Central & West North Island

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On our way back inland from the coastal town of Napier to Lake Taupo, we decided it was getting late in the day and we should find somewhere to camp. Whipping out the trusty DOC campsite leaflet, we noticed a basic campsite was available in the woods not too far from Taupo:we would pitch up there for the night and push on to Taupo in the morning. Turning off from the winding, single lane 'highway' we headed down a narrow road for 10km or so, turning off again onto an even narrower road into the forest which eventually became a gravel track. We headed along for a while, starting to wonder whether or not we'd actually find the campsite and then it appeared, not much more than a picnic area with a single drop toilet and four spaces for vans to park up for the night, literally in the middle of nowhere. We had our space of choice, with Stacey reversing in carefully and stopping when I turned and looked around. I turned back quickly and said to Stacey “Don't panic, but there's a man with a gun coming out towards us”...

Knowing that warning her was futile, she turned around to see the man in camouflage carrying a rifle walking towards us in a stalking pose. The initial panic was over quickly as he walked passed us with a wave, with us quickly replying in kind and smiling as he went over to his campervan- the only other one around. It was obvious afterwards that he was a deer hunter but of course being in the middle of nowhere and not expecting to see people with guns, it was a bit of a shock at first: thankfully he turned out to be friendly enough.

The next morning as I got up and out to make the tea, Stacey was laying in bed with the window half open when much to our surprise our new friend popped his head through the window for a neighbourly chat. As Stacey lay there with the covers pulled up to her neck, I chatted to the guy about the cost of the campervan, the crap exchange rate, four wheel drives and ending on him deciding that he'd get in touch with an importer to see if he could take advantage of the crappy £ and get a Range Rover imported from the UK- friendly folk these kiwis! We had breakfast and later on he came over to see if we wanted some crisps that he wasn't going to eat- cheesy poofs and burger rings- so of course we accepted. We headed off and gave our new friend a wave as we headed out of the forest back to the main road towards Taupo (and safety!).

It was a grey day at the lake with low cloud hanging around the mountains, so we began by exploring the small township, nosing at the ultra expensive hiking gear and eventually satisfying our spending needs by buying some batteries from 'The Warehouse'. On our way back to the car, we noticed that the park had a fancy looking pay toilet block complex and were delighted to find that they were offering hot showers for only $2 and also had drinking water to fill up the campervan water bottle. As well as the huge lake (which is actually a giant caldera - scary!), there are a lot of other touristy things to see in the area and we began at 'Craters of the Moon'. This is a small geothermal park that suddenly sprung up after the completion of a local geothermal power station. The underground reservoirs had been affected and a nearby plot of land suddenly opened up into huge craters and hissing steam vents. From afar it looks as though some moor land is covered by a scattering of small fires but as you follow the walkway around, its superheated steam escaping from the earth (called 'fumeroles'). There is even a disclaimer on the way in that you enter at your own risk and that you shouldn't wear sandals for risk of scalding. The place was fun, although lacked the sheer variety of things that Wai-o-tapu had.

We then headed to a local set of fierce rapids where the wide flowing river is forced through a narrow rocky gorge, causing it to flow tremendously fast and turbulently before plunging over a cliff back into a wide river. The sheer power of the water was impressive and beats most of the other waterfalls we've seen, it being the most vivid turquoise colour. We finished up by visiting a honey farm to try some local mead but were slightly disappointed in that it was nowhere near as nice as the Lindisfarne mead back home. All around us the leaves had changed colour for Autumn into golden yellow and fiery reds which made the landscape look beautiful and not dissimilar to what you might see in New England.

We camped the night at a little site down by the river called 'Reid's Farm'. The late farmer Reid had apparently liked backpackers so much that he let people camp on his land for free and left it for the same purpose after he died. It was a beautiful little spot right on the riverside amongst all the trees with their multicoloured leaves and semi- landscaped greenery. We decided for the first time in NZ to hand wash a few things and string up a washing line and of course, that prompted the rain to come which continued all night so that we had to find a laundrette the next day and use the tumble driers.

We headed south along the lake that morning to visit Moana's mum Liz in the small town of Turangi as she'd kindly invited us to camp at hers for the night. She showed us around and took us to a set of thermal swimming pools, heated by the geothermal rocks underground so we had a nice hot swim. That evening she cooked a delicious roast chicken for dinner- the first roast we'd had since being away and it was absolutely delicious! Whilst camping in the van on their driveway, we found some wifi and booked our flights from Christchurch back to Auckland which was pretty convenient.

The following morning she took us to her family Marae. Maori people have at the centre of there tribe, something called a Marae which I can liken best to a kind of community centre but also where any important tribal business is discussed and where neighbouring tribes come to meet. Weddings and funerals are carried out there along with festivals so it is a very important place and really is the heart of the community. The building is lavishly decorated with beautiful wooden carvings and has a small field directly in front, with two buildings either side. It is traditional for visitors to be 'called onto' the Marae in a ceremonial fashion and Liz did just that. She stood in front of the Marae and sang us to come one. We then stop half way in order to pay respect before be called on again to the building. The females first shake hands before pressing their noses together and breathing in, which is then also done by the males as a way of ensuring that there are no bad intentions between the hosts and visitors. Inside the Marae was again nicely decorated with wood carvings and also with pictures of deceased elders on the wall. There were small mattresses stacked up as apparently people are allowed to sleep inside during gatherings. It was very interesting to see this part of Maori culture and experience some of the traditional things that go on which you probably wouldn't see otherwise as a tourist.

We said our fair wells to Liz and Ken before heading of to Tongariro National park, stopping briefly at a viewpoint to try and track down the source of an unpleasant odour that had been plaguing the van for a couple of days (it was some milk that had been spilt in a carrier bag and had started to evolve into new lifeforms). We entered the national park which is home to the popular Tongariro Alpine Crossing - the most popular day hike on the north island - and headed for the visitor centre. My heart sank as I saw the weather forecast for the next few days- snow, cloud and gale-force winds which meant that walkers couldn't go up into the alpine conditions and do the crossing.

The weather was going to be bad for several days and although I really wanted to do the hike as it climbs up to volcanoes and crater lakes (and is also the actual location of mount doom from 'Lord of the Rings), we couldn't afford to spend the time waiting around so decided to push off towards New Plymouth and maybe come back to the area if the weather picked up. We headed for Taumarnui and then set off along the “Forgotten Highway” towards Stratford, stopping along the way at a DOC campsite for the night. The highway runs for around 150km through the mountains and along gorges with very little habitation along the way and no petrol stations until reaching the other end. It is very pretty and the road is mainly sealed, with only 15km of gravel so we decided that the name “forgotten highway” should actually be awarded to the road we'd take between Rotorua and Napier which was unsealed for most of the way and felt much more forgotten. We ambled along the valleys, once getting stuck behind 80 or so cows that were being driven along the road. We had to move at a crawl behind them and watch as they were herded along, pooping and occasionally mounting each other as they ran along the road.

Eventually arriving at Stratford, we took a break to see the famous mock-Elizabethan clock tower in the town centre. Stratford is mainly a support town for the surrounding farms and doesn't really have a lot going for it except that it shares the name of Shakespeare's birth place and so not surprisingly it tries to mimic this. The clock tower is actually a glockenspiel and at certain times of the day, mechanical characters from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' pop out and some famous quotes are recited- very cheesy but worth a stop!

Back on the road to New Plymouth we headed for the I-site to enquire about the local campsites. The helpful lady at the desk gave us a map and marked them on but also suggested that there was a car park with toilets down near the pier where campervans could go and park at overnight and people didn't mind. This was fantastic news as it was free and we didn't have to worry about being moved on so made use of it for a couple of nights. We had a quick explore of the town, stopping at a few hiking shops and feeling feint when we saw how much they wanted to charge for water proof trousers and looking at the famous 'Wind Wand' down on the sea front- a slim 45 metre high bright red carbon fibre tube with a globe at the top that glows in the dark and sways with the blowing wind. Then with light fading, we headed down to the camping spot we'd been told about and had a surprisingly good night sleep while listening to the waves crash in against the pier.

The next day we headed to the Taranaki National Park, home of the 2500m volcano called Mount Egmont. The volcano is an almost perfect cone shape with a snow capped tip and really stands out amongst the otherwise flat landscape (although we didn't realise this until the next day as the sky was thick with low cloud). We drove to the visitor centre an enquired about the 8-10 hour climb to the summit and were told that it wasn't possible that day due to the snow, ice and lack of visibility. The following day was supposed to be clearer although the risks of snow and ice remained which every year claim several lives of hikers who don't have crampons and fall to their deaths.

Having decided to try the summit hike the following day, we filled the morning in the National Park with a short hike around the 'Goblin Forest'. The mountain attracts so much rain that the surrounding forest is very damp and where we were hiking, the trees were covered with thick green moss giving a very strange atmosphere. You couldn't help walk through the forest amongst the gnarly old trees without feeling that it if goblins existed, this would surely be the place they'd live, laying in wait to jump out on unsuspecting hikers.

We spent the afternoon back in New Plymouth with our first stop being at a fruit winery, hoping to find something to rival Lindisfarne wine. It turned out to be nice but still not up to scratch in our opinions, but we bought a small bottle after sampling several different kinds, including more mead. Later, we visited a nearby park which provided a variety of charming open and sheltered areas and then the i-site in New Plymouth, which has a museum attached with some fantastic displays on the history and geology of New Zealand, along with some interesting information on Maori culture.

We had an early night back at the quayside car park where we'd camped the previous night, ready for our early start to reach the summit of Mount Egmont. Setting off before dawn, we reached Egmont visitor centre just after sunrise and proceeded to cook breakfast. We'd decided that a cooked breakfast would give us plenty of energy to tackle the alpine conditions that awaited- a huge omelette with sausage, pepper, onion and cheese which actually left us feeling full for most of the day.

The start of the hike follows a steep land rover track up through sub-alpine forest for a couple of hours to reach a hikers hut, marking the start of the alpine environment where plants don't grow. From there on it became much harder with a scramble through a rocky gulley where the rocks were partially covered with a thin but invisible layer of ice so we went on with caution. Climbing up out of the gulley we met with a steep skree field stretch on for miles up the mountain side, dotted with patches of snow. As we followed the orange posts we tried not to slip on the scree as the snow and ice became thicker. We climbed into the band of cloud that had begun to encircle part of the mountains - a bit like Saturn's rings - and lost most of the visibility. Stacey wasn't comfortable carrying on for fear of safety but I wanted to try and get above the cloud for a better view so I left her wrapped up warm on a rock whilst I climbed on higher.

The snow had taken over the skree field so I climbed the steep slope by kicking into the snow to get a decent foothold one step at a time, pausing every dozens paces to catch my breath. I eventually made it to the lava flow known as 'the lizard' which turned at right angles to where I'd been heading, leading up towards the final summit and the volcano crate. I met some ice climbers coming down who had crampons, ice axe etc who'd made it up all the way so I carried on up the lava flow for another couple of hundred metres before the conditions eventually became too dangerous to carry on. I'd got above the cloud and managed to take a self-photograph by balancing the camera on a lava boulder and stood for a while looking at another set of snow capped peaks (possibly tongariro area) that were also rising out of the clouds.

Heading back down was almost as tricky as going up since the slope was so steep but surprisingly it was easier on the snow than on the scree as it actually helped slow you down. I found poor Stacey sitting where I'd left her and we headed down the scree slope back to the gulley. The ice in the gulley that had plagued us on the way up had caught the sun a bit and melted off when made life easier. Back on the land rover track things became greener as we descended the steep track, occasionally running at points as it actually hurt to walk down slowly since our knees were getting the impact of trying to brake our body weight.

We made it back to the van just before the heavy rain set in and made a cup of tea whilst resting our aching limbs before heading to proper campsite for a well earned hot shower. Before we left, I looked at a map of the region in the visitor centre and figured that I'd made it to about 2200 metres, about 300m short of the summit- disappointing but not worth life and limb for! The campsite we ended up at was quite interesting as it was a field where the owners also lived in an old bus converted into a home. The site was off the grid and their power was generated from renewable energy sources including solar, wind and even a little water wheel. They had a battery back and inverter to provide 230V power to the site- all pretty interesting stuff to me having worked in this area before leaving the UK. We made a cup of tea in the small kitchen on site and then collapsed for the remained of the day staring out at a fantastic view of the mountain with the sunset playing on its white crown.

We awoke the next day with stiff legs - as much from the descent as the ascent combined with cold temperature in the van. We headed down to New Plymouth and stocked up on supplies before heading on. We'd thought about doing a boat tour in an old lifeboat out to the sugar-loaf marine reserve but the weather was foul and the waves pretty treacherous. Instead, we headed south on the long scenic route of the surf highway (around the west side of the peninsula following the shoreline). In the end it wasn't worth the extra distance since the area was pretty desolate aside from a small lighthouse where we stopped for lunch. It would've been better if the sky wasn't filled with low cloud totally engulfing the views of the volcano, but the wasn't much we could do about it, so just carried on.

It was a fairly lengthy drive, taken at a leisurely pace and we ended up staying just outside of Wanganui at another proper campsite (two on consecutive nights- totally unheard of for us but we wanted to get some washing done!). The site was near a nice little sandy cove, surrounded by rocky cliffs so was quite picturesque. There was a playground there and we couldn't resist having a go on the huge zip line that launched you out across a small river- great fun! I kind of felt the need even more so because I was turning 28 the next day.

Back at the campsite, we made dinner and chatted to an Australian couple before taking full advantage of the campsite's TV room with a bottle of wine. The next morning we awoke with even stiffer legs than the previous day such that it was almost painful to walk. As we hadn't done much walking the previous day after our long trek, our muscles were really tight which made our plan of driving into Waganui and walk around a little difficult. We tried anyway, opting for a slow stroll up the high street and then some celebratory birthday fish and chips down by the riverside. Eating out is generally pretty expensive in NZ so we'd avoided it so far. The exception being for fish and chips which had been recommended to us by a kiwi lady that Stacey met in Indonesia. The Kiwi's take on fish in chips is pretty authenticate and very cheap, even compared to England, with the only drawback being that they tend only to do salt rather than salt & vinegar- fish-n-chip sacrilege!

Wanganui is a pretty nice place, set on the riverside near a huge natural harbour with the sea. While we were there we looked at their art gallery which was really conteporary and didn't seem to work in such a small town. There was also a big tower (actually a war memorial) you could climb for a view over the city but with our legs barely able to move us horizontally, there was no chance of them taking us vertically up the several hundred step to the top of the tower.

We headed south a bit further, parking up early at a free DOC campsite near a stream for some birthday R&R and a bottle of fine New Zealand wine (or two). Stacey had even bought me a birthday cake which we tucked into as well, amongst the balloons! The next morning we'd be heading right to the south to see Wellington and visit my uncle David and his wife Moana as they'd very kindly invited us to stay with them for a while.

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