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Published: November 30th 2009
New Zealand - The North Island
They say that Great Britain and America are two great nations separated by one language; New Zealand should be added too. Pronunciation is the key, ‘I’ is pronounced ‘u’ and ‘e’ is pronounced ‘I’ once you’ve got your head round that the rest is easy. Except when place names should finish like Kaukapakapa, Tutukaka, Whangaruru and Haruru they seem to roll off the tongue and keep rolling.
AUCKLAND
We got a shuttle to LAX with a lovely girl, who was supposed to be on stand-by on out flight & staying at the same hostel as us in Auckland, but once we arrived at the airport & went through customs, we never saw her again! The flight was full to busting, so I guess she never got on! We popped into a little Mexican restaurant for our final supper as we were very early for our flight. Onto the plane and Liam is off and away with the fairies, lucky bugger! Me, I sit through five films and start to drop off just as we are about to land!!
We jump aboard the airport shuttle and get dropped off in
the middle of Auckland at about 10am! We wonder up to our hostel and dump our bags. Luckily as check out is at 10am and we have a private room, they hope to have one clean early for us, so we only need to hang around for an hour or so, before Charlotte can finally crawl into bed, so off for our final meal, a quickie at Burger King, then peace and quiet for a couple of hours! Liam went and done manly thing’s such as hunt out the waterfront, campervan locations and free Wi-Fi!
When I awoke we wondered down to the water front and had a little light supper, lamb chops & garlic mash for me and Liam has Kangaroo, tasted a bit like steak to me! We found the location of one of the campervan rental places, but as it was a Sunday (whatever did happen to that Saturday!), they had already finished for the day!
Up and away this morning and after packing and storing our stuff (they charge you for everything here!), we hit the base travel desk for a little advise on renting campervans. We spoke to the lovely Theresa
on the travel desk who called around a few of the local companies (a few were already fully booked) and found us one cheaper than I could find on the internet with Wicked. She arranged for a cab to pick us up at 1.30 to take us back to their depot to pick it up! Easy! Time for a spot of late breakfast/early lunch, then a bit of free surf at the library, then off and away!
WICKED
Pulling up to the depot they have lots of individual graffiti vans and we are laughing at the one that has the tag on the back “The creature from Uranus”, guess what? Yep, that is our one! We load up with pillows & duvets and are off and away! As per advice from Caroline we head North of Auckland to the Northlands after picking up fuel & food.
GOAT ISLAND, PAKIKI BEACH & WAIPU COVE
We take a left hand turn after a couple of hours on the road and drive down to Goat Island, it is a bit drizzly, so a quick look at the beach and the out laying islands. People are snorkeling, but they do
have wetsuit’s on! We clamber over some rocks and peer into rock pools, there are some funny camouflage fish that you can only see if you look really closely! We spot the rain coming in, so head on to little visited Pakiki beach.
We wind our way along unsealed roads that twist and wind up and down the mountains. As we are getting close be come to a bridge that can only fit one car through! There is a cow standing on it! We made sure we gave him right of way! He was followed by (I assume) a farmer on a motor bike with a child both fore & aft of him!
We park up at Pakiki beach and seem to be the only visitors, we walk along the beach path and onto a beautifully deserted white sand beach. The river flows, quite fast, down to the sea and as it is low tide along the front of the sea leaving an untouched white sand bar. Charlotte just wants to mark it with her footprints, but the river is still fairly deep (and cold!) so we leave that to the many animals around! We walk
along the edge of the river and as it gets lower in the sand, jump on the edges making them crash into the fast moving water! It is the closest to feeling like you are your own God, creating the path of the river! We stop to gather some of the pretty seashells and make a huge heart in the sand, for someone else to later find and wonder over! The rain comes in again, so we head off in search of our next destination.
We drive for a few hours until we get diverted around a hill as there has been an accident, as we go along (big diversion!) it is getting later and later, so we decide to stop at the next campsite we see. Luckily it is not too far, we pull up to this little site right on the beach, Waipu Cove (Imodium missed a trick here!). A couple of dollars secures us a night here, but no food in the area on a Monday night, so we stand there cooking noodles on our little gas stove that was supplied with the truck! We huddle inside as everyone else seems to already be in
bed! Mmmmm yummy!
Time for a bit of an explore see what we can find! What we can find is a beautiful deserted beach, just behind where we are staying. We wonder along for a bit and Charlotte can’t resist a paddle in the Ocean.
WHANGARI, ROBBIE WILLIAMS, ABBEY CAVES, HOT CHOCOLATE
We are up, off and away! Along the coast, with a quick stop off at the Whangari isite for a bit of info and some directions to Abbey Caves as they do not seem to be marked on any map! Well the lady there just wanted to send us to some paid for glow worm site, but I was having none of it and weddled it out of her in the end!
Armed with our map we head off in the right direction and promptly end up at the top of a hill! We missed the turning, but did bump into some other poor Wicked campers (in the Robby Williams van) who were not able to get above 40kmph, there was a very strange burning smell going on too! We sent them off to call roadside assistance and looked out over Whangari town. It
Waipu Cove
it goes on for miles was a lovely view from the viewing platform, it could have just been a bit brighter and it would have been perfect.
Re-tracing our steps, we find where we went wrong and wiz on up to Abbey Caves. There was just one tiny sign there and someone had parked across it, so we whizzed on past, luckily Charlotte saw an odd small car park in the middle of nowhere, so around she turned and as we came back from the other direction, there was a whacking great sign! Just as we are getting out of the campervan, we saw a group of people coming back up with an older lady in tow, so it can’t be that hard, if she can do it, then so can we! Although it was a little drizzly we though sod it, we are going into a cave, we don’t need out water proofs, and away we went. It was a good long downhill walk before we got to the first cave that had a big red cross scored into the side (the lady at the isite had advised that the first cave was closed, so if we go around the back we will find
two more. So, on we went.
We arrived at middle cave and looked at the climb down. It looks a little difficult, but we continued. It looks a little dark, perhaps we will peek inside. Oh, it looks a little small and scary, perhaps we will go back. Bang, bang, bang, we heard the French people we saw by the first one coming down with hard hats & head torches! Bugger, we are going to have to carry on! We are so glad we did, because the water was not that deep and when you switched your torch off there was an amazing array of glow worms lighting up the ceiling! It looked like alien eyes in a dark night sky! We (followed by the French) went all the way to the end, even when it looked like there was nowhere else to go! We found daylight at the end and then came back! Wow, thanks to the French for pushing us on! On the down side Charlotte dropped her camera in the water & broke the screen! Up on the dashboard to dry for the next couple of days I think!
Trudging through the fields climbing back up
to the Campervan, the only thought on our mind, to get us through the rain, was a nice hot chocolate waiting in the back for us! We may have looked mad standing there at the back of our camper stripping off and wrapping ourselves in towels, whilst boiling hot chocolate on the gas stove it the back! But who cares, I guess that is what travelling is all about! Back in the camper, steaming drink in hand and we are off and away to find some lunch, hopefully with a nice log fire place!
We head back to town and into the town basin (Marina area), we find a nice little café and although there was a log fire there all of the sofas around it were taken! We settle on a table and order up some food. Charlotte gets a Panini with the largest bowl of chips ever and Liam gets the biggest “Bloke burger”. We roll out of there well round!
Five minutes up the road we go for a bijou strollette around Whangari Falls, not much here apart from the afore mentioned Falls. They are great photo opportunity, from top, bottom and slightly sideways.
On
The Legend
keep your comments to yourself we plod along beautiful coastal roads, twisty, then straight! We were told to stop off en-route at Kawaka to see the famous toilets built by a famous artist Hundertwasser! We went up and down this high street looking for them! Finally we spot them and pull up in a car park! Well what can I say! They are toilets! Only two for the ladies, quiet pretty I suppose, but nothing special! Apparently he was a recluse and they got him to come out and design these toilets. It was the last (and I think only) thing he had made! Strange! The town was very proud of them, so I suppose there must have been something to it. We were more impressed by the big St. John building there. In New Zealand most of the emergency ambulance service seems to be run by St. John and by the look of it it is mostly voluntary. They have big opportunity stores next to the stations, which I believe, sell end of line stuff! All of this helps to support St. John, along with many Charity boxes at many café’s we visit.
PAHIA AND THE BAY OF ISLANDS
To the lovely
fishing village of Paihia in the “bay of islands”, there are 144 islands in this area. We pop into the isite and enquire about local campsites and trips. We had already stopped at one beachfront site on the way in, but the bloke was a bit sharp with Liam, so we checked out the one in Waitangi, the lady at the isite told us it was a very basic site, but a nice lady. We thought it looked a bit rough, although there were quite a few people there. There seemed to be a town field with a load of permanent ten’s on it! Turns out we were right and it is a very rough area, a man got his face smashed in, just for walking along the road & being in the wrong place! Very much a local place for local people!
We heard about three more campsites up near the Haruru falls, we wiz past the first one and just as we are turning around we spot another. We ask at reception and they seem like lovely people and have Wi-Fi, so we run down the hill and have a look. It is a lovely site, directly
in front of the falls (which they light up at night), they have a BBQ and quiet a lot of people staying, always a good sign, even if it is still raining! We walk back up (Charlotte is getting fitter, there is less wheezing!) and pay Andre & Olga (and Fred the Dog) for a night, then head off to Woolworth’s (Still alive here!) for some food for the BBQ that we see there.
Praying for a break in the rain, we head back. With no break, we drag the BBQ over to our van and cook under the back door, which keeps just enough rain off for us to make a good chicken BBQ with, yes you have guessed, noodles! We sit in the van and eat, then as we are going off to wash up see a trail of smoke from the camp fire. The Ozzie couple had kept the fire going through out the rain and people were starting to gather around now that it was easing off!
Beer in hand we head off for a night of fun with Greg and Lisa. We crawl into bed at about 11.30 (late for us now
day’s) with promises that we will be up and off first thing as we want to get on the early “Hole in the rock” boat trip!
Not such an early start and very slow too! After a nice Scrambled eggs on toast, we set to and organize our self’s whilst all around us mock! (They knew we would not he up first thing!). Off down to the isite again and booked onto the afternoon trip. We catch the ferry over to romantic Russell, which was once known as the “Hellhole of the Pacific”, although sadly we have missed the debauchery and orgies on the beach by a few thousand years! This lovely little town that we ran around in no time was once the capital of New Zealand!
We jumped onto the Hole in the rock cruise from the pier at Russell, they took us out on a lovely boat trip. They had combined the trip with the dolphin watching cruise, so we ended up following a pod of dolphins along the coast, but unfortunately they had babies with them, so we could not jump in! Luckily Charlotte has already done that in Thailand and Liam was not
Pretty Lady!
you can see why I fell for her so bothered! We zoomed around some of the 144 island in the bay while the captain gave us a narration on what each was called and a bit of the history.
We travel past the cheapest place to stay on the north island, the old lighthouse keeper’s cottages at Cape Brett. $12 a night and they’ll even ship you and your food out, unless you wish to walk 8 hrs to the nearest civilization, so apart from the view and occasional passing tour boat, it’s pretty much a place for being alone with ones thoughts.
On to ‘The Hole’! The captain gives us the usual tourist rubbish that the waters too high and rough, he’s only ever done it the other way round, the sea isn’t wet enough, blah, blah, blah. We all know he’s done this about 1,000 times before (he’d already told us he’d been doing this for about 5 years). He stops talking and a crew member continues the commentary on how the hole is formed.
Time to head back, as we turn the captain tell all those on the front of the boat to move inside as the sea has
This is the life!
Hot cocoa by the road side become a little choppy, about 5 mins later he said it was ok to go back out we were the first out there right at the front as we carved through the water at quite high speeds (in nautical terms, very fast!), it was great fun like our own private rollercoaster, a bit like Leonardo & Kate in Titanic.
A little further on we are informed by the captain that we wouldn’t be stopping at the island as planned as we had some people on board how needed to catch the bus back to Auckland, this did not sit well with Charlotte, we had paid for the 4hr trip with an island stop. They offered us a stop in Russell (whoopee! Done that) or Paihia (that too!) the they told us to go to the office back on the wharf too see if we could get a refund as they didn’t handle any money on board. As the boat dropped those who wanted to off in Russell, We were treated to some of the local kids doing the Haka for us on the end at the pier. When we landed back in Paihia off Charlotte marched and got
us an extra 10% off our trip the next day up to Cape Regina.
Early start today, picked up by our coach at 7 30 am, meet our driver/guide Dice (no, really!) and we’re off on our day trip. On the bus is a nice chap named Julian, who is “a crazy” you’ll find out why a bit later on. First stop the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, to see the old, large Kauri trees (What is it with us and big trees?) A 5 min walk through the forest on a raised walkway (built for the Queen no less). Big trees, they are big, very round and taller than the Sequoias (Please refer to previous blogs about America.) back on the bus and on to 90 mile beach, we stop briefly to drop something off, then on to the beach.
A stop at a cute little bakery for a morning bacon and egg roll and an opportunity for those of us who have not been as organized as us to pick up some lunch. 90 Mile beach is a registered highway, the oldest and newest in the world. Oldest because it’s been a there since the dawn
of time, newest because it gets re- surfaced every night at high tide. so we bump down over the sand and begin whizzing along at top speed whilst Dice regales us of stories and tall tales of what people have got up to on this Highway/Beach. There are a couple of “Skeleton’s” of past cars who have attempted the drive and failed, or pulled over and not realized the tide was rising quite that quick, so lost their car to the sea, to be dragged out and filled with sand! Stories of company car races, I am sure Charlotte’s car would be out here too if it was a little closer to home! A short stop and a paddle in the cold sea waters, then we are off again
Dune boarding at Te Paki was so much fun, everyone on the bus had a go! Dice gave us some basic instructions, i.e. don’t let go! And up the massive dunes we went. Liam flew up in no time, with Charlotte being lapped by Julian ready for his second go. At the base of the dune was the Te Paki stream which we were driven up earlier. Very wide, very
shallow plus if you got up enough speed down the dune you could skim over the stream and not get wet. We all took turn flying down the dune, and according to one of our companions Liam went the furthest over the river and Charlotte was the loudest down the dune. Back on the coach, to our next stop for lunch.
We stop at the most Northerly beach in the country, we were told by Dice there were showers to clean the sand off our feet from the dunes (well unless you’re a Romanian gymnast your feet are the furthest from the shower) and are warned that if we wish to go swimming, only to go up to our waist as there were strong rip tides. Well Charlotte was game until the sun went in and she dipped her toes in the freezy water! So we settled for lunch on the beach, then back on the bus for Cape Reinga.
We reach the Cape, this is where we say goodbye to crazy Julian, he is taking 4-5 months to walk as far across the islands as he can (mad Buffoon). He thinks about 3 days for
90 mile beach, pick up his package (dropped off earlier). So off he went and we had a look around the most northerly point of New Zealand (guess what, another lighthouse!). We were told some lovely stories about Maoris and their souls flying off from this point. After watching the two seas collide, we start the walk back up to the coach, only to be passed by David in his wheelchair whizzing down to get a better view! We were wondering how he was going to get back up, but stopping half way down, one of the girls on the bus pushed him back up.
COROMANDEL REGION
A bit of a snooze, then a stop off at the Kauri Kingdom while Dice washes the coach. On to Manginui for their world famous “fush ‘n chips”, before heading back to the bay for our last night. We meet up with a group of lads who have been fishing all day and were looking for somewhere to BBQ there fish and have a camp fire! This was the only joint in town! We shared a few beers over the camp fire with the boy’s and a couple of
German girls, who later de-camp’s for a mid-night swim into the falls! It was freezing but all had fun!
We travel down to Thames on the Coromandel Coast via Waipoua Kauri forest to see the mighty Tane Mahuta, named for the Maori forest god. HUGE! Just before Thames the camper starts to overheat! We pull over with steam pouring out of the front! Luckily Charlotte remembers what the RAC man said when she over heated the Mini and blew the Head gasket. Fill it with water ASAP and watch out for the steam when undoing the rad cap! This is what I did and we made it to Thames.
We let the car cool down over night and then head off to Hot Water Beach, if we leave early enough we will be able to go straight there and jump into a Hot pool! Well sod’s law, as there are lots of hills on the way we make it most of the way before it over heats again. We cool down and top up the water before rolling down the hill to the nearest petrol station and call the AA. Luck would have it that we
pulled up at an AA approved garage, so we don’t have to wait an hour for someone to come out! The bloke poked around a bit, huffed and puffed and decided there was something blocking the radiator, so told the company to send us a replacement. He said that we would be able to make it into the Hot Water Beach campsite, so off we go.
HAHEI AND CATHEDRAL COVE
We get there a little later and have a look around, but don’t really fancy it, so head down to Hahei. The campsite is on the beach and the staff is really friendly and helpful, even phoning the people from Wicked for us a couple of times to find out when the new van will arrive. We chill out by the van all afternoon and as 7pm is coming up and the desk closes at 8pm we try one more time, but are put through to Australia (their base) again. So we say sod it, leave our mobile number with the front desk and go out to “The Church” which is a lovely local restaurant. We have a nice Lamb supper and get back just before the
Liam, Greg & Lisa
around the camp fire new van turns up! Luckily were only just making up the bed for the night as it rolls into the campervan. The driver is a jolly chap and we have a bit of a giggle as he is unloading the new van! This one is a little newer and there is more room in the back.
A new day, a new van and we are on our way to the Hot Beach, finally. We are a little late up after all of the excitement, so get there a little later than planned and find that as it is a Sunday all and sundry are there. We see someone coming back with a saucepan and decide that this is a very good idea and will save us five bucks! We head on over and there are crowds of people hanging around the pools being created by a few. We stick our feet in a few and don’t really see what all of the fuss is about, so decide that it all looks like too much hard work so head out for our first swim in the sea of our holiday. My God it was chilly! As we are getting
St John HQ
in Russell, on York Street no less ready to go back to the van Charlotte saw someone taking photos of a bubbling spring and went over to see if he could get some shot’s of her own! As she walked through the stream from the little spring she felt how hot the water was supposed to be! Hot, hot, hot!
We headed back to Hahei and went along the beach to walk around to Cathedral Cove, Charlotte threw on a sarong and was only expecting a stroll around the bay, only to find a walk up a huge hill for 45 min’s, followed by a mostly downhill 45 min’s. There were lovely views and it was well worth it when we made it down to the beach. We saw a local lad jumping off of one of the rocks, in an attempt to woo some girls me thinks! We tried to get a photo of the young man, but just got splashes! We made it there and back quicker than the time on the post, so must be getting fitter! We chill for the night then head out to see how far we can get towards Rotorua.
ROTORUA & THE BAY OF PLENTY
We make it as far as Mount Maunganui and find a lovely beach front campsite with free Wi-Fi, woo hoo! A little more than we want to pay, but the free Wi-Fi makes it all worth it and end up there for two nights! We enjoy some contact with home and catch up on a few e-mails and Facebook! We have a wander through town and looked at the mount and the people walking it! We had a lovely evening talking to a Kiwi couple who had come down from their farm near Lake Taupo for an off season holiday by the beach. We spend plenty of time both days floating around in the hot salt water pools at the bottom of the mount. This pretty much wipes us out.
We headed off on our way to Rotorua and stopped en route at Kiwi 360 to learn more about the national fruit! We jump on the Kiwi tram and whizz around the orchard and learn about green Kiwi’s, the newer Golden Kiwi’s (and secret newly developed red kiwi) along with the Kiwi berries. They had run out of Gold Kiwi’s so Charlotte was out of luck! She discovered them
when M&S stocked them for a while!
Off to Rotorua, we stop off at the isite in the middle of town and there is a queue out of the door, so we grab a map and some info on local campsites and go and visit them all. We bump into a couple that stayed next to us in Hahei, but decided to stay at the cheapest site, so we could afford to do more activities. We end up staying for three nights. Bev (pronounced Biv) was instrumental in most of the booking for our activities as she managed to get them for us at massive discount or had vouchers to help us get money off and she was such a hoot! It turns out that she lived overseas for many years and ran a bar in Poole. Bev got us some great discounts on some of the activities.
We went off to the Skyline sky rides and took a pleasant ride up the gondola, looked at the wonderful views of Lake Rotorua now that it had stopped raining along with mad people doing the sky swing. We flew down the luge and up the chair lifts five
times, going on the progressively harder tracks! Liam managed to pass Charlotte on each go, except the last as she made him wait at least a couple of minutes before heading down!! We both got “AIR” on the big dipper on the advanced route, but Liam burnt the most rubber!
After that we had some lunch in the back of the van and headed off to Waimangu volcanic valley for a walk through the newest geothermal ecosystem in the world. The evolution of the Waimangu ecosystem has been carefully recorded since the time of its creation on 10 June 1886. We walked up through craters and lakes of boiling and bubbling water with steaming rocks, it was pretty amazing! We made sure we went up the steep steps to point 18 (the lady in the shop said it was imperative that we made the effort to include it!) Inferno Crater, Wow, the blue creamy pool was quite a sight! It even inspired Liam to climb aloft the fence to get the best shot of the lake, it is a shame that it was so sunny because it made quite a dark shaded area! We got all the way
to the top of the walk at Lake Rotomahana where we waited for a bus collect us, whilst chatting to some Italians. We walked up there in about the time suggested so were quite happy and enjoyed the ride back to the visitor centre.
Tonight we arrive back in time to re-charge Liam’s phone and then head off to the Mitai Maori Village Hangi, we are picked up with several of the staff from Kiwi Paka as it is the manager’s birthday and they are going on a familiarisation trip there. We are greeted by cousin (everyone here are cousin, brother, sister and even niece & nephew) Ben who tells us a bit about what to expect of the evening. No sooner are we through the door than cousin Ben is looking for volunteers for Chief, no one offered, so Liam got press ganged into it, but it did mean Charlotte was Mischief for the night! Liam was promptly whizzed away and told of the importance of being a chief of 16ish nations. He led our tribe over to have a look at our meal cooking in the Hangi, chicken, lamb, potatoes and Kumra (New Zealand’s sweet potato).
Liam then took our tribe down to the water’s edge so we could meet the other tribe of only 13 nations (there chief was American!) and watch the Waka, this was where the Maori men came up the river on their canoe, whilst chanting, eye rolling and tongue wiggling. After disembarking Liam led our tribe unto the tribal village for the welcome ceremony. Liam was briefed to keep a straight face as the last American did not and when he got presented to the chief to do the nose touching, he head butted him instead! Liam and Chris had a young Warrior dance quite aggressively towards them one at a time leaving a Silver Fern (New Zealand’s national plant) on the floor, they must then collect it without braking eye contact with the warrior. After that there were welcoming speeches from all chief and the visiting chiefs were presented to the village chief.
After the official stuff, which was all done in Maori, the village chief switched to English and thanked us for respecting the seriousness of the welcome ceremony. He went on to explain about Maoris and their culture, showed us some of the training techniques including
use of the Poi and stick fighting, along with the importance and meaning of the Moko(He had a moko over his stomach and thighs that took over 55hrs to complete). The finally was the full Haka, which when you are sitting in the front row, quite scary and a little damp! (From all the spittle that goes flying!).
After the Haka the Chief’s duties were over and he was free to enjoy the eating of the Hangi with the rest of his tribe. The meal was a lovely buffet style affair with chocolate roll, fruit salad and/or trifle for pudding. After our bellies were filled up Cousin Ben took us on a magical glow worm walk through the local area. We were deposited home for an early night before our further adventures tomorrow.
Up for an early start today and off to see Bev to book out activities, but no, White water rafting with Kaitiaki adventures do not pick up until mid day so we can chill out for a bit! Well we arrive up in reception in plenty of time and end up hanging around for an hour or so as it turns out that the
company has had problems with their CD burner. Nigel arrives full of apologies, but being a good looking tall, barefooted & tanned adrenaline junkie (with funny hair just like Sarah!) It made Charlotte feel like he was family, so he was forgiven immediately, also Bev kept us entertained with stories of the bar she ran in Poole for many years before her mother got ill and she had to return. Also a story of how Nigel found three little motherless ducklings and looked after one of them in his bachelor pad and the duckling would only follow around people who had no shoes on, it went with him on the bus and everywhere, until it got to big and he shipped it off to his sister’s farm.
We arrive at our water rafting hut and are met by more young chap’s and a couple of chapette’s. We are given a brief about some of what to expect and told about the gear we will be wearing to protect us from the freezy water. So potty stop and then we are off with wet suits in hand to get changed! 20 difficult minutes later charlotte stick’s her head out as
she cannot get the wet suit to do up over her boobies! Nigel grab’s hold of one side and Liam the other and declares that this will not be a problem as they attempt to give her a wedgie! No, nothing for it, into suit number two, no chance, suit number three and it is a little wrinkly around the leg’s but goes over the boobies! With a dry jacket, life jacket and helmet we suddenly feel like marshmallow men!
We jump on a bus and are off and away for a 15 minute ride to the river, when we get there several Kayaks are paddling around the top of the rapids. The boy’s hoist our boats over to the river, we divide into groups and are given Chonk as our guide, being warned that he is a little crazy! Crazy is right as he heads us down the first set of rapids backwards, whilst training us in what to do and how to do it! We head on down to the first two of four of the days waterfalls a two meter drop, followed by a one and a half meter. It was really exhilarating and we survived
without flipping over. Some more rapid’s with backward and sideward trip’s over, a prayer for safe travel and we are off, we are the last of the three boats over the seven meter fall, but wow, wow, wow! We went totally under, even Charlotte got wet and nearly ended up flipping! Check out the photo’s! A little celebration and a few more rapids, Chonk got one of the French girls we were rafting with to sit at the front of the boat while we paddled it back under the seven meter falls. She got soaked! We went over another smaller drop and Chonk got us all to stand up, the first to sit down would get the same treatment! Guess what, it was Charlotte! So after going over the last falls she got sent to the front of the boat. But it all turn out okay as it was a little falls and Charlotte missed most of the water by sitting up!
Back to the hut for a hot quick change, a look at the photos, then we are off again to “Hells Gate” next door. We arrive and go on a geothermal walk through their area to see
the steaming pools and mud volcano, followed by a visit to their Wai Ora spa for a private mud bath and a soak in there Sulphurous waters. It was very relaxing and the mud bath was like playing in silk. Daniel took us back to the hostel and was a very chatty about the time he spent in Europe and his desire to go back again. We asked him about the flag we keep seeing all over town. It looks like a St. Georges cross with a blue corner and four red stars. It turns out this is a rebel Maori group who do not like being under British rule, so have their own flag (why they chose a British flag, I guess they are not so well read!), passports and driving licence (which the government do not recognise). They also put their number plates on upside down, with numbers and letters that are gobbled gook! So we will spend the rest of our time here trying to spot their cars!
We head off the next day, bone tired from all of the excitement and relaxing (no, really the sulphur makes you so sleepy!). We head off to
Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland for the 10.15am gushing of Lady Knox Geyser. We did wonder how it went off so precisely every day, we were informed by the guide that previously the area was used by prisoners to clean their cloths. One Day one of them dropped the bar of detergent soap down the hole for the geyser and up shot the water! Well it naturally goes off every 24 hrs, so this just gives it a little prompting. It was very pretty and bubbly!
After the eruption we headed down to the main part of the scenic reserve for a wonder around the largest area of surface of thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Covering some 18 sq. Km, with the volcanic dome of Maungakakamea (Rainbow Mountain) at its northern boundary, the area is literally covered with collapsed craters, cold and boiling pools of mud, water and steaming fumaroles. We took the full walking tour which they advise takes 75 min’s, we came in a little over at 80 min’s, get in there! The bubbling mud pools were mesmerising and we saw some lovely bird life.
We arrive in Waitomo after a brief
stop at an isite for info on places to stay and book into a cute little place Juno Hall, which turns out to be a YHA (again thanks to the Cazmister!) We chill out, have a lovely supper, a little catch up on the internet and settle down for the film of the night, very appropriate, Lord of the Rings - The return of the king! We managed about half of it before heading off to bed.
We go off to Cave World in the morning for our tubing adventure. There is a bit of a wait as we are waiting for the Magic bus to arrive so we use our passes for a free tour of the Waitamo Caves museum. Charlotte figures that if Winnie (the bloke in the poster is real & he ate all of the pie’s!) can do it, so can we! We rubber up (wet suits) and are off on a five minute drive to the cave entrance. We grab out tubes and head in, with Rob and Winnie explaining all about the caves and glow worms as we go. They are strange things when you get up close and personal! We take
a leap of faith, literally, as we fall backwards over a waterfall on our tubes. Then we link up and float down the cave stream looking up at the billions of glow worms as we go, it is really the best way to see them! We then go down the final water slide before heading back up to where we began. Back to the hut for a hot shower and a cup of hot soup to bring us back to life. On viewing the pictures taken by Winnie, we did not feel there were very many of us & they were not very good, so passed on those.
We wind our way over to the little town of Raglan and fall in love with the place straight away. We pulled up in the campsite across from town and we went over across a lovely footbridge. We had a good wonder around and a look in a few shops, a lot were closed as it was a Sunday (you sort of lose track of the days when you are travelling!). We looked into the local estate agents window and saw that the local backpackers was up for sale,
what a wonderful place to run a business, right on the water’s edge! Time for a day dream! We popped into an Italian for an early supper, (thanks again for the tip Cazzy) as we have not had pizza for a while. It looked a little shabby on entry, with plastic patio chairs, but the food was delicious!
Up early to wash all of the sheets, repack the bags and clean the van for return to Wicked. Charlotte got a bit miffed with a couple in the laundry as they wanted to use all three available machines! They let one girl use one of them and left charlotte huffing and puffing at their selfishness! Luckily when the husband came back to collect the clothes Charlotte was in the shower. He was most apologetic for his wife’s selfishness.
The drive back to Auckland was pretty straight forward, shame it was such a nice day! We stopped off before hand in Raglan to top up on food for the next couple of nights, to get a cool bag for the stuff we had left over and also to post Charlottes high heels home as they were just taking
up space in the bag! How will she cope! We could not find a jet wash for the van (as it had a back mirror we could not put through a car wash) so headed straight to the Wicked depot to ask where there was one. But they said it looked clean enough when we pulled up! “Sweet as, bro”! We caught a cab over to Base Auckland and booked ourselves into a double en suite with TV for 2 days to recover!
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victoria
non-member comment
wow
omg!!!!! told you i was small enough to fit in the suitcase lol. hope you are well cant wait for the next up date love you both loads x x x