New Zealand 1: "He's the Lion Man..."

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Auckland


The City of Sails and New Zealand's biggest city offered the welcome relief from the humidity of Cairns and a place to organise and plan our trip around New Zealand but not a huge amount else. Often called a "bit of a boring city with not much to do" even by a travel agent in STA travel (she was enthusiastic and obviously enjoyed her job), we spent a lazy few days trying to secure a campervan.

After researching all the main companies like Jucy and Escape, all of which were overpriced and unavailable, we were forced to put all our hope in a leaflet for a company offering campervans at half the price of everyone else and that no one had ever heard of. After traipsing to the other end of town only to find that this supposed company had switched premises made the decision to place a $300 deposit on a campervan we were yet to see, a pretty risky one. Luckily for us the van proved to be basic but everything we needed, and having done no research into directing ourselves onto the right road, we set off. Tom's internal GPS must have been slightly off because we managed to do a circuit and return to where we had started. .1 hour well spent.

The stay in Auckland wasn't completely "boring" and uneventful however. After doubting that someone had stolen Rach's dirty running kit in a hostel in Australia, Tom came to realise that there were in fact many weird people staying in backpacker hostels. Whilst having a shower, someone reached under his shower door, grabbed his sweaty boxers that he had just worn to the gym and made a run for it....seriously who does that!?

Bay of islands


When we finally got out of Auckland we started our first scenic drive up north to Paihia and the Bay of Islands. Tom had his usual good luck driving for the first time in a new country and managed to chip the windscreen twice.

On the way, we had a whizz stop tour of Whangarei, to see what all the fuss was about at New Zealand's most photographed waterfall..turns out there is a reason why it is.


Whangarei is also famous for another reason. ..it is home to the world famous 'Lion Man' Craig Busch and Zion Wildlife Kingdom. After being reassured we would meet Craig after our tour of the big cats enclosures we were confused to find out later he wasn't even in the country. Despite several problems in the past few years, and the park lacking some atmosphere, we enjoyed our close encounters with the big cats, especially the prowling white tiger, roaring white lions and the sleek black leopard, something neither of us had ever seen before.





Paihia

"Its kind of like solva, but bigger, with more backpackers...and in New Zealand"

We arrived in Paihia as the sun was setting over the bay and discovered the hard way that a campervan in New Zealand might not have been as cost effective as we first thought..... $25 each to park in a campsite!!! We chose the cheaper option of parking at a hostel and paying to use their facilities.

The next day we started the first of many scenic treks to the Haruro waterfall. When we got back, we took to the waters in the hostel's "free" kayak for a closer look at some of the islands.


Later on after one of the most spectacular runs overlooking the entire Bay of Islands, Rach wanted to re-enact the scene and brought Tom along to take some pictures of her pretending to run it again.



Whitianga


After a LONG days driving along the winding coastal road around the Corromandel peninsula, which consisted of a road barely wide enough for the van to fit along, with the ocean and crumbling rock on one side and the mountain on the other, we arrived in "Fitianga".

The next day we decided to do the trek to Shakespeare Point and Cooks Beach. To start the trek we had to first pay $5 for 90 second "ferry" ride to the headland across the harbour. ..money well spent!? Maybe we should have just swum! Once on the other side we chose to walk the more challenging Maramaratotara trail through the bush rather than along the road. We had both opted for our jandals (flip-flops) rather than endure the stench that both of our trainers had acquired in a downpour back in Cairns. We were rewarded with our choice of route as the New Zealand scenery never fails to disappoint.




Rach has a knack of making up places that she thinks we are going to, informing Old Aid that we heading for the Cook islands the next day. In reality she was trying to describe Cooks beach, but we weren't going there either. We were actually heading for the hot water beach to build our own jacuzzi. Armed with a spade, we picked our spot and got digging.

Next stop was Cathedral Cove, a local landmark rock formation and beach. Our incentive for completing the walk back to Hahei beach was the "famous" ice cream as advertised in our leaflet, which appeared to have closed down.



On to Mount Maunganui...

Mount Maunganui


We arrived to a lively, bustling little town just outside Tauranga, which had attracted lots of competitors and supporters to the New Zealand Surf Life Saving Championship. There was plenty going on and we enjoyed spectating on the events that we actually understood, and found it especially entertaining that it was a requirement to wear a bright pink vest that was too small and an old fashioned swimming cap. There were some impressive performances in the 20m beach dash and 2k beach run by some very athletic looking competitors.

We felt that we couldn't really do the town justice without walking up its name-sake mountain, Mount Maunganui which afforded some spectacular views of the surrounding coastline. Rach's heart was in her mouth as Tom stopped for a photograph on an overhanging ledge.


We risked our first night proper camping in campervan. It was a tense night and Rach hardly slept as she was waiting for a knock on the window informing us we would be fined $300 for sleeping on the side of the road.

Our first week in New Zealand was an eventful one!

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