spout is always the highest. We were there exactly on time and because we got the last row of benches we could stand on them to get a better view without annoying anyone.

But … those in front of us didn’t think their view was good enough sitting down and also decided to stand on their bench. This was not very popular with us or other people whose view they blocked, and after having asked them politely if they would sit down 3 times, which only resulted in them standing up again Paul decided to shout something not very nice to them. And that worked.

Well we decided that 10 minutes was enough and left the area to go and see the rest of the thermal park. And this was a good plan because we soon had a tail of other people after us trying to get into the park before the rest of the crowd. It was a nice day not too hot but with sun. We started our walk around the park and we took the long one to see everything. Freja immediately complained about the smell (rotten eggs - sulphur) and that was about the only thing she said for about 1½ hours. It was a really great experience. All these hell holes with steam and boiling mud and water. And the beautiful champagne pools with all kinds of different colours because of the chemicals in the water. Sometimes the smell would almost suffocate you and at other times you didn’t really notice.

We saw some diminutive representation of the white terraces which we described earlier, but nothing in comparison with what they had once been. There were some fluorescent green pools and especially one of them (the Devils Bath) was so green that it was amazing. At one point Paul got totally ecstatic because he thought he could spot Mt Doom in the background. It did have the right shape and it was in the right direction so we all agreed that it must be Mt Doom. Another funny thing about the area was that all the trees had very, very red/orange. This is strangely enough due to a green algae, Trentepohlia, the reason that it is red/orange and not green is that it contains an orange pigment that hides the normally green pigment - chlorophyll.

All in all it was definitely one of the highlights of the North Island.

Had some coffee and cake and a sandwich before we continued on our way to Taupo.

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Photos

Coromandel 001
Our camper conveniently parked at Hot Water Beach parking

Coromandel 002
Hahei Beach seen from the car park for the walk to Cathedral Cove

Coromandel 003
Family Maas-Buchardt relaxing in their own natural spa pool

Coromandel 004
On the beach after our walk to and through Cathedral Cove

Bay of Plenty 001
Our campsite (bottom left of picture) viewed from the top of Mt Maunganui

Bay of Plenty 003
View over Tauranga Harbour and the backland

Rotorua 001
Warm and Cosy Cottage Camping (notice the steam in the back of the picture)

Rotorua 002
Maori war canoe 'snapped' in Lake Tarawera with (silent) Mt. Tarawera in the background

Rotorua 003
Rotorua and Lake Rotorua seen from the Skyline Skyride centre

Rotorua 004
We are enjoying the gondola ride

Rotorua 006
Great fun riding down in your luge!

Rotorua 007
Just in time to see Lady Knox spout

Rotorua 008
The hot Champagne Pool at Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland

Rotorua 009
Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland: boiling mud

Rotorua 010
Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland: is that really Mt. Doom in the background?

Rotorua 011
Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland: is that the devil's bath?

Rotorua 012
Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland: father and son posing

Comments

[Peter og Karin Rosengreen]

Glædelig jul
Hej alle. Tak for rejsebeskrivelser. Vi forsøger at følge med på vores atlas, hvor I befinder jer, men det er ikke alle steder, der er lige nemme at finde. Vi ønsker jer glædelig jul. Når I kommer hjem, er vi formentlig i Sverige på juleferie. Kærlig hilsen Peter og Karin

[Tania, Cristina, Annette og Peter]

Glædelig jul
Hej med jer, Nu er flæskestegen i ovnen, rødkålen står og simre, konfekt og småkager står på bordet og udenfor er der mørkt, koldt, klamt og omkring 0 gr. C. Tania og Cristina har lige åbnet den første pakke. Det er svært at forestille sig hvordan det må være "down under" selv om billederne og Jeres beretning hjælper. Venter I med gaverne til 1. juledag og skal i fejre jul på stranden? Kærlig julehilsen fra Tania, Cristina, Annette og Peter