New Zealand

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Nueva Zealanda, as we couldn’t help thinking of it on arrival, took a while to adjust to. It was good week until we managed to shrug off the automatic ‘Hola,’ and relax into the ease of thinking in our own native tongue. Now, I fear, much of our Spanish is already lost.

The North Island

The flight was long, uncomfortable and predominantly sleepless and on arrival at the hostel (5am) we could not get in. There was no door bell. A trip down to the internet cafe and a skype call later, we were admitted into a dingy hostel and an even dingier room which housed a long term resident. The room had a distinctive smell James likened to that of a man who had been sleeping on his own too long and was littered with unwashed plates and cups. The bunk I was assigned had a razor blade in amongst the sheets. Not exactly what we had expected on arrival into the ‘developed world.’ The day was thus spent roaming the streets and drinking copious amounts of coffee and generally avoiding the hostel.

Jetlagged, James was up at 4am the next morning and was greeted by another long term resident. This one was kind, old, relentlessly talkative and perhaps slightly insane. He was sorting around eight stacking boxes full of clothes which he had apparently rummaged through the building’s bins to find that morning. One box contained an entire football kit. This last questionable eccentricity prompted our early departure and our last bus journey for a while. We were off to find the van.

The van itself was covered in bright graffiti with the anagram ‘MOTHER IN LAW: WOMAN HITLER’ displayed inconspicuously on the boot of it. By 1pm we were on the road and stocked up on food and other supplies from Pack n Save, the North Island’s super cheap supermarket. We then drove, with no thanks to my abysmal map reading, to a place called ‘Wellsford’ and spent the night in the carpark of a butcher who offered ‘ON FARM KILLING.’ We slept badly, not helped much by the fact that we hadn’t yet figured out how to make the bed.

The following day we drove on to Mangawhai for breakfast. There we sorted out the van, found a more comfortable way of making the bed and set off for the Bay of Islands. We ate fish and chips in Paihia in the fish and chips shop that James has frequently raved about from his last trip. We parked on the beach at Rangipita and bedded down for the night in far more beautiful surroundings than the night before. We slept well. Things were looking up.

Next morning we drove to a nearby town where we bought 5 minutes of hot shower each and then headed back to the beach for a breakfast of fried egg sandwiches. Heading further north we marvelled at the beautiful coastline as we wound around the country roads. We arrived in Dargerville via ferry and more windy roads at around 4pm where we cooked and ate our dinner with a glass of wine watching the sun setting over the water.

Breakfast the next morning was eaten by a serenely beautiful, misty estuary before heading off to the Coromandel Peninsula. The day before we had taken the van to a garage who had ascertained that our tires were bald, as James had suspected and questioned the Wicked engineer when we took the van about, and thus today returned the van to Wicked. It was a smooth transaction however and we soon had a great 4 wheel drive van with the slogan, ‘Behind every great man is a fart,’ imprinted on the back of it. The peninsula itself had the sunny New Zealand beauty we had become almost accustomed to. We thus risked the 20,000 dollar fine for camping without permit on the peninsula and survived it.

The next day we visited one of the best beaches I have ever been to, ‘Hot Water Beach.’ Here, after high tide, people come traipsing down with spades in hand ready to dig up holes in the sand which channel and mix the cold sea water with the lava heated water (around 60 degrees centigrade) which comes from under the ground, to make steaming personal baths to lie in under a warm winter sunshine. Divine. It got so hot I even ran into the cold sea to cool off. Following this I took the wheel for the first time and drove like a granny along the steep cliffed and insanely windy roads of the peninsula, frequently overtaken by other cars and lorries and only speeding up once we hit the straighter Rotorua bound roads. Several hours later we were greeted by the sulphurous rotten egg like smell of Rotorua. We parked up in a car park for the night, played our ritualistic game of monopoly and went to sleep to the sounds of drunken youths.

Our next two days were spent enjoying the pongy delights Rotorua has to offer. We checked into a nice hotel, part of a belated birthday present from James, and relaxed there having a private spa before dinner. Dinner was a Hangi and concert. Hangi is a traditional Mauri way of cooking food underground. The food was excellent, though we were unable to watch it being cooked, and afterwards there was a fantastic concert of music and dance which was perhaps not quite authentic (as the singers were clearly professional), but fantastic all the same. The women danced with poi and the men played some fantastic instruments and did a ‘Haka’ or warrior dance. We both took part in our corresponding dances which was hilarious. That night I had my first proper bath in 9 months. It was sheer bliss.

We were rudely awoken the next morning by a 6am fire alarm. Ironic on the only night we choose to stay in a hotel. We spent the day checking out some of the various New Zealand ‘experiences’ amused by the use of the word ‘experience’ on pretty much all of them. We watched the ‘Zorb experience’ for a while as it was invented in Roturua but decided against doing it. James has done it several times before and I was unimpressed by the short slope and expense. I’d rather do it at some point back home without so many other ‘experiences’ to tempt me and our slimming wallet. The ‘sheep experience’ was better. We watched an old fashioned carding machine put to use converting fleece into wool with the help of a spinner and a lazy kate. We then took a walk around the ‘blue lake’ before returning to Rotorua for the second part of my belated birthday present; a treatment at the Polynesian Spa. We relaxed in the hot baths for an hour or so and then I went in for my kiwi soufflé body wrap and massage. The spa is one of the top ten in the world and judging by the luxurious treatment I’m not surprised.

From Rotorua we drove to Mount Tupiah searching for natural hot springs en-route which we didn’t find. It was very cold and windy and I was glad I had bought a new hoody to replace my lost fleece. At Mount Rupiah we checked out Mount Doom which, for anyone like me who hasn’t managed to stay awake through Lord of the Rings, is where the badie Soron lives. It is a tremendously towering mountain but we were far more interested in the two ski resorts on the active volcano close by. We chose one and managed to hire some decent gear before going for an hour walk in the forest. We ended the day with a highly unusual visit to the pub.

It was cold, windy and incredibly icy up the volcano but my RIDE Vista saw me through very nicely. I was very impressed with it. The edges had just been sharpened and even on the icyist bits I managed to get an edge. James rode a K2, Parkstar which he really enjoyed as well. That evening we drove on to Taihape where we spent our first night in an official campsite in desperate need of a shower and some laundry facilities.

A long drive took us into Wellington where we went for dinner at Sara and Ben’s place. We had met Sara in Nicaragua and I had arranged to get some stuff sent out to them for James’ birthday so we had a pleasant and very boozy dinner with them and I collected the goods, probably not very subtly.

The South Island

An early ferry took us across to the South Island and we were soon driving through the beautiful remote countryside the South Island is renowned for. We drove west and stayed in a campsite again as we were both feeling a little worse for wear and in need of a shower. After breakfast the next morning we headed out for a long days driving stopping first on the north west coast for a walk down an incredibly beautiful beach skirted in forest. We exhausted ourselves climbing a huge sand dune (as a short cut) and partaking in the obligatory sand dune jumps before getting completely lost in the forest in search of the van. When we at last found it I discovered thousands of tiny sandflies in James’ hair. Apparently he had walked into a very successful spider’s web. We then drove all the way back to the East Coast and down to Maruia Springs where we had a good bathe in the natural hot springs there before parking up for the night.

The next day involved another big drive. When we arrived at our destination, Omaru, we were rewarded by the majestic sight of a tiny penguin cleaning itself in the bushes.

Brighton was the destination the following day. We stopped en-route in Moeraki to see the bizarre round boulders scattered along the beach. Unfortunately we didn’t time our arrival particularly well and arrived there at high tide thus we enjoying a rather treacherous walk up the beach to and from the boulders giving them a stepping stone affect very nearly getting cut off. Next stop was shag point where we got unbelievably close to both seals and sea lions. A tour of the Cadburys chocolate factory and the Speights brewery in Dunedin occupied us very nicely for the afternoon as we got free samples of the goods. We spent the night in Brighton experiencing life in a trailer park.

The next day, again a long days driving, included a lunch stop in Bluff where we enjoyed awesome views out to sea and Stewart Island and then on to Invercargill which, according to Mick Jagger apparently, is ‘the arse end of the universe’. It didn’t look great but I think perhaps he was being a little unfair.
We got as far as Lake Manapouri the next day and booked our tour on the Doubtful Sound. We then went for a nice walk around part of the lake and across to a nature reserve where we met ‘Charlie Brown’, the kaka, among other birds. We spent the night at a beautiful spot by a river between Manapouri and Te Aunua.

The trip on the sound was brilliant. We had a great informative guide and learnt that the sound is in fact a fjord, not a sound as it is glacier carved. The early explorers simply mistook it for a sound which is carved by a river instead. We first took a small boat to a hydro electric power station. We then got on a bus and drove for about an hour before getting on a larger boat which took us through the fjords and out into the Tasman sea. It is incredible how rapid and dramatic the difference is between the still waters of the fjord and then how it opens up into some of the roughest seas in the worlds. We didn’t get very far before the driver deemed it unsafe to continue out to sea.

On 20th we drove up to Lake Hawea where James spent four months living. We went to the pub where his mate Kelly worked but unfortunately she was off sick. We had a few jugs of Speights (now our favourite) and some chips and then stayed in the adjourning motor camp at a discounted rate courtesy of James’ previous frequenting no doubt. The next day we picked up Kelly and her 7 year old son, Luke, and took them up to Cardrona where Luke was having snowboarding lessons put on by his school. We spent the morning riding with Kelly in a white out and then took them back home and babysat Luke while Kelly went to work. I hired a K2 Va va voom the next day and Jim taught me how to do silly jumps etc which was surprisingly good fun. I must add that this time I managed a 180 (though admittedly a tiny one) without injury. Again we spent the night with Luke enjoying the luxury of a living room, kitchen and a proper Monopoly board while Kelly was at work.

We took Luke to Puzzling World the next day, largely because I was desperate to go and had great fun in the room of illusions and getting lost in the maze. We then checked into our surprisingly luxurious apartment which I had booked for James’ birthday. We spent the afternoon chilling out and enjoying our own space, cooked a pizza which was so big we were unable to finish it and then soaked ourselves in the spa before going back to the room for wine, chocolate and films. We were particularly impressed as the NZ Winter Games had chosen our hotel as their hotel venue and thus we were surrounded by famous athletes.

James’ 30th was spent in style and turned out even better than either of us expected. He had breakfast and presents in bed and received a fantastic video of his whole family wishing him a happy birthday in which we met Eva and Mia for the first time. By the time we managed to draw ourselves away from the video it was time to go heli boarding. We had a fantastic day out in the powder and the sunshine, so good that we had to book an extra 2 runs which, happily, were the best runs of the day. James rode fantastically well and impressed the entire group and the guide! Back at street level we had a drink overlooking Lake Wanaka and then returned to the hotel for champagne in the spa where James spotted Sean Wright, apparently the best snowboarder in the world! We then ate a delicious dinner (thanks to my mum and dad -thanks) and then collapsed.

A difficult couple of days followed, beginning with the onset of heavy rain which I blame for my overzealous hop skip and a jump back to the car after a toilet stop which resulted in a very sore foot. We stayed at a campsite near ‘Fox Glacier’ where we had hoped to hike the following day. As it was the weather and my foot were too bad to manage it and thus we tried to push on. Instead of pushing on, however, we spent the day in Greymouth hospital trying to get my foot x-rayed. It was a tiny hospital however with only a handful of doctors and thus we spent the entire day there, only to find (as we had suspected) it was a bad sprain and would simply take time, rest and a load of strong painkillers to recover.

The following day we drove up to Abel Tasman (again in the rain) to see the pancake rocks and blowholes. My foot couldn’t bear any weight and it was raining heavily but James somehow managed to commandeer a wheelchair and wheeled me around which was highly amusing... especially for him. As the weather was bad we decided against the kayaking trip we had planned and drove on to Nelson the following day. There we bought some jackets (though it had stopped raining) and a coffee plunger as we had lost our sock we were using as a filter and then checked into a campsite to wash of the rain induced grime and wash our clothes.

A sunny morning greeted us the next day and we spent some time looking around the market and sitting in coffee shops where I did the finishing touches on the bears for Eva and Mia and James did some work. Then we went out in search of Mini’s. It was the 50th birthday of the Mini and being celebrated in Nelson. The show (which we had been looking forward to all month) was not quite as spectacular as we had hoped but we had a great time wondering around looking at the tiny cars, James pointing out the van he had and dreaming about fixing his minime... one day.... We spent the night at a nice spot next to Mahau sound.

We followed 6 minis into Picton and nearly missed our turning to the ferry, such was the excitement of seeing 6 minis in a row on New Zealand roads, the next day. As we disembarked we were entertained by a mini musical played out on horns by at least 20 minis on the ferry on the way back to the north island. We got a Dominos takeaway at Wellington and continued to drive in the dark and the rain until we could drive no more and parked between a train track and a motorway.

The next day we got on with our epic drive back to Auckland stopping only for lunch at a lay-by. We thought we had timed it well as when we got back into the van the rain started to pour, however, when we put the key in the ignition it wouldn’t start. Our battery was flat, we had left the lights on. James went out onto the motorway trying to hail cars down to no avail. It was only when he returned to the van for his jacket and I was out there on my own in the pouring rain did anyone stop. Ladies, the damsel in distress thing works! Our next stop was to clean the car. Luckily we got a gap in the rain and attempted to repack our bags and gave the van a hoover. Back in Auckland at last we drove to the Wicked depot and parked there for the night and treated ourselves to a beer or three.

The next morning , after repacking our bags again, we returned the van and took a cab to the airport where we took full advantage of the free showers and hopped on our flight to Sydney.

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Photos

Terrified James
attempting to drive down 90 mile beach in a 2 wheel drive against the tide... we soon turned back.

Returning the van...
No this wasn't ours.. this was my favorite one in the garage

Hot Water Beach
having a bath

Comments

[Auntie Sue]

Lovely story and pics
Thanks for the latest news and lovely pictures.