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Published: January 24th 2006
What a Sunset
This was at Fletcher's Bay. We keep stumbling onto the best places earth has to offer.So after the last blog turned into a 1000 page novel I decided the blog needed updating more frequently. Plus I need to keep all my devoted readers interested. Even though I'm probably just fooling myself thinking that I have devoted readers.
Driving around New Zealand has been great, or should I say being chauffeured around as I do no driving...need to practice driving a manual transmission. I'm not complaining though being a passenger has it's benefits...get to enjoy the view. The roads in NZ are spectacular, there are no highways every road is one lane in each direction and there are endless "S" turns and switchbacks. Not to mention gravel roads, we must have driven 100+ km on gravel roads so far. Plus they don't like to build two lane bridges, they love one lane bridges where one side of traffic has to wait for the other side to pass. And I'm not talking about back roads, these bridges are on main roads. But the Goonobago can handle all. I was extremely skeptical about buying a van, especially being a cynic I could only think of all the problems owning a vehicle causes. I know I might be jinxing
Steps, Step and more Steps
If you could only see my face, or the sweat that had saturated my shirt by this time... myself by saying this, but It has turned out to be the best move we could have made. It has opened the door to endless possibilities, we are seeing sights you just can't get to by public bus or even an organized bus tour. We have our own schedule, I never have to worry about running late, making reservations and we have really gotten to some off the beaten path places. The flexibility that the Goonobago affords us has been priceless.
The scenery here is rolling green hills with cows, sheep and farms as far as the eye can see, it's quite peaceful. We pass through valleys, gone up and down and up and down mountains, driven through miles of forest and skirted the coast for miles on end. It's breathtaking sometimes, you feel numb sometimes as we've become spoiled. But overall the scenery never really gets old. Everyone says the South Island blows away the North Island, so I can only imagine what lies ahead. So here are some details of what we've been up to since my last blog.
We headed south from Auckland after a one night stopover, thank god, not that I have anything
The view from the Pinnacles Hut
The view sure was worth all those steps. against Auckland, but to me it's just another city. We tried to get working holiday visa's while in the city, but found out it all needs to be filed online...IDIOTS We hit the road late in the afternoon and got to sit in some rush hour traffic, don't miss that part of NYC. Our destination being the Coromandel Peninsula.
Our first night was spent in Thames, a small town in the southwest corner of the peninsula. We ended up at the Sunkist Backpackers, a nice place but they had a rule posted for everything. Everywhere you'd look was a sign with another rule, 10 minute showers, the 13 steps required to properly was dishes, anyone caught feeding the dog would be shot, no showers after 10:30 PM, quiet time after 11PM. So I figured rules were made to be broken, except I never did feed that dog. I even broke a rule I didn't even know existed until after I broke it. Since all my clothes could basically stand-up by themselves, I woke up and put my laundry in, then I noticed laundry was limited to between the hours of 1PM to 10PM...oops. Dave, Bryan and I even threw
Check out that tent site
Can you see the dam I was describing in the background. Should have taken a better picture. down a little monopoly.
We decided to hike (by the way it's called tramping in NZ) to the pinnacles hut in the Coromandel Forest Park. The track is up Webb Creek and down the Billy Goat tracks, both originally cut by loggers in the early 20th century. If I never see another step again it will be too soon, I didn't count but the steps probably numbered in more than a thousand. The hike would have been decently difficult, if it wasn't for the 40 lbs packs we each carried, I really felt a sense of accomplishment when we got to the top. I couldn't imagine having to be a mule hauling tons of weight up and down this very steep trails. We camped outside the hut and what a good night sleep that was. We headed down the billy goat track the next morning, thank-god that was down not up because it was pretty steep in some sections. There was even the remnants of an old venicular train, used to carry massive Kauri logs down, picture the diameter of a giant redwood. One of the coolest sights we saw was one of the old dams the loggers used
On the Way down
Would have been a fun ride if this was a rollercoaster. to float the logs down the hill. The loggers would basically dam the creek and let the water level rise, they would float the logs behind the dam. When sufficient water had built up, they would release the water, which carried the logs down the hill. At one point between the late 1800's and the mid 1900's there were well over 100 dams. And we thought we were goons, those loggers had us beat. We've never been able to hurl logs down the side of a mountain. After finishing the hike we treated ourselves to another night in the house of rules that night, at least it was a nice hostel. And don't let me leave out the KFC we picked up on the way back from the hike. Did I mention the BBQ feast I cheffed up that night.
Now traveling with four people can be interesting at times. Every morning it seems one of us takes a lifetime to get their ass in gear, so we don't hit the road until close to noon on most days. On that day it was mostly me who was taking his sweet ass time. After we wasted half the day
River wash we walked thru
At least the scenery was worth all the work on the hike. in Thames we headed north to Coromandel. A nice town with a very hippy feel to it, lots of galleries and the word organic on everything. Not much to do there so we spent the night and then headed out.
We had agreed to hit the road by 9:30 that morning, and to my surprise it actually worked.
At the end of close to 30km of gravel road, after fording two streams in the Goonobago we found Fletcher Bay, our destination for the day turned out to be another paradise. This was one of those off the beaten path places having the van really allowed us to visit. We setup camp there for the evening and I spent the rest of the day reading and napping, I don't know how we keep getting this lucky with the places we choose to stay, but since I don't want to jinx it, I'll leave it at just look at the pictures, it really was paradise. By the way this place was recommended to us by a 70+ year old local we met at the bottom of the Pinnacles hike, a big thanks goes out to him. On a side note
I'm not worthy
The grilled chicken and vegetable feast was good, but bowing down that's another level... he was quite an interesting guy, he's charted his family tree all the way back to 1564 (I think)...INSANE. And just to show you how small the world is, I was chatting with the girl camping next to us and it came up that I grew up in Rockaway NYC, she says "that's where Yael is from", "I'm like Yael who?" turns out this Kiwi shared a flat with a girl I went to high school with. Really weird, I am close to the other side of the planet and still running into people that know acquaintances, crazy!!!
Fletcher's Bay was another place I could have spent eternity, but we needed to keep moving so we headed south to Whitianga. This place has a more tourist feel to it. Almost Jersey Shore/beach community kind of place. I had just finished the book I was reading, Ellen MacArthur's story about sailing around the world, so I started reading Catcher In The Rye which I've never read. I got so sucked in that became my entire evening and I never met the boys at the bar. Whitianga was just a convenient place to stay near two attractions on the east coast
On the drive up to Fletchers Bay
This is a good overview of what the scenery looked like on the drive up to the bay. on NZ, Cathedral's Cove and Hot Water Beach. Both are best visited at low tide which was mid afternoon, perfect for us lazy travelers who never motivate early. Cathedral's Cove was at the end of a 30+ minute hike and it was well worth it. It is a beach where the limestone cliffs have been worn away by the ocean and in one place a giant cave has been carved out by the ocean. You can walk right through this massive cave from one beach to the next, and it was an amazing sight. We got a nice show when two cute blond girls where walking around topless, but it didn't end there. They started doing all these gymnastic moves, cart wheels, back handsprings...it was quite the show.
Next stop was Hot Water Beach, a quick 10 minute drive down the road. Now before I got there I was a bit suspect of this destination, but hey you have to go with the flow. The big attraction at this beach is there are hot springs close to the surface and when you dig a hole the water that fills in is steaming hot. We got there, rented a shovel
Another nice tent site
This is the field we pitched our tents in at Fletchers Bay. We keep stumbling on perfect places and headed off to dig a hot tub. We got down to the beach to find 100 other people digging big holes. Aside from one pool with hot water, the rest were cold. Moskowitz puts his toe in the hot pool, and basically scalds his toe. So he starts digging, makes some progress...cold water. Dave started digging a new hole closer to the ocean...cold water. I take over the digging...cold water. I did feel the hot water, if you go into the ocean up to your knees, and bury your feet in the sand, you can feel the burning hot water. So we stayed less than expected but it was worth the stop for the laugh.
At least the short stop at the beach allowed us to go right to Rotorua. We stayed in HotRocks Backpackers..."The Loud" place to stay. Well it was loud that night especially when Dave got tossed at 3am for pissing off the security guard...I told you he was a pure goon. Here's the story, I get back to the room at around 3 in the morning, Dave is wasted, ranting how he's about to be tossed. Me and Moskowitz are like, don't worry. PS...5
Bryan the Goonobago is not 4WD
Someone wasn't paying attention and drove us right onto the beach. Ugh can we get a tow... minutes later Dave and I are on the balcony chatting about whats up, Dave has words with the security guard who had called up to us. Within 2 minutes this huge Maori guy comes up and just tosses Dave. Dave goes call the Police, so he does, but they weren't a factor at all, just helped give Dave directions to another hostel. I wake up hung over, with Moskowitz saying I'm going to find Dave. I caught up with Bryan and Brian after they checked the police station, and while we walk down the main street in Rotorua, Dave calls us from some window on the second floor...he crashed at some bouncers apartment from a bar near the other hostel, which was obviously closed. So the crew was back together.
Now Rotorua is all about geo-thermal activity, mud pools, hot springs, geysers. The place smells like rotten eggs. We hit up a place called Kerosene Creek, where a hot spring flows into a creek. Pretty off the beaten path, even though it's in the Lonely Planet. What a nice swim that was. We hit one of the commercial parks, where they have a geyser that they induce to blow
Ahhhhhh are you sure we need a campfire
So we finally found a campsite where we could make campfires, but having to chop the wood seems like a bit much. by putting soap in...lame. Even though the geyser shoots pretty high up, the soap still ruins it. We did get a chance to walk around the park after watching the geyser go off at exactly 10:15 AM. It was pouring rain but that didn't stop us, the coolest part was this pool called "The Devils Pool", it was neon green/yellow...Crazy!!! This was because of all the sulfur that seeps up from underground and reacts with the ferous rocks...in case anyone was interested.
We hit Huka Falls and Craters of the Moon on the way south to Taupo, both were cool but nothing spectacular. Spent last night in Taupo and today Moskowitz and I took a cruise around the lake. You get to see these Maori rock carvings, which are cool, but it's a big let down when you find out they were carved in 1979. We also spent the day gearing up for the 4 day hike we're gonna do starting tomorrow. We're doing the Tongariro Crossing which is a World Heritage Site and also a Volcano...will post another blog when I get back...or should I say if I get back.
For more pictures checkout Brian's blog...
www.travelblog.org/bloggers/travelgoon
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Betty
non-member comment
Wow
I see it's not all fun and games...keep working hard at finding those sights, it's really woth it and beautiful. RE: the goonabago - careful driving through water, if you suck water into the manifold your vehicle won't be worth 2 cents. Love you.