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Published: February 7th 2008
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Return of the El Camino
Even in New Zealand they still look ugly. Did you ever wonder what ever happened to the El Camino? The El Camino was Chevrolet's love child between a car and a pickup truck. It had 2 seats in the front and a pick-up bed in the back. It tried to be the best of both worlds and ended up just looking silly. I remember seeing these driving around Illinois in the 80's and then they slowly just kinda faded away. Well, I can report that the El Camino is alive and well and careening down the roads in New Zealand. It may be by another name, but Kiwis can't seem to get enough of them. God knows why, but they seem to be everywhere.
I only have less than a week left to go in New Zealand. The Kiwi Experience bus trip has been AWESOME, to coin a phrase from my driver, Catwalk. It's been so awesome, that I haven't had much time to make postings on my travel blog. Almost every day gives way to a new piece of Kiwi countryside, a new hostel, and new activities. I'll try to sum up the highlights of the North Island in this one blog entry.
My tour of
Cathedral Cove
Here's a nice shot of Cathedral Cove not long after leaving Aukland. the north island took me from Aukland to Mercury Bay where I first got to go for a swim in New Zealand at Cathedral Cove. It was a nice spot with some medium waves. It was a brief stop on our way to Rotorua. Rotorua is home to a lot of geothermal activity. This means lots of geysers, hot water springs, and a stench of sulfer in the air. It kind of smells like those "snakes" fireworks we used to set fire to as kids to watch a black carbon "snake" rise from a black disk, or kinda like rotten eggs. As well as smelling sulfur, I was introduced a bit more to Maori culture. We visited a recreated Maori village to see some of their dances, customs, and partake in a traditionally cooked Maori dinner. It was a lamb roast with all the fixings cooked in an earthen oven using hot stones. The taste wasn't exotic, but the all you can eat nature of the buffet more than made up for it. I felt like I was having a nice Sunday roast back in the pub in England. Unfortunately though, the Maoris hadn't yet discovered how to make Yorkshire
Warrior Face
Here I am doing my best Mauri intimidation.... puddings yet in the earth.
Waitomo was next, and that's where the caving took place. It's still the most fun thing I've done. There are tons of caves in the area, and some of them are still undiscovered. Along the way we got to witness the shearing of a bunny. A HUGE bunny. They breed these things over here like you have never seen. It's a special cross breed of a German variety. Apparently, if they are not sheared they will die as the coat becomes too thick for them and they suffocate. The same has been known to happen if you wear too many Christmas jumpers. I watched as fluffy was laid on the table with all of his paws tied up to stretch him out. He was then turned over so his belly was facing up. It was straight out of a Bond film. His captor then proceeded to remove his thick coat with some sheep shearers. True to form though, he never revealed the location of the carrots. He wasn't hurt, but was probably more than a bit em-bear-assed!
Taupo was next. Taupo is a resort type area sitting next to New Zealand's largest lake.
Reveal the location of the missing carrots!!
Fluffy sticks to his guns and doesn't reveal anything... It sits in a dormant volcano crater and it is so big you could fit Singapore in it. I had an extra day here and I used it to unwind a bit. I found my running shoes and went for a jog by the lake. I didn't quite make it all the way around though, as it would take me 150 kilometers! In the distance you can see the mountain used in the Lord of the Rings as "Mount Doom". Nearby in a park was a hot spring cascading down into a river. I chilled out here for a bit. There was a nice sized pool being fed by the hot spring. It was just like being in a hot tub. I shared it with a local and his dog. The dog loved being in there, although I think the water got a bit warmer after he jumped in....
The next night we all stayed in River Valley, which is a lodge near the longest river in New Zealand, the Rangitikei. This would be the site of my first white-water rafting adventure. Our raft had 3 of us, plus our guide, who was from Canada, eh. We spent about
Roturua
Lots of geo-thermal activity in the land of sulfur smells. 3 hours on the river learning how to work as a team to control the raft and going down increasingly more dangerous grades. The highest we experienced was a grade 5. No one got tossed out of the raft, but I almost managed to smack my face against a very large rock. I've got some great pictures and videos of it, but they are in the post so I can't post them here😞 I really enjoyed the rafting and wouldn't mind giving it a go again.
River Valley sits in an area of New Zealand used heavily for sheep farming. There are sheep every where. The Welsh boys on our bus seemed really excited by it for some reason. New Zealand has something like 45 million sheep, but only about 4 million humans. There are also about 90 million possums here. Interestingly enough, New Zealand didn't originally have any four legged creatures on it. It was purely a home to birdlife. That was until the Brits came along and introduced all the different animals to the it. We missed a big sheep shearing competition by a day. Some of these guys can shear hundreds of sheep in an hour.
Lake Taupo
You can kind of see Mount Doom in the background of New Zealand's largest lake. Amazing! I think the Welsh guys were hoping to help out because they had brought their own Velcro gloves and everything. Shame really.
After the rafting, we were on to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. I deviated from the tour group so I could get the real inside scoop from my friends Georgie and Duncan who had moved to Wellington from England a year and a half ago. We hired some kayaks and toured Wellington Bay by paddle. It was then up the old cable car to the botanical gardens before discovering the rest of Wellington. They took me to some impressive vantage points which I would have never been able to reach on foot. We had a quick dip into the sea, which was quite brisk. I tried to remember my boogie boarding skills from my California days, but as Yoda would say "much to learn, I have" as Georgie and Duncan were sailing past me. I think I got the hang of it towards the end. After a quick clean up, Duncan showed me the impressive winding roads around the bay where they live via his Lotus. Much better than the bus!! They live close
Mount Doom
I can't remember, or pronounce, the actual name of this mountain, but this is the one that was used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. to the studios that were used for Lord of the Rings and the recent King Kong remake with Jack Black. I believe the locals are calling it "Wellywood." You can still see the actual ship used for Kong sitting in the harbor near the airport. We capped off the day with a traditional Kiwi BBQ. It was great fun and the best was just getting to catch up with them as we haven't seen each other in too many years.
Wellington is the port most used to travel over to the south island and that's where my adventure would continue. The North Island was chock full o scenery and fun activities. In addition to seeing New Zealand, I also got the chance to make some friends on the bus. The Kiwi Experience has been a good value so far and I don't think I would have been able to fit as much stuff in by myself in the same timespan if I had tried to do it all by myself. It's a lot to take in every day, but I hope my North Island experiences stay with me for a while and not become forgotten like the El Camino.
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SharonPohl
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Mom
Jason, Who knew that restricting your Big Wheel route in front of the old house to the distance between the telephone poles would encourage you to push your limits all the way to the other side of the world. Love the updates and the pictures. It looks like a beautiful country. Stay safe and have fun. Love Mom