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Published: November 21st 2005
I’d heard that Customs are strict in New Zealand so was careful not to bring any food into the country. However, I did have walking boots and had to declare these on my form. This meant that I had my boots cleaned for me by the friendly biosecurity people at the airport. They certainly needed the clean and what a nice welcome to the country!
It was 4am when I arrived and I’d completely missed Sunday 30th October as I’d crossed the International Date Line. Feeling a little disorientated. I was there so early I had to wait for the busses to town to start at 6am. I was headed into town to get a bus to my uncle’s in Northland, the big peninsular north of Auckland.
I’m amazed at how friendly everyone is! Our bus driver for the four hour journey gave us running commentaries on our progress and even a few touristy pieces of information. He used the words “there” and “folks” a lot. It was lovely.
The countryside looks so much like the UK. Northland particularly reminds me of the part of Scotland I’m from - only with much brighter sunshine!
Bay of Islands
Hummer
Surprised it's not too heavy for the ferry...I got off at Whangarei
where I was met by my uncle and aunt in a Hummer jeep! They work as caretakers for a wealthy New Zealander who owns a vast tract of land in one of the most beautiful parts of the country: the Bay of Islands. The boss owns a Hummer and it needed servicing, so they combined my arrival with taking it to the garage and doing several other "town" things that are difficult in the remote place they live in.
Very surreal being driven around in a Hummer, even with Jet Lag! It’s much favoured by American Rap stars and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s thirsty on petrol and in New Zealand it’s in a class of vehicle where you have to pay extra tax for each mile you do. But it does turn heads and has loads of knobs and switches to tilt the seats and do loads of other stuff I couldn’t work out. However, strangely for such an expensive "car", it doesn’t have a lock on its petrol cap. It also has slightly dodgy steering and my uncle had to take it to Auckland the following week to get fixed.
They eat quite healthily in New Zealand! We had lunch in a café, and I had something called a kumara. This is basically a sweet potato. It's not native to New Zealand as the Maori brought it over from polynesia Anyway, it tastes fantastic and I've been eating quite a bit of it during my stay! Also, if you get fruit juices here, they are not sweetened artificially (unlike Chile!), people eat fewer chips and just generally seem to be more health concious than in the UK.
Got up at 5am the next morning. Normally I’m a terrible riser, but I’ve learned to use western bound Jet Lag to make me an early riser for a few days after I arrive in a place. It was still dark and a beautiful starry night. My uncle’s house overlooks the bay and I sat on the veranda looking at this beautiful scene as the pre-dawn came in. All I could hear was the sound of waves and the sound of strange birdsong (maybe tui?) in the woods around. Another treasured moment for the memory bank!
Spent some time in the morning trying to write my blog on Bolivia. I’d been putting it off till I got to my uncle’s as it can be difficult and time consuming to do this on the road. However, the sun was shining and I was in another fantastic place, so my aunt took me into Russell (the local town) to arrange the next few days.
The Bay of Islands is an appropriate place to start a trip to New Zealand as it’s steeped in history. This is where the first European settlement happened and was one of the most densely populated with Maori when Cook arrived. It is also where the famous Treaty of Waitangi was signed. This document paved the way for New Zealand to become part of the British Empire and purported to guarantee protection to the Maori from the many Europeans already in New Zealand. Of course, things didn’t quite work out that way but today the Treaty of Waitangi is being used to address past grievances for indigenous people in a way I certainly didn’t see in South America.
The place where the treaty is signed is now a museum, which I visited in my stay. It is a vitally important place in the history of this small, young nation.
I went to book my tickets for a couple of excursions and spelled my surname (as I always have to). I was surprised when the girl knew how to pronounce it and then she said “oh, I know someone of that name”. This is not something that happens to me often for me as my surname is rather unusual. Of course, it was my cousins that she knew! I’ve arrived in a small community where everyone knows everyone and so I’ll need to be careful what I say as they know my family!
I’d arrived on the day of one of Australasia’s biggest annual sporting events: the Melbourne Cup. I had a punt and decided that it was not worth backing the favourite, a horse called “Makybe Diva”, which had won twice already and was unlikely to win an unprecedented third time. I chose a random horse from half way down the field and lost my NZD4. I think the guy in the betting shop expected my aunt and I to be bigger gamblers as he noticed our Hummer and was making admiring comments about it. Incredibly, “Makybe Diva” won the race, coming from quite far behind in the closing stages!
Next day, I went on a boat trip in the Bay of Islands. The first activity was to try to go swimming with dolphins. This is something I’d always wanted to do. We found some (quite easy) and as there were no juveniles, we were allowed to try and swim with them. We all got into shorties and climbed into this net at the side of the boat. Then the dolphins swam away and the boat moved to try and catch them up - with us inside the net hanging on for dear life! It was very sore on the fingers. Unfortunately the dolphins did not want to play with us, so we just had to accept that. When we got out, the dolphins swam back to us and were leaping in and out of the water right by our boat, so we got in the water again. Then they swam away again. Hmm... playful pesky creatures! The Polynesian Princess
Use your imagination... They are wild animals and basically they choose whether to swim with us, not the other way round. The rest of the day was spent cruising the bay, including going through the famous “hole in the rock” in the boat. Good fun. Then we stopped at an island for an hour and a half.
I’m enjoying the warm weather and not being at an oppressive altitude like I was in South America. I hadn’t planned it this way, but I’ll have no winter for 18 months as I’ll return to the UK in spring. Seems very strange that Christmas is on its way. Just can’t get used to Christmas being in the summer time.
Next day, I went on a very long bus ride to the very northern tip of New Zealand. Cape Reinga is a holy place for the Maori as they believe that after death, their souls pass by here on the way to Hawaiki, their mythical homeland. It’s also the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and you get some amazing surf beaten up by two vast bodies of water coming together.
On the way there, we stopped in a kauri forest. The kauri is a native New Zealand tree that used to cover the whole of the north. The tree is lovely and straight, with no knots low down and proved ideal for ships' masts when the Europeans arrived. Hence, there is very little left now but what there is is now protected.
After Cape Reinga, we went sand boarding on some massive sand dunes. Really good fun! Then, we had the main billed part of the day. We drove down Ninety Mile Beach. This beach is 64 miles long and the sand is hard enough to drive on at low tide. We stopped on the way to pick up tuatuas. These are like oysters and you just dig with your hands and they are a couple of centimetres under the sand, waiting to be picked up. I ate some for my breakfast the next day. Just spit them open, put on some vinegar and swallow raw. Lovely!
On the way back from there, we visited the “Ancient Kauri Kingdom”. Kauri trees that existed thousands of years ago were knocked down by volcanoes or earthquakes and became buried in the ground. They are still there today and people The Black Rocks
in Bay of Islands make some amazing things out of them. A few years back, they found a piece so big, they hollowed it out and turned it into a staircase! May not sound very exciting, but has to be seen to be believed!
Lastly, to a fish and chip shop where you chose uncooked slices of fish fillet, paid for it by weight and could then watch as it was battered and fried.
My aunt and uncle live in a fairly remote place and they have to drive at least 20 minutes to get to the nearest shops. If they want to go further, they have to take a car ferry or drive on an unpaved road.
Next day, I went down to Auckland and the following day, picked up my hire car. It felt great to have wheels again! I have a whole week and the whole of the North Island! I only have to be in Wellington in eight days time.
My car is a Toyota Starlet. It's a mini car and ideal for one person. It has automatic transmission (thought I'd requested manual, but most people here seem to use automatics) and is very zippy!
Poor Knights
Bizarrely, given that I’ve been in New Zealand only a month and so far have only seen Auckland and Northland, the first place I drove the car was back up north! New Zealand has one of Jaques Cousteau's Top Ten rated dive sites: the "Poor Knights" islands, off the east coast of Northland.
I stayed at a "Holiday Park" in Tutukaka, where the dive boats are based. Holiday parks are like camp/caravan sites, but they usually often have lodges and sometimes they have "backpacker lodges". This was ideal for me as I only need a bed for the night and want to save money for doing and seeing stuff. This park also had a trampoline! I haven't been on one of these for years and I jumped up and down on it for a while. It matched my mood very well! Had dinner with some people up from Auckland for the weekend. There were some Kiwis but also loads of UK expats. Had a lovely fish for dinner and some good brown beer for the first time since the Cape Reinga
(Nearly) the most northely point in Aotearoa New Zealand and a holy place for the Maori UK.
Next day, I went diving. I've done about 20 dives before, and I learned in the UK so diving in cold water was OK.
The Poor Knights get their bizarre name from "Poor Knights Pudding", some kind of a popular dish at the time James Cook discovered them. In summer, you have pohutukawa ("New Zealand Christmas Tree") blossoms all over it and he thought it looked like jam on his pudding. Anyway, weird name or not, they are a spectacular dive site as the waters are so nutrient rich and warm water comes over from Australia. These waters also bring tropical fish and this creates a unique environment where you can dive among beautiful green and red kelp and see the odd colourful fish from warmer waters. In my two dives, I saw loads of fish, most of which I'm not yet able to name, but it included rays. There were also nudibrachs.
The islands and their waters are protected. You're not allowed to land on the islands, but we did go into the world's largest sea cave. Apparently, Crowded House and some other Kiwi bands have played in here. You can fit a good few Lots of froth
Two Oceans: Indian (Tasman Sea) and Pacific meet at Cape Reinga. boats inside and we had fun shouting and hearing our echoes.
On the way back, we saw whales! This happens every now and then in these waters but we were very lucky. We were within a few hundred metres. They would surface for only a few seconds, then go down for some time.
Greater Auckland
Rather than go straight back down to Auckland, I had the offer of staying with relatives of an old friend of my Grandma in Sandspit, further down the coast. They used to live in Auckland, but now live in what used to be their holiday home ("bach"). They've demolished the old house and built a much bigger one. The coastline of New Zealand is changing as this happens. The country is booming and people are getting bigger and more houses.
Then I went down to Auckland. I had arranged to meet up with my youngest cousin, Emma, who I have not seen for 11 years. She's now 19 and a student in Auckland. We had actually tried and failed to meet up before I picked up the car. I didn't recognise her at all when we evenually met! It was nice to Sand boarding
...on massive sand dunes spend an hour or so getting to know her. Sure she'll end up in the UK on her “OE” eventually, as many Kiwis do!
It was chucking it with rain, so I persuaded her to let me use the Internet at her place of study on her login to get some South American blog written. The weather was generally fantastic on my stay but I made good use of bad days.
Rotorua
I stayed in a hostel in Auckland and left early next morning. I was headed for Rotorua, one of NZ's top tourist spots due to its amazing geothermal features. I was in no particular hurry, so took a meandering route via the "Firth of Thames" and down from there. I stopped at Miranda Springs, a hot springs where there did not appear to be many tourists, but which modestly claimed to be the biggest thermal baths in the Southern Hemisphere! Then a few meanders and detours (including to a mineral "warehouse" in a tiny place called Ngatea). I loved having the freedom to do things like that, before arriving in Rotorua. Oh, on the way, passed through a little anonymous town called Matamata, which is now firmly on the tourist map as "Hobbiton". New Zealand is milking the LOTR bandwagon for all it's worth! If you don't know what LOTR stands for, I don't know where you've been for the last five years!
Stayed in quite a nice hostel, but of course had to sleep in the top bunk for the first night. This is often the case in hostels, but if you're canny, you can grab the bottom one for the following night when people move on. I tried cooking some kumaras. They didn't have an oven, so I just boiled them with skins, mashed them and mixed in some NZ blue cheese. With some fresh green beans, it made a very nice meal. Also, it was the first time I've cooked in ages. I didn't in South America as it's cheap to eat out and usually you don't get cooking facilities.
Rotorua is a fascinating place and you could easily spend a week here. Besides all the thermal attractions, it's modelling itself on Queenstown in the South Island to offer loads of adventure activities. Apparently it has the best rafting anywhere in NZ. Anyway, I'll have to wait another time for that Giant Staircase
This is just one tree trunk! as I needed to prioritise and was more interested in the geography and culture of the place.
The next morning, I drove out to the Wai-O-Tapu "Thermal Wonderland". I had to be there for 10.15 and it seemed most cars on the road were going to the same place. They had a slick system to sell us tickets and then we all trapsed back into our cars to drive out the the main attraction.... At precisely the same time each morning, they put soap suds into the "Lady Knox" geyser to reduce the surface tension of the water inside her. Within five minutes, there is a huge jet of water and steam coming out and it does look rather spectacular even if it does seem a bit undignified to "soap" the good lady every day for our pleasure...
Then, we all got back into our cars and headed back to the visitor centre to see the main site. Here, there was a huge collection of mud pools, craters, and pools of many different colours. I spent a good couple of hours walking around.
Then, back into Rotorua and onto another site: "Hell's Gate". This was more of Tuatuas
...very tasty! :-) the same. Less variety that the previous site, but it was hotter as the heat source is much nearer. This site is Maori run, and that put a different angle on what we saw.
In the evening, I went to a Maori "Hangi and Cultural Experience". Maori today live just like everyone else in New Zealand. They have lost a lot of their cultural heritage in the last 150 years but there has recently been a resurgence in interest. Going to an evening like this seems a bit tacky, but they did it very well and I did learn a lot. They appointed a "chief" from among us tourists and the Maori "chief" then perfomed a ritual challenge. Our chief had to pick up the branch offered as a gift otherwise he would have had to fight him to the death. It was lucky that he did.
Then they perfomed the haka and various "action songs" and the chief then told us a lot about Maori beliefs and culture.
Then we had dinner! A hangi is when they cook meat in the ground. After dinner we went on a walk to see their sacred lake and glow Maori carvings
At Waitangi Meeting House worms.
Wherever I go, I try to take an interest in the people and culture of a place and that includes indigenous people. My view of New Zealand and of Maoris has been coloured by my experiences in South America. The history of New Zealand is long (yes, really!) and quite complex. Not going to write a detailed essay here, but I've seen and read a lot in my time here and find Maori culture, both ancient and modern quite interesting.
The following day, I visited the Maori Meeting House in Ohinimutu, the original Maori settlement in Rotorua. The church was really interesting. It's Anglican (like the Church of England) and unmistakably so. However, there were maori carvings in it which made it look really unique.
Then to the Rotorua museum, which was well worthwhile. They had a video presentation detailing the massive eruption of 1886. Our benches shook while the "earthquake" was happenning. It was good fun, and really understated. Quite Kiwi actually...
The 1886 eruption destroyed what would now be considered one of the geological wonders of the world: the Pink and White Terraces. I would have loved to have gone to see them.
Almost every museum I visited in New Zealand had features about volcanic geology. This is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world and on the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific. For me, it links quite well with Cotopaxi and Quilotoa "Caldera"- thanks Dave, I know what that is now: in fact Lakes Taupo and Rotorua are both ones> in Ecuador and the geysers I saw in Bolivia.
Taupo
Then I drove down to the the town of Taupo. On the way, I stopped at Taupo's "Thermal Valley". Here, they have some very interesting sites. The "Valley of the Moon" was only created in 1950 when the appearance of the massive geothermal power station disrupted the underwater environment (existing sites disappeared at the same time). It was way bigger than any of the sites in Rotorua and a spectacular size, but didn't have so much of the "pretty stuff". I liked that it was not so touristy. Then, to Huka Falls. This is not thermal, just a waterfall. But what a waterfall it is! The whole of Lake Taupo drains through here. Though not high, it has to have more volume than any waterfall I've seen - very spectacular! Typically, it was rather understated and I almost stumbled on it by accident.
Stayed in a hostel for the night. Cooked kumara again (did I mention I was a fan!?) and watched "Super Size Me" on TV.
Napier
The next day, I drove east. Over to Hawkes Bay and the "Art Deco" town of Napier. The road was quite remote. First, I passed giant pine plantations on flat land, then some very attractive hills. On the way, there was yet another understated waterfall (Waipunga Falls) that would be famous were it were in Scotland.
In Napier, I bought a self-guided walking leaflet and spent a couple of hours walking around. I love the Art Deco style and wanted to visit this place. In 1931 there was a massive earthquake which (along with the fire that broke out straight after) almost completely destroyed the city. The city authorities decided to turn tragedy into opportunity and made lots of changes to building regulations. The town was rebuilt in only a few years in the fashions of the time. This is mainly Art Deco, but also other styles I'd never heard of like "Spanish Mission" and "Stripped Classical". Even 20 years ago, Napier was blissfully unaware of its legacy, but that's now changed and the place is protected. The commercial centre is almost completly homogenous - just like Bath, York or Tallinn. I wonder if there are any "International/Modernist" style towns that future generations may value, that will escape being changed?
Stumbled into "Opossum World" and had an impulse purchase of a possum pelt. These cute furry creatures were introduced to NZ from Australia and (having no natural predators) have now become a noxious pest, munching their way through vegetation. Hunting is encouraged and DOC uses poison to kill them. Recently, possum fur has become popular in knitware. My purchase helps with possum eradication (I like to think!). Don't know what I'm going to do with it though...
That evening, I went down to the beach to try out my recently aquired interest in the night sky. Managed to spot Orion, as well as the Southen Cross and also some of the "pointers" as described in my little book. Doing this also fitted in with tomorrow's activities. My star gazing was interupted by the periodic fireworks that people were letting off on the beach. The sound of Sky Tower, Auckland
Note the person jumping down. You go on cables and it's faster than bungy jumping! the waves was lovely too and it made for a really unique ambience.
Stonehenge Aotearoa
Earlier this year, I stumbled on the news that people in New Zealand have just build a version of Stonehenge! I decided then, that if I came to New Zealand, I'd like to visit it.
It's only recently opened, so they're not really geared up for tourists, but I can see that it would have amazing appeal. The public can only visit at certain times on weekends. It's in the middle of nowhere so I needed wheels to get there and getting to Wellington to return my hire car meant I could only go at one time, then leave sharpish.
The drive down there from Napier was interesting. I passed various small towns I was recommended to go to as they were totally non-touristy and typical NZ. Interestingly, every town here has brown signs and makes the most of whatever it has to lure the tourist dollar.
Getting to Stonehenge was easier than I thought. There are no signposts at all, but I'd been given a good map.
It's run by volunteers and when I arrived, they said "Oh, you Coastline near Tutukaka
Poor Knights Islands on horizon must be Nick the tourist"! I don't know if they get that many tourists there. Maybe they should gear themselves up as it was a fantastic place to visit.
First, we had a presentation on the stars, and how people have used them for navigation and as a calendar over the centuries in different cultures in the world.
There was a particular emphasis on the Maori and how polyesian navigators used the stars. The Maori have an extensive set of myths to explain the world. There is a particularly cute one to explain Summer and Winter. In it, the sun god (Te Ra) has two wives: Hine-Takura (winter) and Hine-raumati (summer). These wives correspond to the stars over which the sun rises at each solstice. He spends the year moving between wives, moving quickly when going between them and slowly when around them.
I've visited Stonehenge a few times (watched the summer solstice a last year) and also Avebury, both in Wiltshire, England. There is even a stone circle in the outskirts of my home town which I bet 75% of the people living there do not know exists. So for me it was very interesting to see what they've done here. The thing I really like about it is that it was built not by hippies, druids or new agers, but by astronomers. This is not to say that there's a spiritual dimention to an astronomically aligned circle, but it puts that first.
Then we went into the circle. One very interesting thing they've found, since building it, is that the acoustics are great! They've put speakers in the "stones" but now find that they don't need to as sound it kept inside.
They've definitely not copied the original Stonehenge as close up, it looks very different. This was the idea as it is aligned to its local environment (not just for the Southern Hemisphere but to the actual hills that appear on the horizon). They also have an obelisk with a hole in which shines onto a particular point (called "Bob's Knob") on the summer solstice midday. They have also traced an analemma. This all ties in rather well with my experiences at the Equator in Ecuador, and at Machu Picchu. I also discovered to my surprise that the greatest concentration of Stone Circles in the World is in The Gambia, West Africa and that I've been to one of them!
All in all, a fascinating afternoon!
Wellington
I had to get away early to get back to Wellington. However, when I got there, the car rental office was closed and I was just expected to post the key through the box! If I'd known that, I could have had a lot more time at Stonehenge... Doh!
In Wellington, I stayed at the YHA. I think this has to be the nicest large hostel I've ever stayed at! The cooking facilities and communal rooms in particular are very light, airy and easy to use.
I had a couple of days in Wellington before getting the ferry to the South Island. Wellington is a classy city. It's in a very attractive location and has nice looking buildings. On the Saturday afternoon, I met up with Will, who I met on the plane from Santiago. He's a pom, now resident in Wellington. It just so happened that I was there on the day they were to sink the
HMNZS Wellington to provide a site for marine life and scuba divers, so we went over for a look. I’ve never seen a ship World's biggest sea cave
Poor Knights Islands. Reckoned to have been formed from a giant air bubble in lava which is now exposed to sea. sink before. Maybe I'll come back and see it close up?
During my visit, I went to Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand. This is massive and I actually spent more than a day there, all in. They have everything there: a big geological section; natural history (including an outside part with caves with "glow worms" that dim if you stamp your feet); Maori sections; one on the Treaty of Waitangi; on settlers; polynesia and several temporary exhibitions.
I learned about "kiwiana" and something called the "Buzzy Bee". Two interesting facts I learned:
- Kiwifuit came from China
- Vegemite came from New Zealand (dispite what Aussies claim)
Met Will again for a drink. He works for the NZ Geological survey and is a good person to ask about such matters. The last major quake here to affect major populations was the Napier one. He says that Wellington has a 10%!p(MISSING)robability that a major quake will affect it in the next 50 years. If a quake does happen then the two roads that connect it to the rest of the North Island may be disrupted. Didn't read that in the Move to Wellington website... Still, World's biggest sea cave
Goes in a long way, and it's high! I can see why people would want to live here.
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Mo Shafiq
non-member comment
Fantastic!
Wow, been waiting for the next installment of the adventure, and then 10 come along at once! Looks like you are having a fantastic time! Miss you dude!