Onward Northward

I was a nervous wreck behing the wheel of the largest vehicle I'd ever driven for about 20 minutes. Bumble B is in fact a
very easy drive. It helps that, unlike the UK, here pretty much every tourist route, sealed road, roundabout and parking
space is designed for vehicles larger than a Smartcar. So after a few dodgy left hand turns and a couple of hub-scrapes, we were cruising out of Auckland on State Highway One at a clipping 100kmh.
It was sunny, the traffic faded away after we crossed Auckland Bridge, and gradually a bit of real Kiwi countryside moved into view.

Clarissa, who despite the clement weather we'd enjoyed since arriving had been a bit crotchety, suddenly sprung one of the huge smiles that always lift my heart. I grinned back.

We were finally here. In New Zealand. For a whole six months. On honeymoon.

At last.

On our trip up to Cape Reinga at the tip of the Far North, we stopped at a fair few campsites along the East Coast -mostly "managed sites..

Managed campsites in NZ range from good to superb, and cost at the most about fifteen quid (for two adults) for one night's stopover. The staff (often the hosts) are enthusiastic, friendly, efficient and will talk your hind legs off at this time of year because they're actually a bit bored, and all waiting for the summer. There are hot showers, TV rooms with comfy couches, hot spas, thermal swim-pools at skin-reddening temperatures, and Wi-Fi broadband eveywhere. All at a reasonable extra price, of course. Some sites don't charge for hot showers, or for using the thermal pools.. but they all charge for Internet and laundry. But hey - that's to be expected. The long & short of staying a night with our campervan in even the very smartest campsite and using every amenity, is that we still leave with change from 40 bucks.

Then there are 'DOC' (Department of Conservation) sites, which operate on an Honesty Box basis off-season (as in, now) and cost - well, peanuts. Amenities extend to "drop loos" (basically, you 'deposit' straight into a bio-tank. Crude but efficient. Scary, according to Clarissa for now) and cold showers. That's all. As you leave the site, you place an
envelope with the correct cash into a roughly-hewn wooden box that any passer-by could prise open with a pen knife.

DOC campsites have struck me as one of the truly remarkable aspects of New Zealand. The Honesty Box system would be pretty much useless if the campsites were less than remote, in less than stunningly beautiful locations, and the campers were less than they are, which is openly appreciative and largely faithful to the concept. But in all those facets, the DOC sites are far more.

One example is Matai (or Maitai) Bay, which we drove for miles to. I'd been there before, and I'd promised Clarissa that it would be worth it.

It's a DOC site perched just above two identical coved beaches in what's arguably the most idyllic spot in the Far North, as far as I remembered.

We spent three nights there, basking in the early spring warmth, surf-fishing, collecting shells and spotting rays. We
rubbed shoulders with Kiwis who gave us whole snapper caught off the rocks an hour before, laughed and swapped jokes and books (a camper's trade) as if we'd been there all our lives. There were never more than a dozen people camping, and half of those on the beach at any time. It was as if we were the only people left in the world, and we had been placed there by the Almighty's Hand as a second Eden. An almost-paradise, asking for nothing but for you to be honest on leaving, by giving $8 (just over three quid) each for a night.

We've already promised ourselves that we'll be going back there in high summer, just before we have fly back from Auckland in February 2010.

So much for campsites - there was so much fun in between I don't know where to start..

So I'll start on the next blog :)

Until then, here's a quote from a Kiwi cafe we passed. A big sign outside said:

"Joe's Pies! Buy one - or we'll both starve!"

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Part of trip: The Kiwi Adventure

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