New Zealand 3: The Sonny Bill Show

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Auckland Take 2

We headed back to Auckland from Lake Taupo (not your average route for travellers ultimately heading south) to watch the Vodafone Warriors face off against the Sydney Roosters at Eden Park. We stopped off for the day in Mt. Eden, a quaint little suburb town of Auckland, with several nice coffee shops, bars, some unique shops and a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Rach was somewhat disenchanted with the Mount of Mount Eden, and thought it should be demoted to hill Eden...doesn't quite have the same ring to it!

Seeing as NZ is famous for their "fush and chups," a sign advertising Auckland's best caught our attention...after testing it at both lunch and dinner, Tom was inclined to agree.

Eden park was absolutely buzzing as kick off neared with a crowd of 32,000. With an authentic New Zealand start to proceedings, a tribe of Maori warriors took to the field performing the Haka at various places around the pitch, backed up by a squad of cheerleaders.



The first half was very tight with only one score to the roosters, but in the 2nd half things got a bit more exciting. Two early scores to the roosters seemed to have the game tied up, but 3 scores from the warriors brought them right back into it and was it not for a missed conversion, it would have gone down to golden point extra time. The game finished 16-14. After spending the whole game following Sonny Bill on her camera and trying to secure the perfect picture, Rach's hopes were dashed as an eager crowd formed to get a picture of their own with him after the game. We came within metres of success!





Our rugby fuelled weekend continued with a 5AM wake up call to watch the six nations decider between Wales and England. The damp and dingy underground Irish pub full of very drunk revellers still up after celebrating St. Paddy's day the night before was made slightly more bearable by an absolutely dominant performance by Wales ending in a 30-3 win.

Wellington
The rain continued to fall so we decided to bypass our intended next stop of Tangariro Alpine Pass/Mount Doom walk and hope the weather improves on the return journey. 10 hours and 660km later, we struggled to navigate the maze of one way roads of Wellington city centre and began to resent our campervan as finding somewhere suitable to park overnight proved increasingly difficult. By this point we hadn't showered in 6 days, and luckily a hostel took pity on us and offered us a free shower and cooking facilities. ..and an opportunity to watch Wales' performance again.

After spending another nervous night on a side and witnessing first hand the vigilance and efficiency of the city's traffic wardens, we decided we had to find somewhere legal to stay. Without travelling too far from the city centre, which would have lead to us having to pay extortionate rates for parking during the day, our best option seemed to be the "campervan park" on the harbour. The owner sure made his money charging $50 per night to park in a car park with the only added facility being a cheap shower and toilet block. Perfect camping conditions as the rain continued to pour.



Luckily Wellington is home to the world renowned "Te Papa" musuem, the perfect wet weather activity! Some of the highlights of our 6 hour trip to the museum were:
- The only real giant squid on show anywhere in the world


- The earthquake house
- Learning some of the history of New Zealand and more about the Maori culture
- Personal accounts of immigrants into New Zealand
- The skeleton of a pygmy blue whale
- Lunch outside in the rain as we weren't allowed to eat our own food in the café

Despite the weather, we both liked Wellington as a city and would be keen to spend more time there when the weather picks up. Much like the cities in Australia, the fitness culture here was inspiring to see with gyms on every street corner and 100's of people out running along the harbour front and esplanade braving the pouring rain. Next stop the south island...lets hope the weather improves.

Abel Tasman
Our first stop on the south island was the highly recommended Abel Tasman national park with 3-5 day walking tours along the beautiful coastline, with the option to camp overnight in huts on the beach.

Day 1
Bark Bay to Marahau via Torrent bay and Anchorage, a mere 25km stroll.
We arrived in Marahau in the morning to take the "Aquataxi" up the coast to begin our trek at Bark Bay; the boat was well "air-conditioned" and we arrived feeling nice and refreshed and a bit windswept.


The weather didn't do the stunning scenery justice, although we could appreciate that on a better day, the views over the golden sandy beaches would be stunning.



Some of the memorable moments were:

After exchanging friendly hello's as we walked past, we overheard two old couples commenting "They are a fine looking couple, they will produce some good looking offspring" ....Thanks!



Rach taking a little bit of a strop that Tom was striding ahead as he was eager to eat away at the remaining kilometres as quickly as possible.


Counting down the kilometres what a slog! We actually played a guessing game to see what the next sign would say...

Adele island, named by a French explorer as it reminded him of his wife, Adele, lying down.... how this represents a woman lying down we will never know!

Day 2
After an hour and a half's drive the previous night to Takaka in the very north of the Abel Tasman region, we set off on an additional hour long drive to Totaranui. The route was a treacherous one, with areas of the road falling away off the cliffs edge, getting even harder to navigate when the tarmac was replaced by a gravel road for the last 10 kilometres. At least we had a better day for it with the sun shining all day!




The walk today was meant to be a mere 18.5km loop from Totaranui to Whariwharanga hut, and back up over Gibbs Hill. However, we somehow managed to miss the sign and added an extra 6km walking down a steep winding hill, only to discover our mistake and retrace our steps back up.


From this point it stated that we were 4 hours away from the finish line....soul destroying. To break up the monotony of walking, we challenged ourselves to run back up the 3km hill we had just walked down with Rach encouraging Tom who was knackered after the first 50m. After a mere 15 minutes run we had taken an hour and a half off that 4 hours quoted at the bottom of the hill.

The last 7.5 kilometres involved climbing to the top of Gibbs hill before heading down a steep descent back to Totaranui. We tried to run a little bit more...but this didn't last long, 2 minutes to be precise, before the steepness of Gibbs hill had Tom crawling rather than running. We ploughed on up to the top and were rewarded with some amazing views over Wanui beach... "Gibbs you bastard!"


On to the West Coast. ..and no more walking for a few days!

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