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Published: December 6th 2009
Full facial Tattoo
What do you think mum??Ard-out-ay?!! Means 'full on' or 'extreme' in New Zealand, thought we would give you this phase as they obviously don't have a different word for hello and you know how we like to teach you something new.
In this blog we are going to tell you about our time on the North Island. We didn't spend as much time on the North Island as the South, about two weeks in total but hit the must see's along the way.
We arrived in Wellington in the early hours of the morning after our ferry ride across from the South and as you already know we had a forth member of the Lightning Love Wagon Crew (Andy the Hitch hiker), who made himself very comfortable in the front of the van in a zigzag formation around the hand brake. In the morning we explored Wellington city, and had to pay for parking for the first time to date. The city itself was like any other, but it did have a cool street (Cuba Street), packed with quirky cafes and shops, which kept us entertained for a while.
Next stop was Tongariro National Park which is usually a Ski area,
however the slopes were closed as it was no longer the season. Whilst in the region we did a few walks (Tramps - as the NZ people call it!), however the main Tramp (Tongariro Alpine Crossing) was closed due to expected heavy snow fall and high winds. This meant we didn't stick around long before moving onto Taupo.
Taupo is famous for its lake (which is enormous) and its home to extreme sports of most kinds. The best attraction for us was the McDonalds, which sounds abit bizarre after all they are everywhere, but this one was special.....the seating area was in a plane! Another plus to Taupo was a free shower in one of the main backpackers in town, we took advise from other travellers, walk straight in and go to the 2nd or 3rd floor and help yourself....so we did!
We headed to Rotorua, stopping along the way at Hooker falls. The falls were very cool to see as they were not like waterfalls at all, they were more like rapids, they were very fast and furious!
They say that you can smell Rotorua before you can see it......and we have to confirm that this is
Hooker Falls
wouldn't want to fall in there! true. The entire place smells of rotten eggs, due to the fact that it is home to many sulphur mud pools (both natural and man made). There is steaming pools of mud all over the place! To be fair, you get used to the smell eventually. We stayed for the night and the following morning we went Zorbing. For those of you that don't know what this is, it involves climbing into a giant clear (ish) inflatable ball which contains water and 'hamster ball style' rolling yourself down a hill. It was a very fun experience, but it was over way too quickly!
Next stop in the Love Wagon on our magical mystery tour was Raglan. Very cute small town by the sea on the west coast which reminded us of Newquay, as it too is a surf town full of Hippies and Art! shame they didn't have the same relaxed views on camping....once again we were moved on before we had even made our dinner, let along shut the curtains, and once again in the morning in a different spot. Although unlike the other council man/alarm clocks he was very pleasant and even apoligised for waking us! The
Wood carving
Typical style plan was to surf in the morning however it was pretty flat and I had developed a stinking cold (courtesy of Andy, who was still sleeping in the front seats). With this we made our way to Auckland, where we arrived in the evening and camped on an upmarket residential street, which went down very well with the locals when we cooked up a feast infront of there houses (Mum you would have been proud!). The next morning we were up and away early to get to a local market, unfortunately it was rather disappointing and resembled a car boot rather than a market! all was not lost though as we overheard at the market that there was a Tattoo convention in the City so we headed straight there instead. It was a really interesting convention as we got to see all the different customs that Mauri's have in respect of tattooing (Don't worry mum i didn't get another, although the full facial tattoo's are quite tempting......JOKING!).
We then drove to the East coast to check out the hot water beach which has thermal springs running under neath the sand at low tide. You get to them by digging
Zorbing
Now we know first hand what hamsters feel like! a hole creating a hot water bath. Only problem was it was too hot! it was rammed full of people (the most people we had seen in one place at one time in New Zealand) but as per usual the locals had cashed in on the tourists and were hiring out spades....with that in mind we used our saucepan and frying pan from the van- good old Love Wagon! we had half the sand from the beach in our pants when we finally called it a day when we decided it was time for another shower. We casually walked into a camp site and all seemed well, until we were busted by the receptionist, but by that point we were already in the shower so she demanded we went to see her in her office after we had finished. We finished off in the shower, and....RAN! we felt like naughty teenagers once again! what you do to be clean!!!
We headed back to Auckland to drop Andy off at the Airport so he could catch his flight to Papa New Guinea, It was good to spend time with him again. That night was spent parked up in the heart
Hot water beach before low tide
What a difference - looks better without all the holes! of the City as Kate had an early pick up in the morning...so it was back to the two of us.
We had a challenge on our hands to get the van back to the depot in a different district, we had emptied the van of petrol so she was running on fumes only....every turning had to be the right one! We gave the Love Wagon a good clean on the way and actually made it there! My friend, Mirjam picked us up from the depot and we stayed at her house again for the next few days, waiting for our flight to the Cook Islands.
Mirjam and Dion were kind enough to let us borrow one of there vans to explore the far North, and explore we did...sleeping in the truck at night.
Finally a few things about New Zealand and our time there:
Firstly, yes it is full of sheep....they are everywhere, they wont run out of Lamb that's for sure!
Secondly, it's also extremely green, everywhere you look you are surrounded by beautiful scenery and rolling hills.....and whilst on the subject of hills! boy did the Love Wagon struggle going up them! sometimes it
Bay of Islands
North of Auckland - nobody around! felt like we might be going backwards rather than forwards, but we did manage to hit the speed limit (just) on the way down the hills at least!
When it came to freedom camping and picking the perfect spot for the night we soon realised that it was a tricky process. The ground had to be flat to avoid someone getting crushed, unfortunately this proved quite a challenge as most curb side parking is sloped to help drain water off the roads, so sometimes we would move our van from spot to spot, checking out the creme de la crop of curb side.
Another irritating factor was the lack of radio stations in NZ, no sooner had you found one you had lost it again, but strangely enough classical was always an option.
We also became very good at what we call 'wind cooking'. We had a one ring gas bottle/stove which was very....no extremely temperamental in the slightest winds. It meant the difference between 10 mins or 45 mins for a cup of tea. A technique called the huddle soon evolved!
As you know showers were a slight issue for us, so we decided to work out exactly how many showers we had whilst in the van, and how many of those we actually paid for. When we say paid for, we mean searching around the hostels to find one which allows you to buy a 'casual shower' as they call them.
So the total is 9 showers which includes the lake experience. 3 of which were paid for and 5 of which we stole....oh such shower thieves!!!!
Finally the rain.......we had lots of it....we have since found out it was the worst Oct/Nov in 60 years! but still this didn't 'Dampen' our opinions of New Zealand, we loved it there and would recommend it to anyone.
New Zealand has the most spectacular scenery to date.
So slight change of plan, Fiji is out and the Cook Islands are in!!
Love to all as always (next blog coming very soon, within days!!) xxx
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Heidi
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Zorbing
Haha the zorbing looks awesome guys, can you bring one home and we can do a pub crawl in one haha..... will beat shopping trollies anyday, or even borrowing bikes from pubs hey Ruth ;-)