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Our New Zealand adventure almost ended as quickly as it started. New Zealand needs proof of onward travel to enter the country and that was something we didn't have. So with only an hour and a half until our flight left we were in a mild panic to schedule our flight to Thailand. Fortunately for us and the numerous other travelers that this must happen to, there was a flight center where we could talk to an agent and set up our onward travel flight to Bangkok. A few clicks of the keyboard and our agent had a surprisingly reasonably priced ticket for us and without question, paricularly due to our time restraint, handed over our credit card and had our tickets in hand and most importantly, we were allowed to leave Australia and enter New Zealand.
The plane touched down in Auckland on a rainy and chilly afternoon. The kind of weather that reminded us of a fall day back home. Much different from the warmth and sun we had for the previous two weeks in California and Australia, but it felt good to throw on our long sleeved shirts and pants. We stayed one night in Aukland in
a hotel and tried enjoy our last night in a proper bed as best as we could because for the next 31 days we would be sleeping in a camper van. What an exciting day! We have become van people...living out of our van and being as free as we wanted with all of our belongings under one small rolling roof. We picked up our home on wheels and quickly named her Valerie since she was a vanette not a van. At one time in her life she had bright white paint but now it was faded and chipped from the previous renters, but she had character and we fell in love her with right away. Valerie would be our closest companion over the following month and the third wheel....or four, in all of our upcoming adventures. Without wasting any time we revved the engine and puttered out of Auckland towards a town popular only for its caves filled with bioluminescent glow worms. We made it to Rotorua and met up with our kiwi guide who would be taking us deep beneath the earth to explore a few miles of caves and their glowing inhabitants. It was a unique experience
unlike anything we've ever seen before. While the headlamps were on, the glow worms looked like thin clear strings suspended from the ceiling of the cave but as soon as the lights went out it looked as if you were staring at the night sky of assorted colored stars that dotted the roof of the cave. It's the poop that glows! That's right, glowing poop. The bioluminescent feces attracts insects and when they get close enough, they stick to the worm like the web of a spider. Floating through the underwater caves and staring up at the glow worms poo was a great way to start out our New Zealand trip and now we were stoked for more unique experiences. Moving southward without much of a plan at all, except for a newly purchased lonely planet New Zealand guidebook, we stopped at the small lakeside town of Taupo. To our surprise we arrived the week of Ironman New Zealand. You could really feel the energy from everyone in town, whether they were competing in the ironman or just there to watch, there was a lot of excitement and nervousness and it was certainly palpable. We rented mountain bikes for the
day and explored some of the bet single track the town had to offer. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the hours on our bikes riding on the outskirts of the lake. As many times as Kristine has said that she doesn't ever want to do any ironman again, I could see a small fire burning in her eyes as we passed by the lake and all the swimmers, bikers, and runners were getting their last miles in before their big day. NZ is set up for camper vans. They are everywhere and really the only way to see the beautiful and natural settings the country has to offer. Freedom camping, which is parking where ever you'd like for the night is illegal unless your camper van has a contained toilet and ours didn't...unless you count the Gatorade bottle. So the only option was RV or holiday parks. There are tiers to these parks. The lowest tier was an empty lot somewhere that had a toilet and a place to cook your food. The next level was a little nicer with the same empty plot of land for parking and camping but this type of park had better facilities
for showering and cooking. The final and most expensive were the top 20 holiday parks, as they are called. They were like little van communities that had hot showers, washer and dryers and kitchens with appliances, actually worth using. Some even had gyms and saunas that you could pay extra for. But with the best gym right outside our van door, we never had to pay for a workout. We stayed in every type of park but leaned more towards the cheaper middle version and did most of our cooking out of the back of our van with a two burner camper stove that came with Valerie. You'd be surprised at some of the tasty recipes we were able to conjure up during our month living out of the van. Eating your meals in the fresh air as the sun rises or sets has a way of making canned soup or oatmeal taste like a gourmet meal....leaving the soul just as full as the belly. The plan was to spend about a week on the north island and 3 on the south since the south held most of the mystique and natural beauty. So we hightailed it out of Lake
Taupo and drove towards the east coast to new Zealand's wine region. We spent a night in the town of Napier and the following morning enjoyed the dry air and clear skies that vineyards thrive off of. The majority of vineyards are the same and we've done a couple tours already so we decided to do a quick tasting, grab a bottle for our next romantic dinner by the van and keep on rolling towards Wellington. We always feel a little out of place in fancier settings and nothing highlighted that more as when we parked Valerie in the lot of the Vineyard. Nestled up next to three shiny and spotless Range Rovers was our Mazda Bongo van, crusted with 4 days worth of New Zealand's juiciest bugs, but our money was no different than theirs except they probably have a little more. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and it's situated at the southern end of the north island. It was our last stop on the north island until we crossed back over at the end of our trip to return our van. Wellington was like everywhere else in NZ; clean, situated near water or mountains, and strewn
with friendly local people. It's also known for a thriving craft beer scene so we indulged ourselves a little before hopping on the ferry for the South Island. After a three and a half hour ferry ride we arrived in the town of Picton at midnight. We drove Valerie to the nearest camp ground and retired for the evening....the south island awaits!
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