Week 28 Coromandel to Bay of Islands, New Zealand

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This week was all about the Northlands, the very northern tip of New Zealand at Cape Reinga where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet and the magical Bay of Islands - giant kauri forests, stunning beaches and glistening seas. The week started with two lousy hostels and ended with two great ones and I met some interesting and fun people along the way.

At the start of the week I was still travelling the Coromandel Peninsular but the weather turned and it started to rain heavily just as I was waiting for the bus from Whitianga to Coromandel Town. The Coromandel hostel was strange and not a great experience, being part campsite and part motel - I was in a tiny wooden cabin room with bunk beds and a window that leaked rain all over the floor. I don’t like bunk beds, but worse was that you had to go to an outside block of toilets and showers that were not very pleasant, particularly at night - again the head torch came to the rescue. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to see Coromandel Town as we arrived at 5.30pm and left again at 7am, but I did have a nice dinner at a bistro overlooking the sea, indulging in a tasty rack of NZ lamb.

Thankfully the rain had stopped in the morning, which was handy as we had to stand at the side of the road and wait for the Intercity bus for 30 minutes, dur to the hostel manager giving us duff information about the timetable. The trip back to Thames along the wild Western side was very pretty and the road was so twisty that I started to feel car sick, but the views of the dramatic and rugged coastline kept my attention, particularly with the changing light of the early morning. We had two hours to kill at a cafe in Thames until the Magic bus arrived for the last leg to Auckland which was an uneventful trip. Although it was only for one night, the hostel in Auckland this time was awful as my room was smaller than a cell, had no window or mirror and was hot and stuffy.

Thankfully we left at 7am for the tour up to the Northlands but we were on a small bus with an engine that would have had trouble powering a sit-upon lawnmower and was overtaken on hills by everything, including the Saga bus. The roads were quite winding so the trip to Paihia took all morning, travelling through very varied landscapes from forest covered mountains to rolling grass hills covered in dairy herds. We stopped briefly at Whangarei and then motored on to our destination of Paihia, where we viewed the Waitangi Treaty Grounds from a lookout point - this is considered to be the birthplace of the nation as its where the treaty between the Maori and Europeans was signed. Paihia is a beautiful seaside town right on the Bay of Islands and to take advantage of the glorious hot sunshine, we rapidly checked into the hostels and rushed straight down to the sandy beach 100 metres away for a paddle.

I had chosen to stay in this area for 6 nights as it was almost my last stop in NZ and there was a lot to see and do here, so split my stay between two different hostels. The first was a 5-star hostel and I got my own double bed, shower room and my own fridge - worryingly I found this to be very exciting. The second was more homely but also very nice. Paihia town centre (one street and a quay) was only 5 minutes walk away along the beachfront road and there were several bars and restaurants even closer - in fact a couple of bars were right next door which made it a bit noisy at times.

On my first full day I went on the Cream Trip which was a similar concept to the Mailboat Tour I did in Picton, with deliveries being made to the more remote areas of the famous Bay of Islands. Unfortunately the morning was very dark and overcast and threatened to rain, but I sat on the open top deck anyway where it was breezy but not too cold. We made the short trip over the bay to Russell where we picked up more passengers and then set off for the first of 14 stops.

Our trip included a “dolphin encounter” and we were able to divert and chase after dolphins when we sighted them or when another boat close by tipped us off to a pod within reach. Some people had paid extra to be able to swim with the dolphins, so got ready in their swimwear snorkels and flippers. Our boat had an ingenious net that could be extended along one side of the vessel and the swimmers jumped into the net and clung on while the boat manoeuvred nearer the dolphins. Then the Captain shouted “go, go go” when he felt they were close enough for the dolphins to be interested in playing and the swimmers poured off the net and into the open water, making loud squeaks, clicks and other daft noises to encourage the pod to interact. We had amazing views from the boat and we went to three sites to watch different pods of dolphins. The swimmers had a great time too, although I am not sure how much dignity they retained when being dragged along in the net, as the flow of water pulled down their swimwear flashing a lot of boobs and builders-bums to us up on the top deck. We also saw more of the dolphins than they did.

We passed a long sand spit that sits far out in the bay, where the locals play cricket at low tide as the water around the spit is shallow for quite a long way into the “outfield”. We also saw the Black Rocks which are enormous pieces of black basalt that used to be the plug inside a volcano and that have been thrown out with great force when the volcano erupted. They are now topped with a white cap from bird poo as they are used by the seabirds as nesting grounds.

After a few delivery stops in lovely bays and picture-postcard islands, we powered out to the Hole in the Rock formation where we paused for a few pictures and then sailed through the giant hole, with not too much leeway on either side, making it feel way more dangerous than it probably was. The acoustics were great as we passed through the Hole and under the Rock and many people called out or sang a note or two to hear the loud echoes. There was a game-fishing competition going on here and there were dozens of small fishing boats competing for huge tuna and other massive fish. Some of them held up examples of their catch as we went by, but were a bit too far away to get decent photos but we stayed long enough to watch several fish being caught, one by a young boy who was thrilled and embarrassed at the same time, as he was being watched by a boat load of tourists all clapping and yelling congratulations, poor thing.

The weather cleared up and the sun came out just before we stopped for lunch at Otehei Bay where we had an hour to explore the cove and swim. I had taken a picnic lunch with me, so sat on the beach and battled the seagulls for my sandwich, then lay on my towel dozing in the glorious hot sunshine and thought about how great life was. I woke myself up with a brief dip in the chilly water and had time for a quick walk around the bay to where the beach was made up of millions of shells that crunched loudly when you walked on them.

It was quite a long day and we didn’t get back to Paihia until the early evening. I had dinner at a little beachside cafe in town and then joined some fellow hostellers for a few drinks in a bar, where I left them to it at midnight as I didn’t have their capacity for booze or lack of sleep.

The next morning I joined up with two of the least hungover and we caught the ferry to Russell, which is one of the oldest towns in NZ. Its actually on a peninsular and you can get to Russell by car, but its a 1.5 hour drive from Paihia versus a 10 minute ferry crossing. The town was full of pretty clapboard houses painted in pastel colours (reminded me of New England in USA), had the oldest church in the country and the sweetest little Police Station, that had started life as the customs house. We wandered around the small town that had mainly touristy shops, had a pleasant lunch by the beach, refused to pay to enter the tiny museum or the “oldest house” and then caught the ferry back to Paihia. We cooked in the hostel and had a quiet evening watching old videos (yep, videos, no DVD’s here) like Gladiator and Lock Stock.

The next day I took a tour with Awesome-NZ up to Cape Reinga the most northerly tip of the country with the crazy but knowledgeable Spike as our driver - he is part-time bus guide and part-time teacher of 12 year olds and had an amazing amount of facts about the Maori culture and language, the landscape and the birds and animals of the area. It was an action packed and long day, starting at 7am and returning at 7pm but was excellent fun with loads of stops and activities. The great thing was that we were on a huge bus but there were only 13 of us on the tour, so we had extra time at each activity as we didn’t have to wait for 50 people to assemble.

Our first stop was at the Puketi Kauri Forest where they had built the million dollar Manginagina Walk, a boarded walkway through the beautiful forest to a bunch of giant kauri trees, in honour of a visit from Queen Elizabeth. However her security men considered the dark forest to be insecure and she only ever stepped a few metres in. It wasn’t a waste though as we got to do a great 15 minute woodland walk fit for a queen and got to hug some more kauri trees. I love the forests here, they are peaceful, atmospheric, spectacular and have almost no nasty things to bite or sting you lurking in the undergrowth. It also gave the sniggering young men on the trip the opportunity to stand in front of the sign while they took photos of what now read “Man-gina” while they held their crotches and pulled faces.

After a brief cafe stop where we all bought picnic lunches for later on, we headed for the giant sand dunes at Te Paki. In order to reach them we had to drive for 10 minutes down a stream - remember we were in a huge bus - which was great fun as you have to drive fast in order not to sink in the soft sandy waters and the spray flew up and lashed our windows. The dunes were absolutely enormous and the wind had picked up, making interesting patterns as the sand flurries ripped along the face of them. Spike was an avid sandboarder and had picked a great dune for us with the stream at the bottom, which he challenged everyone to cross on their runs from the top of the dune. He gave us a brief lesson on how to board and we started to climb the huge shifting hill.

It was really tough climbing such a steep gradient in soft sand and your legs went to jelly after no more than a quarter of the journey (well mine did) and you can see why athletes use sand running as a great muscle builder. I decided to wimp out and only do a tiny run and then stayed at the bottom, got my camera and took shots of some of the others who had climbed to the top. This was not very smart as then everyone wanted me to take shots of them, so I acted as camerawoman for the group and took loads of videos and stills of the boarders climbing and flying down. Only a couple of them made it all the way down and across the stream as most wimped out and used their feet as brakes when they were whizzing down at about 60 kilometres an hour. There was only one wipe out by a Danish guy, but no injuries and some of the strong and young climbed repeatedly to do 3-4 runs.

After we got cleaned up from the sand that managed to get everywhere and into pretty much every orifice, Spike told us about the spectacular accidents that had happened recently resulting in various broken bones, loss of teeth, concussions and even one broken neck. He included the stories of his own three accidents which broke his ribs on the first, smashed three front teeth on the second and then chipped is new false teeth on the third.

We stopped for lunch at Tapotupotu Bay where some of the young Danish guys tried sea surfing using the short and lightweight sand boards, with mixed results. The weather was getting cloudier and the wind had shifted and was starting to get quite strong, so we hunkered down and tried to keep the gulls and sand out of our food while we watched the changing light on the sea and the Danish guys getting wiped out in the surf.

On to Cape Reinga where the two seas meet at the most northern tip of New Zealand for a brief windy stop to view the scenery. There was a walk to the lighthouse on one of the promontories and spectacular views of Maria Van Dieman Cape further round on the West coast. You could leave your mark for posterity in a native tree planting scheme, where you chose a sapling tree or bush from a selection of indigenous (and endemic) trees to plant and were given a GPS reading of its position so that your grandchildren could come in 20 years time to see where your fully grown tree was. I trudged up to the planting area and watched as an American couple from our bus planted theirs in very strong gusty winds.

Our bus was specially designed to be able to drive on sand and we made our way back south on the infamous 90 Mile Beach, a very wide, level stretch of unspoiled sand with raging green seas on one side and small scrub covered dunes on the other. There were lots of birds, plenty of fishermen and mile after mile of great flat, wet, shimmering sand. Again, you had to drive fast to avoid the soft patches and you can only go on the beach with a special vehicle or 4-wheel drive for the two hours either side of low tide. The beach was named in the late 1800’s when they reckoned it took a laden donkey 3 days to walk the whole length and they knew that a donkey’s daily rate was 30 miles - hence the 90 Mile name. When it was properly measured it turned out to only be 64 miles long but the 90 Mile name stuck, and stuck again after the country converted to kilometres. We drove along it for almost an hour, with one brief stop for a group paddle and some digging for clam-type shellfish that lay just under the sand on the waterline.

We made a brief stop at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom where they dig up kauri trees that have been preserved in swamp-like muds for thousands of years, but are still solid and workable wood. Kauri trees are protected nowadays and these swamp-dug trees are the main source for chunks big enough to make the very beautiful but crazily priced furniture that was on display. The early Maori considered the trees sacred and believed that they were the son of the sky and the earth gods, linking his parents with his arms in the earth (roots) and legs in the sky (branches). They would only fell the trees to make their Waka war canoes and they would choose the trees many years before they cut them and would clear the forest to the West of the tree to allow the prevailing wind and weather to harden one side of the trunk. When it was cut down the Maori would spin the huge log in the sea to see which side was the heaviest and made that the bottom of the canoe.

The trees are rare as 98 percent of them were felled during the 19th and early 20th century, as the long straight trunks were ideal for ship masts and spas and also for construction, with many old wooden buildings all over the world being made from kauri. In the early 1900’s there was a brief period where an industry was formed to tap the sap from the trees where it was turned into various products including varnish. The solidified sap looks like amber and often holds tiny insects that were caught and preserved forever in the gloopy liquid. The trade was stopped as the trees died from rot when water got into the gashes after the trees natural protection of the sap was harvested. I will be visiting the largest remaining tree called Tane Mahuta on the trip back to Auckland next week.

Our last stop was to collect pre-ordered fish and chips in a little fishing village where the fish had been caught that morning. It was delicious and very cheap. It was a great day, well worth the money, interesting and good fun. Even after a long hot shower, I was still finding grains of sand in unmentionable places.

My last full day in Northland was cloudy and dull so in the morning I wrote this blog and sorted my thousands of photos. I went to lunch at the bar next door with a bunch of very loud and funny Spanish guys from the hostel and then sat and loaded this edition.

Next stop is my final visit to Auckland and the dead zone of Good Friday when everything closes with no chocolate Easter eggs unless I buy them for myself, which I will do next Tuesday when they go on sale as I will be in Melbourne, Australia.

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Comments

[Crew at Magic]

Coming to an end??
Hi there! What great photo's!! and interesting reading.. So you're coming to the end of your travels... then you're off to Melborne! are you packbacking around or visiting friends? We would love to keep in contact with you on your travels... also would be great to see some more photos which you can tag us in on Facebook; www.magicbus.co.nz we're running a competition to win back the cost of your pass so if you're photos win we'll let you know... All the best and have a great Easter, Team at Magic