Blogs from Te Urewera National Park, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

(Day 632 on the road)Picture a "State Highway". Sounds pretty grand, doesn't it? A well maintained road. Four wide lanes, two in each direction. A divider in the middle to separate the traffic. Well, not so in New Zealand. A State Highway here can be nothing more than a gravel road in a bad condition, as was the case with State Highway 38 that I took from Rotorua to Lake Waikaremoana. Initially I thought I had typed in the wrong destination when my GPS (great investment by the way!) told me that my chosen route included unsurfaced roads. So instead of a smooth two hour drive I found myself practising my drift-driving skills for the next four hours. But the ride was very very scenic for most of the way. Plus it wasn't like I was ... read more

We spent a couple of nights in a cabin near a huge lake, up in a national park. It was beautiful, but not as blue as the postcards due to precipitation! quite a lot of it, actually. However, we decided that since we'd made the effort to get there, we may as well look round, so we followed the paths through te woods, miles from anyone - who else would be up there in the rain? It was another long unsealed road! The lake is called Waikaromoana - I think!... read more