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Published: March 2nd 2007
Kia Ora from a very sunny New Zealand everyone. Kia Ora is Maori for "Hello" by the way and not an orange squash drink, as it is in the UK. Remember that advert on TV? "I'll be your dog!!!" - maybe I'm showing my age.
The past couple of weeks have simply flown by, as I've driven up, down and around the North Island of New Zealand ably assisted by map-reader supreme, Karen, who came out to join me for a few weeks from a dank and miserable London.
I ended up spending 5 days in Auckland, with Karen arriving on the third day. It was a very relaxed city, with not much going on, but a nice ambience never the less. I spent the first few days catching up on admin and organising hotels and car hire for when Karen arrived. I did manage to visit the museum and also go for a run around the domain (a very nice park overlooking the harbour). I invested in a pair of running shoes before xmas as I was beginning to suffer "cold turkey" from my lack of running. So far I've run around the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne and
Sydney, the river Turrrens in Adelaide, The Domain in Auckland and the beach front in Napier - I still miss Hyde Park though!
I picked Karen up okay from the airport - slightly jetlagged but not too bad! We ticked all the tourist boxes over the next few days, including a cruise around the harbour, a trip up the Skytower, the Auckland Art Gallery, a trip to Devonport (where it peed down) and a walk around the trendy Parnell district (very Chelsea, darlink).
The cruise was pretty dire to be honest, with the commentator so disinterested in describing her own city, that a people were falling asleep on the deck. "These are the wharves where the cargo ships unload their cargo...you can see some big cranes there....there are some yahcts....we have a lot of yahcts here....there is a large cement silo....that can hold a lot of cement..."...and so on. Karen tried to look like she was enjoying herself!
The Skytower was good fun with great views all around Auckland. At 328 metres in height it's the tallest building in the southern hemisphere apparently. The glass floored lift adds to the vertigo effect, taking 40 seconds to reach
the top. There is something called "the Skyjump" that you can do at the top, which involves jumping from the observation deck on a base wire to street level 192 metres below. I almost went for it but one look at Karen's face when she saw some poor girl dangling from the wires outside the observation deck made me change my mind!
After Auckland we drove up to the Bay of Islands in the north of the North Island. We stayed in a very quaint little town called Paihia, at the aptly named Sublime Apartments. The place was around 10 minutes walk from the seafront, but there was a ridiculously steep climb up a hill to get to our room every evening - we had buns of steel after three days of walking back to our apartment!
We went on a dolphin watching cruise on our first full day in Paihia. It was meant to be a gentle cruise around the bay, with the possibility of swimming with the dolphins if we saw any on the trip. After a leisurely start, the captain of the ship said a pod of dolphins had been spotted but they were in
open water, and "it might get a bit choppy". Nevertheless, we all wanted to see dolphins, so off we went. As we chugged out of the protection of the bay however, things got hairier, with the boat lurching in multiple directions as huge waves battered us around. By the time we got to the dolphins, everyone on the boat had gone a funny shade of green and the toilets were busy with strange retching noises coming from inside them. It was great to see the dolphins, but very difficult to take a photo as the boat lurched from side to side and people were thrown across the deck. I managed to get a few by wrapping myself around a pole and clinging on for dear life! Unfortunately soon after that I succumbed to the conditions and rushed to the loo to re-enact the projectile vomit scene from "The Exorcist"! Poor Karen was even worse than me and spent the next two hours in very close proximity to the ladies toilet with a paper bag at the ready! We both had a laugh though because after re-entering calmer waters we had our lunch in the placid waters of Urapukapuka Island...or UraPUKA-PUKA
as we renamed it! We bought a packed lunch from a cafe in Paihia at the start of the day, but Karen had been using her bag as a pillow and her sandwich was decidedly mangled after a morning on the boat! Despite the hairy boat ride it was a good day though and the scenery was stunningly beautiful.
Whilst in the Bay of Islands, we also visited Waitangi where the first serious peace treaty was signed between the British and the Maori tribes in 1840. There is a large visitor centre there, and you can visit the house where the treaty was signed, as well see the ornate whare runanga (meeting house) and a 35 metre long war canoe. We also did a nice 10km forest walk to Haruru Falls, which was nearby.
There were lots of nice little seaside towns along the Bay of Islands which we visited, including a place called Russell, which had a nice museum and art gallery. It was nice to find a small bar in the town centre and watch England beat Australia AGAIN in another one-day final. I was obviously a jinx to the team - they have been playing
like champions since I left Australia!
We left the Bay of Islands after three days and headed south to Hamilton. We decided to spend two nights there and a take a day-trip down to Waitomo Caves to see some glow-worms. Hamilton itself did not have too much going for it as far as I was concerned. Wide streets, bland uniform shops, characterless bars and restaurants and not many people walking the streets - just cars zooming through the town centre. Karen and I did take in a movie at the Star City Cinema - The Good Shepherd directed by Robert De Niro - good film if slightly too long!
My friend Denise had told us we should try and take in Waitomo Caves if we got a chance. The caves themselves are massive, and the tour we went on consisted of walking through a myriad of stalactites and stalagmites before boarding a boat for an underground river trip in the dark. Once you grew accustomed to the dark, you realise you are completely surrounded by a galaxy of little lights that emanate from the glow-worms. They are the larvae of the fungus gnat, that hang long sticky threads
to catch insects lured by the glow of their lights - apparently the more hungry they are, the more they glow! It was like staring up at a starry sky as the boat slipped gently through the dark waters of the cave - an interesting experience.
On the way out Karen spotted a bizarre sign advertising The Shearing Shed, a place where big fluffy Angorra rabbits are sheared for an audience. We went in to the place and I must say I've never seen anything like it in my life. These metre long rabbits are strapped into this rack-like contraption, and attacked with electric shears! The poor things look petrified!! The very serious girl running the show was the funniest though - we were waiting in the gift shop at the front of the place when she came round saying "We're going to be shearing a rabbit in around 10 minutes if anyone is interested in watching" - like she was taking us on a guided tour or something! I got the giggles, especially when around 40 Japanese tourists turned up en mass and started videoing the whole thing! I tried to catch a Japanese man's eye as we
witnessed this bizarre spectacle, with what I hoped was a universally recognised expression of "isn't this silly?" on my face - but he just looked embarrassingly at the floor, as if we were watching something morally wrong and unacceptable...which we probably were!
After leaving Hamilton our next stop was Rotorua, in the heart of New Zealand's thermal area. The sulphur-rich air gives the whole place a delightful rotten egg odour, so if you suffer from flatulance it's a great place to stay as you can get away with murder! We stayed in a delightful place out of town but on the lake called Jack and Di's - we were seconds from the water and lovely views of the lake and surrounding mountains. While in Rotorua I decided to try my hand at some adventurous stuff while Karen went for the thermal spring option in town.
One thing I tried which was a bit weird was something called zorbing. Basically you climb into a big plastic bubble, get hosed with water, then get pushed down a bloody big zig-zag shaped hill. It's definitely different!! The idea is to try and stay upright and "run" inside the bubble - a
bit like a mouse in one of those balls - but I must admit I found that impossible as I slipped around at all directions as I gathered momentum! Great fun though.
I also went up Mount Ngongotha by gondola for a panoramic view of Rotorua. The great thing to do when you get to the top is to fly back down the mountain on a luge (a sort of toboggan on wheels), hurtling around corners and zooming along the concrete track at breakneck speed! There is a nice chairlift to take you back to the top again too when you've finished!
When I finally met Karen late in the afternoon, she was looking suitably mellow after her spa/massage/pampering session, while I was still buzzing like a duracell bunny!
We decided to take in a bit of Maori culture at the Tamaki Maori Village just outside Rotorua one evening. The Maori are very proud of their heritage and our trip included a walk around a traditional Maori village from yesteryear, a concert of dances, and a huge sit-down dinner. On the journey over the driver asked for a volunteer to act as "chief" for the group to
lead the guests to the village and receive the blessing of the tribe - can you guess who got the short straw?! I got told on arrival that the "warriors" of the village will perform a war-dance in front of me and my fellow chiefs (there was one for each of the four coaches), involving lots of staring and tongue-poking, cultimating in being offered a token of peace which we had to pick up as our invitation to enter the village. We were also told that in no circumstances should we laugh or smile during the dancing, as this was deemed to be deeply insulting the Maori. When this big bloke came out of the gate in a traditional grass skirt , rolling his eyes around and sticking out his tongue, I don't know how I didn't burst out giggling - it all looked so silly! He came right up to me with his head cocked back, jutting his backside out like Mick Jagger at a Rolling Stones concert! I just about managed to contain myself, and the rest of the night went well, with a good rendition of the haka to end the dance show followed by a slap
up meal.
The following day we visted the nearby Waiotapu Thermal Springs, home of the Lady Knox Geyser, which spouts off at 10.15am each day. It was very impressive, but we were slightly disappointed to see a bloke pouring organic soap into it just before 10.15am to get it going. So much for letting nature take it's course! The springs themselves were quite interesting too, with the boiling multi-coloured Champagne Pool, bubbling mud and mineral terraces making the whole area seem like something from another planet. At one point we couldn't see in front of us due to the amount of steam the pools were generating!
We took a short drive to Lake Taupo next. On the way we stopped off at the Waikite Valley thermal pools for a soothing dip, before heading for a riverjet cruise on the Waikato river. The riverjet was great fun, especially on the way back when our driver did loads of 360 degree spins in the middle of the river to get us all nice and wet! On the riverjet we also visited Orakei Korato, another thermal area with even more bizarre rock formations and strange coloured pools.
The main reason
for staying at Lake Taupo was to do the famous 18km long Tongariro Crossing - a walk between two dormant volcanoes through some breathtaking scenery. We had a spare day though, and I took the opportunity to try my hand at sky-diving with Skydive Taupo. The skydive was from 12,000 feet and was the most stupid and brilliant thing I'd done. It was a tandem jump with this cheesy American guy called "Reno" who kept saying things like "That's sooo kewl" and "Awesome man" every five minutes. I just blanked out what I was doing from my mind - it was only when we were high in the sky, with my feet dangling out of an open plane door, that I that "JESUS WHAT AM I DOING?!". Fortunately I didn't get a chance to think anything else because Reno pushed me out of the plane. We were buffeted around in the wind for what seemed like an eternity as we dropped out of the sky - the view of the lake as I gazed down will stay with me for a long time - it was the strangest feeling - then there was a massive jolt as the parachute opened
and Reno shouted out one last "AWESOME!". The only thing I regretted was downing a filter coffee beforehand, because after all that spinning and twisting in the air, I felt decidedly quesy when I finally landed! I got a DVD of the experience for posterity, and it was only when I watched it that I realised how nervous I was! The adrenalin rush was amazing though and would recommend jumping out of a plane to anyone!
The following day was a 5.00am start in order to catch the 5.30am bus to the start of the Tongariro Crossing. The early start was required to ensure the worst part of the climb would be completed before it got too hot. Just as well because even at 8.00am, climbing the steep, sharp lava rock that made up the ascent called "the Devil's Staircase" was hard work. I have to say the views on the walk are amongst the most spectacular I have seen anywhere in the world. The rock formations, the mountains (including Mount Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings), the red craters, the sulphur-rich turquoise pools, the steam coming out of the ground at the Mangatepoo summit, all
made for a surreal experience. It was hard work (especially as my new boots were pinching my feet most of the way down), but definitely worth it and a highlight of my trip. Karen certainly showed a lot of guts climbing up the lava rocks, and her renaming of "the Devil's Staircase" to "F***ing Nightmare" certainly wasn't far off the mark!
We next drove to Napier, "the art-deco capital of the world" - if you believe the blurb. The town suffered a serious earthquake in 1931, and was reconstructed in the style of the time, and now the art-deco architecture is a major draw card for tourists to the area. It was a nice seaside town, and had a really good feel to it. I went on my first NZ wine-tour around the surrounding Hawkes Bay area, travelling to five different wineries and trying 6 different wines in each one. By the end of it I was feeling decidedly iffy and tried vainly to act sober when I got back to meet Karen! Her dislike of wine meant I was on my own for the tour - I did meet a nice man from California called Mark on the
trip though, who beared more than a passing resemblence to Ollie Reed! I think he bought a case in every place we visited!
After a quick stop in Palmerstone North, we made our way down to Wellington next. Karen was staying with a friend from an old job, Jo and her boyfriend Steve. When we got to their place in the Hutt Valley (just outside Wellington), they kindly said I could sleep on their sofabed and I ended up staying with them for three nights. Jo and Steve were perfect hosts, taking us out to the Wairarapa region on our first full day - taking in some fantastic views, visiting some lovely little townships such as Greytown and Masterton, having a great fish and chip lunch at the picturesque Lake Ferry beach, and a wine-tasting on the outskirts of Martinborough. They had a lovely place, perched up high on a hill overlooking the town below - which was ideal for Steve as he's a bone-fide "radio-ham", with a huge ariel on top of the house which allows him to have a chin-wag over the airways to anyone around the world. It was certainly an education watching him in action
with a large array of tuners, amplifiers and gadgetry as he chatted away to some bloke in Sweden one evening!
The next day was an emotional one for me and Karen - it was out last day together. It had been a great couple of weeks, and it was really nice to see her again. I felt a bit guilty when I said that next week I'll be in the Abel Tasman National Park. "Next week I'm doing vacancies" she replied!
It was also sad to say goodbye to our hire car that had seen us around for two weeks. The Toyota Corolla, CLF521, was christened Cliff because of the numberplate, and we got quite attached to him over two weeks. A speed-demon on the flat, or down-hill, poor Cliff struggled bigtime on any sorts of up-hill climb, especially the long, windy variety you see so much of in New Zealand. Unfortunately most over-taking lanes were on up-hill sections, so despite having a caravan or campervan in his sights on a flat road, any sort of incline would see Cliff splutter away like an asthmatic before slowing to a steady 30kph! Oh well - we'll miss him!
It was a fun last day though, with Jo and Steve taking us on a whistle-stop tour of Wellington, driving around the surrounding bays, taking a trip to the famous Basin Reserve cricket ground (!),visiting the Mac's Brewery for lunch, having a wander through the Te Papa museum, and even having time to shoot a few frames of pool in a bar on Taranaki Street. I really liked Wellington - it had a real buzz about it, and the city certainly had a lot of character, with great bars, lots of boutique shops, what looked like some lovely restaurants. We went for a drink in a nice Belgian bar called Leuven in the centre of town before going home. My Belgian friends Sylvie and Petra who I met back in India, came from Leuven (also the home of Stella Artois), so it was funny being in a bar named after their town! We finished the night off with a chinese meal in a trendy little suburb called Patone, and we went back home for Jo to give us a thrashing a word game Babble!
After saying goodbye to everyone I jumped on a ferry the following morning to Picton,
the gateway to the South Island. I'm travelling around with a company called Stray, who operate hop-on/hop-off buses all over the island. I'm typing this up in the delightful town of Nelson, a few hours from Picton and on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. I'm really looking forward to travelling around the South Island - I've basically got a month here before flying off to Santiago on 7th April. Speaking of which, where's my "Teach Yourself Latin American Spanish" book....?!
Bye for now.
Doogs x
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