THE LAND OF THE MAURIS

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The flight to Auckland took three hours and we had to adjust to a further hours time difference putting us 12 hours ahead of the UK. We had the most bizarre introduction to the country when we filled in our customs entry cards where they wanted to know if we had been in touch with wildlife and been on hiking walks etc... We had to say yes to both as we had been to the zoo, encountered wild roos and also been in the outback. As we came through customs the guy asked to see our boots which were still quite muddy and he immediately took them for cleaning. As the country is very agricultural based they are keen to keep out diseases etc... They were really good about it and just asked us to remember if we came here again to have clean hiking boots and not to carry any food substance. We hadnt got any food with us but we watched as an old asian lady had her whole luggage turned upside down as they found nuts, dried fruit, dried meat and all manner of goodies that she was not allowed to have. The customs guy looked beside himslef in disbelief that this woman was carrying so much!! We left with two very clean pairs of boots sealed in a polythene bag!! We caught the bus into town which stopped directly outside our hostel we had booked so that was pretty easy. It was dark and a little cold in Auckland and as we were picking our van up first thing the following day so we grabbed some takeaway and settled down watching TV on a proper bed which felt like heaven!!!!! We had an ensuite shower and toilet and it was the most luxury we had had in weeks. The one thing this trip is certainly making me appreciate is how lucky we are to live like we do at home. Travelling is amazing fun and it opens your mind to alot of different cultures but the budgeting can be harsh at times and our campervan living had been a test for me!! Food scoffed we watched a movie and went to sleep.

Waking to a rainy day we showered and checked out heading for the escape campervan depot round the corner. The guy was really welcoming and gave us the choice of 3 vans. One had a high roof which meant we would almost be able to stand it was also longer in length than the rest and we opted for this with no hesitation having learnt alot from our experience in Oz. In comparison to our hippie camper this van was the ritz. We had ample living/sleeping space, loads of storage room, even enough for the backpacks. The back opened up into a shelved storage/preperation area and the sink was easily accessible. Nothing was loose and everything was clean and tidy. They provided us with quilts and pillows, gas bottle with stove top for cooking, camp chairs and table which were in good shape and we paid extra to have a BBQ. Excellent stuff. As the van had not been through it's final checks we had to wait for about an hour so we decided to go to the British Airways office as we needed to reconfirm our second leg of flights. As we had booked our ticket so far in advance the last 6 flights were all bunched together over a period of a week and they need to have correct dates attributed to them. After getting lost in the pouring rain we arrived at the office rather wet! We were told that they would change the flights but it would cost us 20NZ dollars (almost 20 quid) in a local admin charge. We are not supposed to be charged for this service but we had no choice as the airport staff in both Sydney and Auckland the day before had no facilities to do it. It was when going through the lists of dates that we wanted that is became evident our request for Brzail into Miami was a problem after much searching we had a choice of only a few days stay in Brazil or a month. All of the flights with American airlines (our subsidary booking from BA) had been taken. Then you find out that with a RTW ticket there are only so many seats on each flight put to one side so if they have gone you cannot fly. Nobody warned us of that one!!!!! It was either pay about 200 quid to change our destination from Miami or stay in brazil a month. We opted to be in Brazil a month so we have a bit of research to do on the over the next couple of months as to what we will do with our time!! Anyway it was damn hard work getting the booking sorted.

NZ is a bit of a strange stay for us as we are returning in 5 weeks time after we visit Fiji and Samoa. Because of this we had already decided that the North of the north island we would leave until then and we would head south as soon as we got the van. This would work out well as we had a delay on our flight out of auckland too due to seating problems. This meant that we now had a week in NZ instead of our planned few days. No matter, we picked up the van extended our second booking and took to the wet NZ roads.

As soon as you get out of the city you can see the comparison with home. Rolling hills full of cows and sheep. Grey skies, cold winds and rain - how home sick am I?? Actually I did get a real pang of missing home and as the sun came out I sat there thinking blimey that looks like the Derbyshire Dales or that looks like the road on the way to North Wales. I then got a bit work sick and starting missing driving to see customers and even writing this a few days in now I still feel slightly home sick.

Anyway we were heading for Hamilton which we reached by early afternoon, after stopping off to stock up on groceries we needed to find a campsite. Following signs from the highway we found a rather quiet but large site in Cambridge conveniently placed for us to continue on our way the next morning. So we stayed there that evening enjoying a sumptuous meal of steak, mash and veggies.

Waking the following morning we realised that we had quite by mistake missed one of the places we had planned to see along the west coast highway instead of the central which we were currently on. It was not ideal to detour back but we really did want to visit the Waitomo caves. We bit the bullet and excepted a few extra miles than we had budgeted for and headed back along the way. Finding the highway we needed we headed off for the caves.

The Waitomo caves are home to a species of glow worm only found in NZ and small parts of Oz. The caves are centuries old and were only explored when a Pukhara (westerner) convinced a local mauri tribesman to enter the caves with him. Prior to that the caves had never been entered as the local mauri tribes we apprehensive of what was inside. They fished by the entry for generations but had never been inside the caves interiors. There are more than just one cave here the place has many to offer with underground networks that can take up to 3 hours to walk. We opted only for the glowworm cave which was a 45 minute guided tour. Starting at the original entrance you are given a quick briefing asking us no to touch the stone walls and to be as quiet as possible during the tour. We entered the cave and immediately the whiteness of the limestone walls was immense Walking through a network of passageways we came to set of stairs that took us down to a set of large stalagtites and stalagmites. One had even joined together to form a single shaft. They grow at approx 1cm every 10 years these formations have been here for centuries. Moving on from here we went further into the cave to the cathedral area. This large high ceilng opening has been performed in by Rod Stewart and Justin Timerlake amongst many other professional and local groups and choirs. It is a famous place to sing because it has no echo. I obviously swiflty moved Tim along before he got tempted to try!!!! From here they take you down tot he boat and guide you through dark waterways where the glow worms look amazing. They have the ability to turn their lights on and off and if you shine a light on them they will turn theirs off so not to be seen. What you can see though is loads and loads of long thin strings that they drop from their cacoons to catch insects. These look really gross, the worms are definately much prettier in the dark. Having sailed through our cave of little stars we came to the exit and disembarked the boat. As we were not allowed to take photos inside we took a few of the cave exit. From here we headed back to the van and onto our next destination of Roturua.

We arrived at Roturua late afternoon and found a really nice little campsite a short walk to Lake Roturua. we had come here to experience the famous thermal areas the country has alot of. We took a walk down to the lake and then had some dinner. The place was overrun with friendly ducks which were even more friendly when the cheese and crackers came out!!!! We had a chat with the camp manager and he advised us on the best place to go for the thermal experience which was around 30 minutes away from the camp. We decided to head there the following morning.

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Photos

Beautiful countryside
How like Derbyshire does this look!!!

Comments

[mariah]

you guys get the craziest vans!