Last Missive from New Zealand

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Glamping and Tramping, Last Days in NZ

We left the South Island on Tuesday, taking the ferry from Picton to Wellington. The boat left an hour late, and combined with the three and a half hour crossing it gave me some time to check my notes and add a few thoughts.



First off, this place really gets camping. Sites range from 'freedom camping' where you can just pull off, set up, and hang out for free, to campgrounds. The campgrounds are amazingly well set up. They have free gas grills, kitchens set up with stoves and microwaves, eating areas where they provide cutlery and plates and glasses, and a washing up area. You are just asked to put stuff back where you found it and clean up after yourself. They often have great lounge areas as well, usually with a television (that is seldom turned on) and plenty of board games and places just to hang out or check your email.



The walking paths, or Tracks, are something else as well. Everyone we have set out on is well marked and maintained. Footbridges in place where they need to be and huts spaced out for people to camp in while taking the longer walks. Bottom line, this is a country that lives outdoors.



We landed in Wellington and took Route 1 for Turangi. We had to go there, it is home of the Tongariro National Trout Centre! On the way Marcia spotted a lavender farm so of course we stopped.



The Tongariro is one of the better know fishing rivers, but I only got to watch...next time.... We did get to bike along the river, taking the Tongariro River Trail on mountain bikes that we borrowed from the bed and breakfast where we stayed. Of course, it is never a good idea to try and learn a new skill when on vacation and Marcia had a bit of a crash from which she immediately jumped up assuring me that she was alright. After we returned the bikes we went to the National Trout Center. At one time it had been a hatchery to support the trout supplies in the rivers, but now, as trout populations are well established, it is a museum of trout and angling history. There is still a hatchery, it is used to support the trout pond on the premises that children can learn to fly fish in. I watched with envy as the kids pulled in 14 to 20 inch fish.



From Turangi we drove up to Taupo and stopped off to check out Huka Falls. Ready for this, the falls could fill up an Olympic size swimming pool in under 11 seconds. That is a lot of water running down a falls that is probably best described as about a quarter mile of the wildest white water you can imagine.



On to Rotorua, home of vast areas of thermal activity and a center of Maori culture. We attended an evening event at a Maori culture center, complete with traditional welcome, dancing and singing, and a feast with many of the dishes prepared in traditional ways. We walked the hot springs area that evening after dinner and enjoyed the sounds of the Maori kids who lived in the village outside of the center swimming in one of the large hot pools....they had climbed the fence and claimed what was historically theirs, just as kids the world over have done. We camped for the last time on Wednesday night, right next to a trout stream. For most of the night I left the van door open so I could hear the trout rising to the surface to feed.



Thursday was our last full day and as a farm visit we had planned fell through we decided just to drive north and see what we could find. We landed in the town of Thames, named by Capt. Cook for the river in England, which was once a booming gold town of over 140,000. Now some 2,000 live there with well preserved Victorian era store fronts, churches, and homes. A little scouting found us the Kauaeranga River Road which took us up the river of the same name to an area of old logging camps. At one time the area had been covered with the giant kauri tree, which grew to over 100 feet with few lower branches and spreading to a vast canopy. One stump from a kauri tree was actually used as a dance floor in a camp! Now only a few of the trees remain, and they are protected by the government. What was especially interesting was that once these giants were felled, the loggers would build large wooden dams with trap doors on them. They would through the logs behind the stream dam and wait until there was enough water to trip the dam and send the logs hurtling to the sea to be bound together into vast rafts and towed to Aukland for processing. Sometimes it took two years for the 'damned' water to rise to a height that could propel the logs. The Department of Conservation has built a miniature replica of a dam which we visited. There was, as you might guess with any once-abundant resource, a lot of waste in the process. Even today when there is a great deal of rain and flooding the occasional kauri log will flush out into the sea, and the first person to corral it, get DOC verification, and tow it in, can use it.



Now a couple of final thoughts. First, you may have noticed the fascinating mix of both English and Maori names in use here. It makes pronouncing things a great game, as the Maori use different vowel sounds and there is no emphasis on any one syllable. Here is a selection of some of our favorites--Thames, Hamilton, Bombay, Morrinsville, Cambridge, Queenstown, Piropiro, Katikati, Ramarama, Matamata, Whakamarama, Kauaeranga, Ngaruawahia, and Rakaumunga.



Second, the Kiwi's are some of the nicest, friendliest people you will ever meet. They go out of their way to be friendly, they don't honk on the road, they are never too busy to stop and chat, and they clearly want you to love their country. A sign at the airport sums it up--"We hope you enjoyed New Zealand. Miss you already."



And finally, Queen Charlotte. We did ask again and again and finally one of the head stewards on the ferry gave us the answer. We encountered him when we first got on the ferry and, of course, asked him if he knew who she was. He laughingly admitted he did not and added 'what the bloody hell do I care about some damned English royalty?" Good enough. But when we were getting back to our van he found us and came up and said he had looked her up, figuring he probably should know, and let us know she was the Queen consort (check that out) at the time Captain Cook had sailed to and named much of New Zealand. Then we engaged in a lively talk about American politics (that is something else you realize, the Kiwis know a lot about us--they were, you may remember, our biggest ally, joining us in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf wars). In the end he finished with the wry observation that "there is some advantage to living on a small, south seas island." There is indeed.

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