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Published: March 31st 2014
Tuesday 25
th An early start as we drive to the other side of Wellington to the VW garage to get some special fluid put in the van. The warning light’s been on for 5 days.
We then set off on a long days drive to Hastings, about 190 mile away. The scenery’s mainly rolling hills covered by sheep ! there’s 1000’s of them. Also a few 100 cows. In the back ground are dark menacing looking mountains but they’re miles away.
We stop for lunch in Dannevirke, a Danish and Swedish settlement. The park’s quite nice with an aviary and lots of wild chickens with furry feet, they look like they’re wearing Ugg Boots.
We soon set off again and I’m glad when we reach Hastings, it’s been a long drive.
At tourist info we get a leaflet on their historic buildings and find that most are Art Deco and Spanish Mission built after the earthquake of 1931. We follow the route and there are some fine looking buildings.
Afterwards we drive to Clive and freedom park next to the river. It’s a nice spot and only 5 vans parked up.
The evenings are
really drawing in as it gets dark soon after 7.30.
Wednesday 26
th First thing we drive to Cape Kidnappers to look at the largest colony of gannets in the world. Except it’s impossible to get to them along the beach except at low tide and by walking 19k return. We could pay £80 for a tour but we’re not that keen ! So we give them a miss.
We drive the short distance to the city of Napier. It’s a really lovely looking city with a great promanade of formal gardens. It’s also the city with the most Art Deco buildings in the world or so they claim.
We spend the morning wandering along the water front and drive up to The Bluff. It’s a look out over Hawkes Bay which is nice, but unfortunately the main view is over the container depot. Not the prettyist of views.
After lunch we go on an Art Deco guided walking tour. It starts with a short film explaining about the period and the earthquake of 1931. We then we go on a two hour walk around town seeing the best of the Art Deco buildings. There’s loads
of them and well preserved. It’s a very attractive town.
We then go back to the Art Deco Centre for a short film showing the aftermath of the earthquake.
They even have an Art Deco weekend which looked really good fun.
We park for the night in a car park of a backpackers lodge. It’s a bit scruffy but you can’t see anything when it’s dark !
Thursday 27
th We set off for Taupo and our drive is through and over steep hills giving us great views of distance hills. The land is covered by sheep and later on by trees which in some areas have been cut down. Logging is a main industry in this area.
After an hour or so the drive gets quite boring as the landscape hardly changes. It’s only a two and a half hour drive but seems to go on for ever !
Eventually we reach Taupo. We were here only 4 weeks ago and it all seems very familiar. We park by the lake and walk into town for a few bits before having lunch.
We then take a river path and walk for about
an hour but there’s not much to see. We come across a bungee jumping platform but there’s no jumpers. We return to the van and then drive to the free camping site beside the river that we used last time we were here.
It seems we are running out of different interesting things to do and I’m pleased our time in NZ is nearly up.
Friday 28
th We wake to thick mist all around us and get some great photos as the sun breaks through over the river.
We set off for our last full day in our van. Our first stop is at Tirau which has a thing for corrugated tin roofing sheets. They make animals out of them just for fun. We see sheep, dogs, birds and even a shepherd outside of the church.
We continue and pass more logging sites and farms. The road’s pretty steep in places.
We eventually arrive in Hamilton and stop at the Hamilton Gardens on the outskirts of town. We’ve not been around any in NZ and decide to call in.
They have a number of formal international gardens and the ones from India, Italy
and a new tropical garden are really good. There’s also a Tudor garden in the making and we talk to the gardener about it. It’s already 3 years old and won’t be ready for nearly another year. They have some fine figures on poles which are interesting.
We then decide to walk along the river into town. A decision we soon regret. It’s a very long walk of at least 3 K each way in hot sunshine along mainly a busy road. The river path isn’t often near the river !
On reaching the town we don’t find anything of interest and quickly start to walk back. A long walk for nothing !
We negotiate the Friday rush hour out of town and find a site in Huntley close to a lake. Our last night in the van !
Saturday 29
th We (Christine) finishes packing our rucksacks and then we give the van a bit of a clean out and empty of the waste tanks before setting off back to Auckland. We negotiate the motor way junctions and and the van back around lunchtime.
I go through with Apollo the minor problems with the
van such as the central locking locking automatically on cold mornings resulting in shutting us out. Luckily one of us has always been inside at the time ! There’s no damage to the vehicle so we get our deposit back.
They call us a taxi to take us back to the city centre for half the cost of the taxi we paid to get us there.
We book in at X Base hostel that we used last time and get a nice big room on the girls floor, should be quiet ?
We then go shopping for replacement clothes etc. I get my third pair of trainers as the other 2 have worn out from all the walking. Christine gets a “must have” hoody. We finish up getting a couple more souvenirs to post home.
We then sort out things to post home including my fishing rod which we (Christine) thinks I won’t need again.
Later we have dinner out. A take away Dominoes pizza at £2.50 each and an ice cream at McDonalds for 50p !
Sunday 30
th We wander down to the harbour and catch the ferry across to Devonport about
5 mins away. It’s the first European settlement in the area. It’s a quaint little place and we walk along the shoreline to the Navy Museum.
It shows all the New Zealand action that their fleet has been involved in and makes interesting reading.
We then walk along their Heritage Trail, another one, which has a lot of attractive Victorian bungalows. The walk takes us up Mount Victoria which is a volcano crater. It exploded many years ago and there’s lava on the beach. At the top we get great 360 degree views of Auckland and surrounds. It’s a bit of a climb !
We then go down into town and stop at a patchwork quilt shop. Christine buys a quilt kit and I bet her £25 that she doesn’t finish it within a year of getting home. We’ll have to see !
We have a picnic lunch in the park next to the beach and see one of New Zealand’s America Cup yatch go bye. It only has the main sail and spinniker up and sails along like a coffee cruise. What a waste of time !
We then walk further along the shore
before catching the ferry back to Auckland.
In the evening we cook (Christine ) in the hostel kitchen with dozens of others. It’s interesting to see what the others eat in a sandwich!
Monday 31
st First thing we call in at the post office and buy a BIG box to send home our souvenirs, unwanted clothes ( mostly Christine’s) and two USB sticks with photos on. That should make the bags lighter !
Having packed it all away we cart it back to the post office for weighing and charging. It’s not only the bags that are now lighter but also our bank account.
Christine ventures into a hairdresser and comes out smiling as her hair’s not been chopped about as feared.
For our last afternoon in NZ we go back to the park and sit in the sun and read.
Late afternoon we pack and it all goes in so much easier and lighter to carry.
Our NZ adventure is over as we fly to Chile tomorrow and start our way home, at least geographically.
NZ has some amazing scenery and overall we have had a great time.
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Roger Smith
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Mount Victoria
Funnily enough we climbed Mount Victoria on our last day in New Zealand. If i remember rightly there's a gun emplacement at the top. I've got a picture of Sharon trying to operate it!!!