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Published: July 14th 2008
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After a short flight we arrived in Wellington on the north island and caught a taxi to pick up our third and final campervan! The campervan place was a bit random as it was in a holiday park miles away from the airport. Our driver was a nice scouse man who even offered to take us to the local social club for lunch as he didn't have another job on for a few hours, we politely declined but thanked him for the offer. As we drove through Wellington we both thought that it had a very Mediterranean feel about it, with little houses on the hills. It also felt very small seeing as it is the capital and the taxi driver explained that it is only the capital due to its central location. We soon realised that the campervan place wasn't even in Wellington and was in some holiday park. We eventually managed to pick up our campervan after waking up the man in the office, who informed us that it was a quiet time of the year. His customer service skills consisted of 'You've hired a campervan before?' 'Here are the keys have a fab trip' and we were on
our way. Driving off we pulled over for some lunch and had a look at our New Zealand book to decide where we were going to go, we had really planned well! We decided not to stick around in Wellington as we both didn't fancy the car museum the taxi driver had recommended and as there was not much to see in the south we decided to drive north and see how far we got before it got dark.
Whilst driving we picked up food supplies at the supermarket we stopped at a tourist office (these are everywhere in New Zealand) and asked if they could recommend a campsite not too far away. The nice lady gave us a couple of options and we decided to stop at a nice beach location she had suggested. After arriving at our attended destination we soon did a 360 and continued driving, lets just say it wasn't that appealing. We drove for a while longer and it became really windy and our little campervan was being blown everywhere. We therefore pulled over at a place called Bulls. This was on the west coast and in order for locals to keep the name
alive they have used Bull in the name of most of the local amenities, for example the Drivethru-a-bull for the McDonalds, Forgive-a-bull for the church and Cure-a-bull for the medical centre. This was probably the only interesting thing about this place and after waking up the lady at the camp ground and thinking that these north New Zealand people might have a form of narcolepsy we spent the night with no other people in sight and left early next morning to continue our journey.
We arrived at Lake Taupo which is the largest lake in the country, it looked pretty big to us too! We spent the day exploring the area and Mark managed to avoid buying the biggest piece of of carrot cake which looked very good. I was very impressed, although surprised as he has spent most of his time traveling New Zealand trying out the local cakes and delicacies. We found a nice campground over looking the lake although very muddy and no other campervans in sight. It had a nice lounge room so we cooked in the kitchen facilities, drank lots of red wine and watched TV and was nice to get out of the
van as we had both been getting a bit of cabin fever.
The next day we drove to Rotoroa which is a thermal area, apparently the most energetic in the country with bubbling mud pools, gurgling hot springs, and gushing geysers. When we arrived it was tipping it down so we waited for it to clear before having a look round the area and booking ourselves on a traditional Maori Hangi's for the night. This is where food is cooked underground from the heat of the stones and has a nice BBQ taste, apart from the food (of course) we were also looking forward to learning more about the Maori way of life and there traditions. We got picked up along with a bus load of other people and drove to the Maori village. We were then told to remember we were on bus number 8 and soon realised that there were hoards of other tourists as well. We didn't really know what to expect but the guy where we booked the tour had said that there are a number of hotels that did Hangi's but they were not very authentic and touristy. We were both expecting something a
bit more intimate. Things looked up as Mark went to the bar and bought back a couple of cab savs! We both ended up really enjoying the evening, we learnt about traditional song and dance and culture and they performed the Haka which was one of the highlights of the night. Mark managed to put up with a lot of men wearing very little and listened intently as one of the Maori people explained what his tattoo's represented on his arse with full visual effects ( I was a a bit worried he enjoyed this a bit too much!) The food was good, a bit like a roast and had a really smoky taste. I over indulged with the dessert and definitely got my moneys worth!
The next day we drove to Tauranga, stopping at Hells Gate which is a thermal reserve and important to the local Maori people as a place pf healing. It was a pretty cool place and we both enjoyed the bubbling mud. We arrived in Tauranga and as it was dark we headed to a campground that had been recommended to us and described as having brand new kitchen and bathroom facilities. As we
drove up there were no lights on in reception and eventually after ringing a bell a lady came out. She was really lovely and somewhat surprised by us being there and that the information place had recommended it to us. We soon realised why as Mark position the van between two caravans with blown out tyres, old TV aerials and the curtains began to twitch. After soon realising we must have the wrong place as the facilities were less than desirable we made a swift exit after struggling to get through the boom gate and eventually found the right campsite!
Before leaving New Zealand we spent a few days in Auckland and the most popular area in the country and was really big and spread out. We went up the sky tower and spent the morning going back and forth to a photo shop as we thought all our photo's had been wiped from using a computer in an internet cafe. Luckily we have managed to get 75% of them back but some we have lost (hence the lack of foto's here!!).
We stayed in a hostel for a night and with not much sleep due to an American Band camp making noise to the early hours we got up early to head to hotter clients, tan here we come!
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