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Published: April 11th 2011
28th February – 14th March 2011
We arrived in Wellington by ferry and found our hostel in the centre of the city. We had decided that we wouldn’t spend too long in the capital as we had plans for the rest of the North Island, so an overnight stop and a drive by of the main attractions it was! That evening, after a wander down by the harbour, a couple of drinks and a food court dinner we hit the sack. The alarm went off early the next morning so we could get a cheeky run in before checkout and we then headed north towards Napier.
Napier was flattened by an earthquake in the 1930’s and rebuilt in an Art-Deco style which remains to this day. It is most famously known for being the heart of the Hawke’s Bay wine region. After settling into our very nice hostel by the seafront we took a walk into town and treated ourselves to the local speciality – pizza hut! The following day was jam-packed with fun as we headed to a few wineries, oliveries, a cidery and a jaunt up to the peak of Te Mata, which looks like a giant
lying down on his back and has a Maori legend. We also stumbled upon a little place called the Strawberry Patch which Ellie had visited 10 years ago – it grows the fruit and produces some of the best frozen yoghurt and ice-cream ever.
The next day we took a stroll in the town taking in the beautiful Napier Cathedral before heading to Rotorua via Lake Taupo, which would be only a brief lunchtime stopover before we reached the home of the sulphur acid lakes. On the 4th March we decided to celebrate Ellie’s birthday a day early and headed to Hell’s Gate geothermal park just outside town. Starting with a walk around the acid lakes, bubbling away heated by the earth, we then got down and dirty in a mud bath which they tell you will reinvigorate the skin - it felt weirdly warm and silky smooth. Next stop was an ice cold shower followed by a sulphur spa bath in water naturally heated by the earth to around 40oC. The final surprise for the birthday treat was a fabulous body massage which was a real treat for our travel weary bodies. We left the geothermal park exceedingly
relaxed but with seriously smelly swimmies which ended up tainting a lot of our stuff with the smell of sulphur which is somewhat similar to the smell of rotten egg – delightful!! When we got back to the hostel we were greeted with a lovely surprise – an upgrade from our 8 bed dorm to a private room...with bathroom!!! Steve had asked the manager if we could check out late the next morning as it was Ellie’s birthday. He agreed but then also decided to go one better! It would make up for the absolute lack of luxury waiting for us on Ellie’s birthday night in Hamilton!
It was an early start on Ellie’s birthday as Steve sent her off into the pouring rain for a birthday jog – this was obviously not her first choice of how to spend her birthday and she did think that Steve was just being evil. It turned out however that it was all a very nice ploy from Steve who had gone to the local supermarket and picked up a beautiful birthday brekkie!! After tucking into rather a lot of food it was on the road to Hamilton. Now, Hamilton isn’t a
usual stop on the backpacker trail and most people we talked to questioned why we would want to go there – one reason only but a gooden – rugby!!
It rained non-stop for the time we were in Hamilton so we spent much of our day in bars keeping dry. We were so reluctant to head into the rain that we lost track of time and instead of having a romantic birthday meal we dined at a rather ‘lovely’ canteen type restaurant and only just made it in time for kick off. 2 minutes into the Waikato Chiefs vs Melbourne Rebels match we began to rue the decision to go with the cheap uncovered seats. It was not a classic game but the Chiefs were pretty convincing against the new team in their first season led by England reject Danny Cipriani. Soaked to the bone at the end, we headed off to the hostel, which was the worst we had seen for a while. At about 3am someone started kicking our dorm door in and when the door was opened he slurred “can someone show me how to climb the stairs?”
The next morning we wasted no time
Chiefs vs Rebels
The highlight of Hamilton, even for Ellie!!in getting out of Hamilton and headed north towards Auckland. We actually headed straight through Auckland as we would be flying out of there 8 days later and wanted to explore the Far North of the country first, in particular the Bay of Islands. It was a long stretch though, so we stopped off at Waipu for the night in what turned out to be a quiet little village with little to do. We occupied ourselves with a little walk to find Piroa Falls, where we were put off straight away by having to share it with a big rat, but more pleasantly we headed down to Waipu Cove on the east coast where we found a gorgeous and almost deserted beach.
Bay of Islands beckoned so we headed up to Paihia and booked straight onto an overnight cruise called ‘The Rock’ aimed at backpackers. When we saw the boat, we were slightly concerned as it didn’t look like a boat – it was the old car ferry that took people between Paihia and Russell which is on the other side of the bay. We were pleasantly surprised when we boarded however as it was decked out well on
the inside, especially the large bar and dining area which were well arranged for meeting and chatting with people. On board there were about 6 or 7 crew members for the 30 guests and they put on some good activities for us. First up, we had a game of paintball where there target was a rubber duck being dragged behind the boat - Ellie was named worst shot on the boat. Next up was sunset fishing off the back of the boat (to catch our dinner) where Steve reeled in a mackerel. Most of the fish that we caught had to be thrown back into the sea because they weren’t up to the required size, but this one went in the box. When we asked if we would be cooking it on the bbq, we were told that it would only be used as bait – gutted....... literally!
After a few hours of fishing, and no decent catches, we settled down to a dinner of steak and sausages with salads and bread before we were divided into groups for some night kayaking. Everyone was a little sceptical about how good kayaking around in the pitch black would be, but
how wrong we were!! Getting further away from the lights of the boat we were treated to a view of more stars than we had ever seen before, with the Southern Cross and a lying down Orion shining out. The biggest highlight however was the glow in the dark algae which lived in the water - when we waved our hands or paddles through the water, it glowed a florescent yellow and looked amazing. A few beers were enjoyed that night where we got to know our fellow passengers before hitting the sack at about 2am, mindful that we would be woken up at 8am the next day.
In the morning we had some breakfast and then were off snorkelling. This was sadly cut a little short when an army of jellyfish targeted us and many of the party were stung, although they were not too harmful. We moored up on one of the islands and had a few hours to relax before we had to board the boat again. We all trekked up to the top of the hill on the island and were given the most amazing views of the bay – it was one of the
Steves first ever catch
I'm sure that Mackerel looked bigger in real life.... most beautiful sites we had encountered in New Zealand. On the way back to Paihia we hooked a Kahawai which was soon filleted and served up as sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce – very fresh and tasty!
Back on dry land and we checked into our hostel where we met Ed and Ellie, a brother and sister from Kent. We arranged to have a drink or two with them that evening at the hostel and headed off to the supermarket for supplies. It turned out that they hadn’t decided on their next destination and so we offered them a lift the next day to Omapere which is over on the west coast, about an hour away. The next morning we all packed our stuff into Doris – who was literally packed to the rafters – and got on the road. The hostel that had been recommended to us was fully booked so we had to settle for the most random place ever.
When we turned off the main road onto a mountain track and eventually arrived, we were reminded of countless horror movies that this remote outpost had featured in in our minds. The place seemed deserted
until an old man with white hair and a beard (not entirely unlike a fat Rolf Harris) pulled up on his tractor and stared at us for about 10 seconds of nervousness, before greeting us in a droll monotone fashion that was anything but welcoming. Fortunately his wife was a little more welcoming and led us to our room for the night which seemed to be furnished with reject beds from the local hospital, the type where you are swallowed by the mattress when you climb in. It became apparent that we would be the only guests staying up on haunted hill, made a little more ominous by the fact that Mr and Mrs Rolf would be in the ‘farmhouse down the way’.
Our next stop was the information centre in Omepere to find out what there was to do and we found out they had nos. 1 – 6 of New Zealand’s largest Kauri trees - this obviously had to be seen. So we all packed into Doris and headed off to see some trees. We started with the largest (which was probably a mistake as the rest were then a bit disappointing) which is called Tane Mahuta
or Lord of the Forest. It is incredibly impressive and has a girth of 13.8 metres!! After working up a sweat trekking to the other large trees we decided a visit to the Waimamaku waterfall to take a dip in the water would be in order – however, we found the water to be freezing cold so only Steve was actually mad enough to jump in.
At about 9pm when it was pitch black outside we heard a dog barking in the distance which was followed by a visit from Mrs Rolf asking if anyone had arrived as the dog had heard something. As nobody had turned up she told us not to worry if we heard a gunshot, it would just be a possum! This did little to calm our nerves in the house of horrors so after a few drinks, we headed off to bed – there was little to do and no electricity in the house. In the middle of the night, Ellie (the Kent variety) got up to use the bathroom and when she returned was trying not to disturb anyone so didn’t use the light. Next thing we hear, Ed is screaming “Rolf.... No....
Please Rolf” as she had misjudged the distance from the door to her bed and accidently tried climbing into his bed. By the time morning came, we were happy to pack up and leave sharpish.
It would be our last day with Ed and Ellie and we decided to spend it sandboarding down the North Head dunes in Hokianga Harbour. After hopping on the water taxi across the harbour we were faced with the largest mass of sand we have ever seen, and when we got up close we were struck by the enormity of the task of scaling its heights – but it was well worth the struggle as we got some serious speed on the way down before ending up in the water, which was quite refreshing. After a hard morning sandboarding, we all headed to the fish and chip shop for a goodbye meal before we got on the road to Auckland (Aucks).
4 hours of driving later and we rocked up at our hostel in Mount Eden Village where we would stay for one night before dropping Doris off the next day. Our last huzzah with Doris would be a trip up Mount Eden
to watch the sun set over the city, a fitting goodbye for the loyal Demio. And so the next day we were alone again, not before having to part with $350 for a crack in the windscreen (not so loyal after all eh?) and having to use our rucksacks as opposed to a car boot! We checked into a new hostel in the centre where we would spend our final 3 nights in NZ.
While looking for cheap things to do in Aucks, we realised the Auckland Fringe Festival was on and jumped at the chance to see a couple of shows. The first night we went to a CD launch party for a musical comedy duo, Dash Ambrose. They were really funny and Ellie managed to win their new CD in an audience participation game where she had to guess whether reviews made by critics were referring to Dash Ambrose or Black Eyed Peas – harder than you would think. After the show, Ellie managed to get the CD signed by ‘the band’ and they kindly posed for a photo – just in case they get famous one day!
The next morning we happened upon a St
Patricks Day parade through the city – but it was only the 12th March! They called it St. Practice Day and you would have thought we were actually in Ireland by the size of the procession.
After all the Irishness, and in an attempt to spend little money we headed to the city library (how sad are we?) to do some research into the Cook Islands so we had some ideas of what to do there. Before we knew it we had been there for a couple of hours and it was time to get on with our life...... so we headed to the local park for a read! That evening our second dabble in the fringe festival was a comedy drama production by students at the University of Aucks. The basic storyline was set but it was pretty much ad-libbed as they asked audience members to choose scenarios that would occur throughout the play. This had hilarious consequences and made for a very funny night.
Our last full day in Aucks was pretty chilled and we went to the harbour for a wander and then to another park for some village cricket watching and yet more reading.
Dash Ambrose
Look out for these guys!! What was supposed to be a quite early night descended into mayhem when we decided to for a beer with Ray, an English guy in our dorm. 6 beers and half a bottle of Jim Beam later, we decided to hit the clubs seemingly oblivious to the fact we had to be up at 7am for our flight. After partying hard Ellie headed back to the hostel at 4am but Steve had a brainwave and decided to walk across the city to a bar showing the England v Scotland rugby match! With a hour sleep for Steve and 2 for Ellie, it was off to the airport with bleary eyes where the doctor ordered a Burger King breakfast and then we were bound for the Cook Islands............
More next time
S&E xx
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Debbie Spooner
non-member comment
Genius!!!
Loving it!!! keep em coming!!! hope Cook Islands were amazing! not long till NYC!!! XXX