Auckland-End of Trip

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Our last entry and farewell, but first off, highlights of our last couple of days. We started Wednesday morning in Tongariro National park and decided to put in a nice walk. We trekked off to the shoulder of Mt Ngauruhoe, by passing the lower and upper Tama Lakes. It was billed as a 6-7 hour round trip, but we really pushed it and did it in a little under five. It was a beautiful walk, with great views of all three volcanoes at different times depending on the clouds. The wind was quite heavy, but we still presses on, and after being totally impressed by the lower lake, we pushed up the final 500 meters to catch the view of the upper lake. By the time we reached that summit, the wind was fierce and it was getting quite cold, so we took a few pictures, had a snack, and then headed back. On the way back we took a different loop that took us by the picturesque Taranaki Falls…we seem to never get sick of seeing water falls and the beautiful blue glacial water.

After that we headed further north for our last night of camping, staying at a small but lovely holiday park in Otorohanga so that we could visit the Waitomo glowworm caves in the morning and still have a manageable drive to Auckland. The holiday park is also located next to a huge estuary, so we were serenaded by birds all night. We went and did the short, 45 minute tour through the caves in the morning, and got a nice lesson in local geology as well as getting to see the fascinating glow worms. I almost felt as though we had come full circle in our campervan journey, starting with our first night by Lake Takepo where the stars were so bright I felt like I could reach out and touch them, to the cave roof, which almost looked the same, as each glowworm is a blue point of light not unlike a star, that I could almost reach out and touch.

We visited the Kiwi Park, the estuary, before heading all the way north, which was well worth it. There were several Kiwis there, along with dozens of other native birds in a very nice park setting.

Our last night in Auckland wasn’t quite what we hoped for, but this morning we did visit the art gallery in the CBD, then drove up the coast a bit to Kelly Tarlton’s, a combo aquarium and history exhibit on the early explorers of the Antartic, which we both found fascinating.

To end our stay, we had the perfect Kiwi encounter; we dropped our van off in town, and there just happened to be a Super-Shuttle driver there (Dave) who said he could take us to the airport after dropping some other folks off. Since we let him know we had lots of time before we had to go and he was near the end of his day, he did the slow, round about way to the airport while we all exchanged cultural tidbits. He had been to the US a few times, and was thinking about more, so we shared some of our knowledge; he also shared a lot of Maori history, he being Maori and proud of it, and he ended up taking us up to One Tree Hill, a famous landmark on top of an old volcano that looks out over all of Auckland, the Northlands, South and beyond. It was the perfect end to our trip, not only experiencing something historic of the land, but sharing with another one of the kind, friendly Kiwis. We can’t wait to come back!

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