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Published: January 3rd 2007
The Van,
John calls it 'seadog', I call it the 'dog' ....I spent a lovely day on my Birthday with new Friends, Sinaed, Lucien and 2year old Archie. John met Lucien while working in Hayle last summer. I had contacted them to help me find a reliable local mechanic for some urgent work on the van I bought at the Backpacker car market (what a racket that turned out to be, another story for another day). They made me feel really welcome at their home in Birkenhead, near Auckland.
On Monday 18th Lucien picked me up from my Hostel, and took me to the Garage to collect the van. I set off towards the airport to a comfort Inn, as in the morning I am up at 4.30am to meet John from the airport, shuttle organised for the 10 min trip, there and back. I won't go into detail of the next day or so, but the six months apart soon dropped away.
On the 20th we set off on our adventure, to start with we are booked into the Pacific Coast motor lodge for Christmas week, this is in Whakatane, Bay of Plenty and seems like a good base to explore either side on the coast.
The route was easy enough, road no. SH20 takes us to SH 1, then onto SH 2 stopping at Paeroa where the famous NZ drink Lemon & Paeroa (L&P) was established. (very nice it is too, refreshing). We also stopped at Te Puke, Kiwi Country Capital, looked around the visitor info and shop climbed the enormous Kiwi. Still we made excellent time and arrived in Whakatane (pronounced Fa-ka-tan-e) with time to check in, head into town where John bought a new surf board and a Grandad Burger and my Xmas pressie (a Digital Cam corder) and get a surf in at Ophope Beach, which is just over the Mount Kohi. Our Luxury room has a King sized Spa, so guess where I headed when we finally got back to our digs.
Ohope is a really lovely beach, bay really, on the West edge is a fabulous walk up through the trees, it can take you all way up to Kohi Point, which is a good view point to see over Whakatane, which in itself is a beautiful town alongside the river and has lovely walks along the gorge. Back to Ohope though, John's new favourite for surf, the sand
is the grey volcanic and there are mass'es of shells that have been washed up over what could be years, driftwood and even partial tree's, completely untouched by Man, just so natural. A little further along and inland is Ohope Harbour and the stretch of water there appears to be called Ohiwa Harbour, which is known as a magnificant nature reserve for birds. There are boat trips and everything.
On the afternoon of our second day there was a horrendous Hail Storm, miniture golf balls lashing down from the sky, at the same time as thunder and lightning, sunshine and rainbows, the whole lot in the space of a few hours. Weather has been a mixed bag all along.
We travelled all the way west of the Bay of Plenty, to Mt Maunganui, which is across the inlet from Tauranga, that was really beautiful place, one of New Zealands top holiday resorts, so there were quite a lot of shops, and several Hotels, the beaches were lovely too, walking along the sand, seemed to sparkle. Although not the grey, must still be the volcanic sand. By contrast we also went as far East as we could go to Te
Aroroa, stopping at Hicks Bay, (horshoe Bay) for a surf, just drove onto the beach. This end of the coast is soooo remote, one shop, we were thankful to find one fuel pump (even though not our fuel type, we had to have it and hope it mixed OK). Even though remote, exceptionally beautiful in a different unspoiled way. The roads were a real contrast too, whereas the roads west were fairly straight, going East was mountainous and the S bends almost turned into figure 8. It was a 380km round trip, but took best part of 4 hours going and 3 back, downhill (we stopped alot on the way to take in the views and make photos, it was so awesome). Fortunately too, there was one very good cafe about half way along (at Omaio) where we stopped both ways for coffee and a snack. I asked for a hotdog, and got sausage in batter on a stick, yum ! We had to wonder where all the people go for their supermarket / clothes shopping and atm?
In between our trips, we got ourselves organised for our ongoing adventure, we now have a tent, bigger than the room
size of some hostels I've stayed in, and of course all the various things one needs to camp.
The weather was with us on the day we took a boat trip to White Island (Whakaari, NZ's most active Volcano), with PJs (any relation Paula?). What an absolutely amazing day, we were issued with a hard hat (which had to be worn at all times) and gas mask (for use when needed) and all transported in a dingy to take us ashore. Walking the island (which was the crater of the Volcano) with our guide, it was just a surreal experience. She took us to a bubbling, steaming lake, which is so acidiic, its off the PH scale (we all had to use our gas mask), as we walked the crater floor past various steaming mounds (known as vents), smelling so strongly of sulphur. Sulphur is brought to the surface by the steam and leaves a yellow tinge. Underneath is the boiling water of 600 - 800 degrees Centigrade.
There were a couple of helicoptors on the island, having a guided tour the same as us, and on the 1 1/2 boat trip back, we could almost see the logic
of taking a helicoptor trip. Although on our outward journey we had spotted some dolphins, Brills!
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were relaxing and quiet. We went to the cinema to see Casino Royale. On Christmas Day morning we drove to Matahina Damn, which had a Hydro Electic Power station, the big lake was so calm and beautiful, the water looked almost black on this cloudy day, and reflected the cliffs in it like a mirror. On a normal day this lake is used for Jet boat rides. Not surprisingly though, apart from one family having a picnic, and a man fishing, we were the only ones there on this day. On the walk around, John thought that he spotted a Kiwi.
While he cooked up a fabulous Lamb Dinner, I soaked in my new Kingsize spa bath, (well I asked if we could take it with us, it would fit in the tent!).
We both really like Whakatane, apart from being a beautiful town which looked lovely in Spring with the Jacaranda's in bloom and Pohutukawa (NZ Christmas trees), rows of bluebells (ball shaped on long stalks). It appears to have everything, good shops, cafes and restaraunts,
Matahina Lake - Christmas Day
So tranquil, imagine a jet boat was here!! great walks, a beautiful surf beach within 5 mins, plus all those beaches along the coast, East and West, and when we were rushing around on the last day to get our last bits, it felt quite sad to leave. A fabulous start to our holiday.
We drove inland on the SH2 (state highway), stopping at the Hard Drive Cafe for lunch in Matawai, the name of the cafe gives a clue about the drive, our old Van coped magnificantly with the steep hills and yet more winding roads. The scenery again was spectacular. We went through Gisborne and headed up coast a little bit on the SH35 until we found a campsite at Tatapouri, which was right by the sea, and we managed to get a pitch for two days. Our plot A5 was very close to the sea, and at night, when all you could hear was the waves (after 2am when the rowdies hit the sack) it felt like we would get washed away at any minute. The next bay Makatori is John's new favourite surf spot, and we had several visits to this bay. It was very 'open' to the elements, a bit too
windy for the camera woman, who lost her hat several times.
While our tent and base were at Tatapouri, we spent a day driving up the East Coast (Surf was flat this day), we went to Tolaga Bay where there is a Wharf and the longest pier in NZ, which of course we walked along. Managed to get a Mrs Mac's pie in the campsite there, and continued to explore by walking to Cooks Cove viewpoint, across the sheep fields and over the hills. It was good to get out and tramp for a while and experience the views as we walked. After this we carried on up the coast to Tokomaru Bay, where we found a lovely pub/restaraunt overlooking the fabulous bay. Watching the locals play with their boats while we ate was very relaxing.
The following day we had the tent down in half an hour, very impressive I thought, and we headed into Gisbourne for supplies and to get the wheel aligned on the van. (A good job too, with the journey we had before us). From Gisborne we took the SH2 and headed towards Wairo, undecided whether to go across land to Taupo
Tolaga Bay
Longest Pier in NZ or Rotorua. We were orig headed for Auckland to meet up with Lucien and Sinaed for New Year Eve. (However we later found out that their plans had changed and they were heading up Northland). At Wairo we stopped by the river for a picnic lunch and decided to make for Waikaremoana, (which took me three days to finally be able to say), Wai Kare Moana. This is a beautiful lake with many walks and waterfalls to see, the big walk can take up to 5 days. After speaking with Information, we were looking for the Big Bush campsite. (all others are full up). On the map we are shown the SH38 and then it mentions unsealed road, but we didn't quite know what that meant). We found out it meant gravel path, with hardly enough room to pass in parts and with terrific drops down on one side and possible landslides from above on the other. The roads are still steep and winding and mountainous, as well as being made of dust and gravel. We were only going an hour on this road when we pulled into the Big Bush. This site was the quietest yet, and the man
offered us a cabin, apparently he had just had a cancellation, when we looked at it, we couldn't refuse, (could we?). It was a real cabin with en-suite, 2 x channel tv, our own kitchen and a real bed. The setting was too nice, we chilled the rest of the day.
Good job we had, the next day, after walking around to see the beautiful waterfalls, that gravel road continued for another 2 1/2 hours, as it was John's turn to drive, he said it was just starting to get really tedious. To give you a clue of the time taken, it is a 100KM stretch of road. At the end of it we stopped for a cup of tea in the picnic area. Opened the back of the van and found that everything was covered in a shroud of dust, including us when we stopped to think about it, (John said my shocked face was a picture and he was rolling round the picnic area, laughing, I put it down to tension release after the arduous drive) no wonder my eyes were killing me. My Hay fever has been really bad over the last few weeks, worse than I
ever remember it at home, even.
Anyway, after trying to clean up a bit, we continued on the road to Rotorua, where we stayed at the Thermal Holiday Park for two nights, the second being New Year's Eve.
Rotorua, as I may have said in my previous blog, is the most commercialised tourist destination of North Island and is nicknamed 'Sulphur City'. It has the most energetic thermal activity in the country, and has the highest population of Maori, so very cultural too. Once we got our tent up, we decided to just relax, once again, a very busy campsite, which is of course to be expected in this season and holiday time.
It was a short drive to the town centre and it was time to treat ourselves to a real good meal.
John had spotted in the information centre one of the activities on offer in this adrenaline seeking centre, that he could freefall, without jumping from an aircraft. So the next day we headed for the Agrodome and after watching a few people attempt this, he had a go, he was excellent, managed to go straight upwards in the huge gust of wind the
fans produce, without too much help from the two guides who set it up. He loved it and was so excited that I could hardly keep him from bounding around for the next several hours, talk about being on a high.
Afterwards we went to Te Puia, the natural geothermal Valley, which has a Maori Village site and there are hot pools and geysers giving off the familiar steam and unforgettable smell. We did finally get to see the Geyser spray up into the air about 6 metres, but I think we had been spoilt, as all this was much more spectacular on White Island.
We got back to our tent before the heavens opened again, and that was it. The rain was in for the night, and it was so cold too. Also when we arrived back, our spot has been invaded, as opposite to us is a huge Orange Hotel Lorry, apparently carrying some 42 German tourists, taking up about 4 camping bays, and a matching orange coach to transport them. As if our neighbours on their computer games wasn't enough.
I have never seen anything quite like it, a travelling Hotel. Yippee!
On New
John's Flying
Freefall, Rotorua Year's Day we packed up the wet tent and are headed towards the Coromandel.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
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Lee Foot
non-member comment
Happy new years John + Lorraine
Hi, just read through you're blog. Looks like you're both having a whale of a time. V. Jealous! Bet you'll both have loads of stories for when you get back. Have a blast and keep us all posted on the blog. Just showed Samantha it too. Have fun, speak soon. Lee.