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Published: February 9th 2011
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We arrived in Auckland having caught back up again with the cyclone we though we'd left behind in Sydney. It was grey and really windy, just like home!
Our first major task in New Zealand was to hire a camper van as the online rates had been extortionate when we'd looked before. After I'd spent a frustrating few hours calling around rival firms (including having a Frenchman lecture me on safe driving, the cheeky so and so. I don't know who he was trying to fool; I've been to France!) we found a little family run business with only three vans. It sounded ideal and we arranged to meet them to collect it the next day.
On tuesday evening Cool Kiwi Campers' flagship rolled to a stop outside the Auckland YHA. In the land of the Long White Cloud we had hired a short white van. Only one name seemed to fit. Welcome to Albert, the 1996 Toyota Town Ace!
We had wanted a high top so I could cook while standing up. Albert does not have a high top. He has a very low top, but he overcomes the cooking problem by making you stand outside to
do it. Clever these Japanese. He also dislikes any speed over 60mph and doesn't like going up hill at all!
We headed North to the, erm, Northland and our first evening stop behing the sand dunes at the (unpronouncable name) regional park. It was superb to be in such a peaceful location cooking our own grub in the back of our own van. New Zealand was looking good!
We spent the next few days travelling right up to Cape Reinga at the north most Point of the Counrty. We stayed at some stunning locations which were topped in turn by the views we saw out of the van. Each bend in the road offered us a new and breathtaking landscape of ferns, Kauri forests , rolling hills and blue seas. Cape Reinga though beat them all. Walking out on the peninsula to the Lighthouse, at the junction of the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea and the point at which Maori spirits are said to leave the earthly realm, was quite magical. It really felt like you were on the edge of the world.
On the way back we called in at some giant sand dunes. They
were big too, and before we knew it we'd hired some body boards and were flying down them at a fine lick. Kasia, who I'm fairly sure should have been more scared than me, went whistling down in a cloud of sand while I screamed like a girl.
The weather in New Zealand seems as varied and changable as the landscape. By way of illustration, we travelled through a day of blistering sun following the sand boarding but woke the next day to find the campsite flooded and all the tents abandoned. Luckily Albert was parked on athe highest point (It's his favorite position) and so we avoided drifting off with the ducks. This weather had caused a lot of problems across the north of the country, and we heard numerous reports on the radiop of land slides, floods and road closures.
From the Northland we headed to the Bay of Plenty to meet up with family friends Susan and Stewart who emigrated out here a couple of years ago. It was great to see them and even greater to have a bath! We spent a few lovely days being shown around the delights of the local area
and exploring a bit further afied ourselves in the van. Stewart volunteers at a local flying Museum (which conjures up images of the V&A with wings but is actually a hangar full of lovely old war planes) and he was kind enough to show me round one morning. It was superb and he didn't seem to mind me making engine and gun noises while sitting in the cockpits (I suspect they all do it actually).
The plan was to head south but before we could do that we did a quick loop north into the Corramandle Peninsular. On our first day we stopped for lunch at Hot Water Beach. The Geothermal springs here are quite close to the surface and run under the sand (hence the name). We dug a hole, along with what seemed to be the rest of the population of New Zealand, big enough for both of us to sit in and sat back with our books. Kasia loved it. I wasn't quite so keen.
It struck me as being rather like sitting in someone else's bath water.
On our second, and last day on the Corramandle we took Highway 309 which winds for 30km
or so through Kauri Forest between the jagged peask of the low mountains. Calling it a highway is a bit of a stretch as it's really a gravel track. It was actually quite busy due to a highway closure nearby and even on this route we saw lots of landslides that had carried Boulders and trees down onto the cariageway. Kasia wanted to get a quick snap of one of the slides so I swung the van to the side of the road to add a little perspective where it promptly sank up to its axels in the brown ooze.
Now I am getting something of a reputation for getting vans stuck having bogged Dad's camper down in a dorset verge quite recently, but luckily I'm also excellent at getting them out. Wieredly, my strategy of swearing and staring at the wheels failed to free Albert (Kasia made a contributory effort with a bit of swearing of her own, which she directed at me rather than the wheels) so while we waited for a passing saviour Albert just sat there wallowing like a fat white hippo. Eventually a man arrived and, rather fortunately, he was furnished with both a
4WD van and a tow rope. Soon we were back on the road and heading for Susan and Stewart's once more for a final night before heading to the South Island.
The drive to Wellington took us three days and was punctuated by stays at two remote but beautiful camp sites and by Albert collecting his customary bunch of thirty or so weaving cars on even the smallest of hills. We have to pull over alot! One of the camp grounds was deep in the forest and another on the edge of the woods with a stream to wash in and magnificint views down the valley.
The North Island, and our first fortnight in New Zealand had been superb. Off now to the South Island
Love and best wishes.
Tom and Kasia x
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James
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jamesbrock80@googlemail.com
Me and Paddy bumped into some young American lads who went and paddled this waterfall. Absolutely insane.