North Island: Kiwi's, Glowworms, Rotten Eggs and Rotten Weather!

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We left Auckland in Bitsy armed with a list of the places we would like to visit (thanks to Elisha) but with no clear schedule of where we would stay. We had booked the ferry for early on the morning of the 6th, but that was our only deadline. We headed south.

Our first scheduled stop was at the Waitomo Caves however en route we passed by the Kiwi House in Otorohanga. We shrugged at each other and said why not? We are not bird lovers, but the Kiwi bird only comes out at night, so we were unlikely to see it under any other circumstances. And we were curious to see the bird that all New Zealand Nationals are named after. We swung Bitsy into the carpark, paid out 16 dollars each, and did the tour. We got to see two Kiwi birds, some ducks, some cool geckos and some owls. For bird lovers it is probably something of a paradise, for us it was interesting, but not fascinating, but sure it got us out of the house for an hour...

With Bitsy back on the road again, we made our way to the Waitomo Caves. We just arrived in time to take the final tour of the day into the deep limestone caves. Led by a guide who was the grandchild of the Maori chief who first opened the caves to the public, we were educated on the formation of the caves. There were stalagmites and stalactites everywhere and it was interesting to see the art gallery of images that are to be found on the cave walls, but the real reason for our trip was to see glow-worms in operation. We were told about the glow worm life-cycle - its not much fun being an adult glowworm - and at the end of the 45minute tour we stepped into a little boat and set off into the dark on a river that flows through the cave. It was amazing. The little glow-worms were all over the roof and it seemed like we were looking at a sky filled with tiny stars. As we floated on through the caves everyone was silent in awe and the only sound was the soft slush of the boat moving along. We came to a halt in the darkest area of the cave and it was just magical. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures as it was too dark. It is an expensive tour, but it is one that can be done in very few places on earth. Those few minutes in the caves, surrounded by natures little torches made it all worthwhile. We parked up in a sweet little campsite back in Otorohanga, made a simple dinner and bedded in for the night.

The next morning we had a sleep in and then made our way to the thermal town of Rotorua. You quickly know that you are in a thermal town by the foul stench of the sulphur that is akin to rotten eggs. Fortunately the nose gets use to the smell after an hour or two. We drove on through the town and found a campsite with thermal baths. After a quick dip in the 40 degree pools we were roasted and gave up. Instead we grabbed a shovel and made our way to the nearby Hot Beach. The water in Lake Rotorua is not naturally warm, but hot water that is bubbling under the surface of the land makes its way to the lake by thermal springs. If you dig the sand out that sits on top of one of these springs the mixture of boiling spring water and cool lake water supposedly makes for a pleasant bathing experience. Unfortunately after Philippe's valiant effort with the spade, the water that formed in the pool was filthy with cigarette butts and other debris. There was no way we were bathing in it. Nice concept, not so great in practice! For dinner we tried to use the steam as the locals do - we attempted to steam our spuds in the hangi cooker (which is placed above a natural steam source). The spuds were taking forever to cook, so we ended up using gas, but again - nice concept, not great in practice!

We had planned to go see a geyser the next morning, however during the night a ferocious rainstorm hit the campsite and as we jumped from the van our feet landed in a squelch of mud. The campsite was water logged and the rain just didn't stop. We weren't in the mood for seeing water coming up from the ground when we were seeing enough of it coming down from the sky! Also, we were running short on days to get to the ferry, so we decided to cross Napier off our agenda and tip on south directly towards Wellington.

En route to Wellington we decided to try and catch sight of 'Mount Doom' from Lord of the Rings. I also knew that 'Mordor' was somewhere in the area. Finding them meant a slight detour, but so that the day was not a complete wash-out we decided to give it a go. The rain kept coming and as we found Mount Doom (mostly covered in cloud) the rain turned to snow. We kept going, despite our lack of snow-chains, and found 'Mordor' - now a ski resort - up a side lane. Despite the poor weather, or maybe because of it, we could see why they chose here for the film. The vegetation is brown, dull, rocky and just very gloomy.

As it turns Mordor wasn't such a bad place for us as out our detour saved us a lot of time. Had we gone the other way we would have been stranded as the snow got so heavy that cars were just abandoned. According to the news here, the vehicles weren't recovered for two full days. This would have meant missing our ferry, so we were very lucky. With the rain pelting down from the heavens there was no point in stopping to enjoy the afternoon, so we grabbed a coffee and shared the driving to make our way as far as Wellington in one go. When we reached the campsite late that evening the rain had eased off. We took it easy for the night, treating ourselves to a nice meal in a restaurant and then a movie in the van.

We spent the next day wandering around Wellington, trying to upload some back-dated blogs and seeing a bit of the capital. While it wasn't snowing, the weather was still against us. Far from having a gentle spring breeze, there was a bitter winter gale about. We passed the day sight-seeing from the comfort of our van and retired for an early night in advance of the early ferry crossing in the morning.

Hopefully the South Island will bring us some nicer weather!

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[karin counet]

bitsy
And: how is life in bitsy? You don't get lost in it? You're sure it's a van?