NORTH ISLAND
24th March 2008: - We left the campsite @ 8.30 & headed to Kaitoke Regional Park. Here we had breakfast in the morning sun & then decided to go on an hour long walk called the swing bridge trek. The trek ended up @ a location called Rivendell, now all of you Lord of the Rings enthusiasts (Jo R) will know that Rivendell is the elfish kingdom. A plaque indicates where filming & sets were constructed & we took a few pictures of the surrounding area.
Headed into Wellington & parked up in a free space & then sat ourselves down on the Wharf and enjoyed the Grayfish that we had purchased yesterday. After our lovely lunch we headed to the national museum Tepapa, unfortunately we only had time to look @ one floor; we were gutted as it was extremely well laid out & could have easily spent a whole day here. Our campsite for the night is located in Hawea just south of Mt Eggmont national Park.
25th March 2008: - Left our cheap campsite & drove over to New Plymouth, on the way we had about 5 minutes sighting of Mt Taranaki before it was engulfed by clouds. Unfortunately we have limited time to get to Auckland so we were unable to stop. Arrived @ the Top 10 campsite @ about 17.30 & just got a camping spot. We are absolutely shattered from our drive & make dinner & then headed to our air bed.
26th March 2008: - Happy Birthday to Drew. Must admit that our day did not start off well, we had to take the hire car back & then hire a new one, which was more difficult than it seemed. Left the car hire place @ 13.00 & headed straight to Bamber house. First impressions are that it is a great hostel & well organized, it is nice & quiet as well which is good.
So we dump our bags off & then head to the city of Auckland. Here we walk around in a daze & decide after a short period of time to go & sit by the harbour in a bar. As it is Drew’s B day, we take time to just chill & relax. We order some food from another bar, of sticky ribs & they were finger licking good oh & of course another beer. We sit & watch the sun go down over the city of sails & then head back to our hostel for the night.
27th March 2008: - Left the comfort of Bamber house @ about midday & stopped for lunch along the way @ mystery bay in Leigh & then drove on up to our campsite located on Uretiti Road, just short of Waipu. Although this one is manned & it costs us $14 to stay, personally I did not think it was worth the money compared to all of the other sites.
28th March 2008: - We drove to the Bay of Islands today & decided to stay in a seaside town called Paihi. Here we visited the treaty house located a couple of km from Paihi. This is basically where many Maori tribes signed a treaty with the English government to establish a common nation. The house has been restored to its former glory & the grounds are very well kept. They also have a Maori war ship within the grounds, which is made out of a giant Kauri tree; it looks amazing & so sturdy. The decoration on the boat is so detailed.
29th March 2008: - Yesterday I forgot to tell you that we booked ourselves onto a fishing trip today, so we left the campsite & walked down to the wharf for 9.30. We headed out into the bay, but did not go out into the open waters as it was reported there were 2m swells, I for one would have not been fishing, and my head would have been over the side! Within the comfort of the bay I hauled in the largest big snapper on the boat & Drew caught the most fish in the basket, which consisted of Red Snapper & Kahauai. We left our fishing trip with a huge bag of fish of which we shared out amongst the other campers; don’t get me wrong we still had enough for 3 meals after that. Tonight we wrapped the Red Snapper in foil & placed it in the oven to cook, it was a bit bland, and so we will have to find out another way of cooking it tomorrow night.
30th March 2008: - We leave Paihia in the sun but it shortly turns to rain, miserable! You just don’t feel like doing very much in the rain, no matter where you are. It’s all sealed road up until Te Paki, then it is all gravel to the point of Cape Ringa. Here we stop & have lunch & then take a short walk to the light house. This is where the Tasman Sea & the South Pacific Ocean meet in a torrent of waves. We were going to walk what looks like an interesting walk along the coast, but we decide against it due to the rain. So we carry onto the giant sand dunes, where we remember just how hard it is to walk up sand, one step forward two steps back!
After our climb we get back in the car & drive to Rarawa beach with just enough light left to pitch our tent & cook the Red Snapper. Tonight we pan fry the fish & it turned out so much better than the oven poached fish from yesterday, a self satisfying meal to brighten up our soggy day.
31st March 2008: - Wake @ Rarawa campsite & after we have consumed breakfast & packed away the tent we go down to the beach. We spend the morning collecting shells along the windswept beach. Instead of posting back loads of shells we end up making pictures with shells on the beach, taking photos of our rather limited artwork.
After our childlike morning we head back down highway 1, we make a rather interesting detour to a dead end whilst trying to get to Taheke. Thought it would be a good idea to not take the Rowene ferry as it would have cost us an extra $18, hey ho never mind.
Rain has been with us nearly all day & it stays with us throughout our drive in the Northland Forest Park. Here Kauri tress tower above us in the diminishing light, we take time to visit the tallest Kauri tree in New Zealand, this icon is called Tane from the Maori culture.
Now I would like to set one thing straight before we get home, no matter what Drew says, I did not run over a couple of Kiwi birds. Drew reports that they were running for their lives as I came driving round the corner. They looked like a couple of sprinters trying to get to the finishing line head first!
1st April 2008: - We wake this morning @ Trounson & are very disappointed to not have seen a kiwi during the night, only heard a couple, with there screeching calls. Heard plenty of noisy possums too, they sounded like they were just outside the tent & very aggressive. Drew However did feel the earth move last night & I slept right through it! Yes Drew felt a slight earthquake, that’s the 2nd this trip.
We take a walk into the Trounson Park & again are disappointed we do not see any Kiwis, however we did walk around some very impressive Kauri trees. After our walk we then get into the car for our long drive to Broken Hill campground, which is just past Auckland & in the Coromandel. As we just pull into the campsite the heavens open, therefore we decide to sleep in the car tonight as neither of us can be bothered to put up the tent.
2nd April 2008: - Reach our destination of Hot Water Beach @ about 9.30am, I go to the shop & hire out a spade for the beach. No we are not making sand castles today, we were hoping to dig ourselves a hole & let it fill up with the thermal water that flows beneath the sand. Unfortunately though the tide is way too high @ low tide & we end up digging holes with the waves a few minutes later coming over & above destroying them. All was not lost though you were still able to stand on the sand & feel the warmth of the thermal water run beneath your toes. You do have to be very careful though because in some places the water reaches to boiling point.
Feeling slightly peeved we head straight to our campsite called Dickie’s flat just outside of Waiho (a gold mining town). The campsite is rather nice & is very peaceful, with few people pitching tents. We take the rest of the PM relaxing & catching up on our journals.
3rd April 2008: - Even though Waihi was originally not on our schedule, we are so glad that we stopped here, there is just so much to do. 1st thing this morning we took a walk in Karangahake Gorge called Windows on the Gorge. This takes you in & out old mine shafts with views on the Gorge every so often. As I have just mentioned this used to be an old gold mining area so signs of the past are still visible, building foundations, cart tracks & of course the many old tunnels. Waihi town still has a fully functional Gold mine pit, which is huge. We even witnessed a blast whilst we were there, rocks rolled down to the bottom of the pit, which from the top you can not even see. Treated ourselves to a roast today, no where near as good as back home but still satisfying.
4th April 2008: - Did not do much today, caught up on washing, read our books, checked emails & went shopping. Treated ourselves to a bottle of wine to accompany the green lipped mussels for tea, & I must say they were fantastic. Had a lovely dip in the pools this afternoon & relaxed basically until 8.30, then it was our turn to go in the private thermal pool. Both Drew & I loved it & we can not really say anything bad about Opal Springs Caravan Park in Matamata, it is such good value for money, you get so many little extras.
5th April 2008: - Traveled from Matamata to Tirau twice, due to the fact that I had left my towel on the washing line. Second journey round we took time to stop & take in the sights first time round we were rushing. Stopped @ Hobbiton sign so Drew could get his hobbit feet out & have his photo taken with the stone Gollum. In Tirau we looked around the shops & we finally found something for Drew’s birthday, a pair of Paua shell cufflinks, very New Zealand.
Arrived in sulphar smelling Rotorua & went straight to the I site in town to find out that you have to pay for nearly everything here & it is not cheap! One of the freebies was a walk around the thermal park; here we watched the 212 degree pools of water hiss & bubble along with the mud pools making some very rude noises!
6th April 2008: - Again went into Rotorua today & walked around a craft & book fair with the faint smell of sulphar in the air. Though about going into the museum & decided not to as you had to hand in your bags whilst visiting. We know that this is forsecurity, but everything of value is in our bags. We thought hard about going to the Maori show & Geyser Park called Te Paiu but we were unable to justify the $50pp entrance fee, so we head towards the Wai-O-Tapo Park so that we are able to watch the Geyser erupt tomorrow morning. We find a lovely DOC site not that far away from Wai-O-Tapu that sits on the edge of Lake Rerewhakaaitu, where we make the most of the silence around us.
7th April 2008: - We wake up to a gorgeous sunrise above Lake Rerewhakaaitu, it just started the day off exceptionally well. Arriving @ Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland we pay the $27pp entrance fee & then look around the not so good visitors centre until the 10.15 Geyser eruption. Now this Geyser does not go off automatically, they actually put washing up liquid in the geyser to make it erupt, considering that this is the Parks selling point I do not think it is worth $27pp. Ok the park is pretty interesting with various colours exploding from the lakes & streams caused by different minerals in the water, it looked like a painters pallet. One thing not to miss are the mud pools located just outside of the park, they were captivating & all the better for being free, I could of stayed watching them all day.
Our best find today however was a Caravan Park nestled in the Waikete Valley, just 39KM south of Rotorua. We paid $32 for a camp site which is prteey normal over here & we go the use of the 6 thermal pools within the park. Pool temperatures range from 37-39 degrees. So you guessed it we spent the rest of the afternoon & evening relaxing in the pools.
Day ended with a fiery red sunset, just perfect.
8th April 2008: - Spend the morning enjoying the pools, it was fantastic, just needed me bubble bath! Leave the campsite @ 11.30 & have a short stop in Tapu to catch up on shopping & also visit Huka Falla. The falls are OK, but we both though that we should have made the time to do a walk & enjoy a natural spring, but we did not have enough time to do so. Tongariro National Park is the reason why our stop is very short in Taupo. In Tongariro we visit Whkapapa Visitor Centre & decide to buy a 3 day hut pass which will allow us to complete the Tongariro Northern Circuit Tramp (49km altogether). We have been informed that the weather for the next few days will be good & are looking forward to our tramp with excitement.
9th April 2008: - This morning we woke up with frost on our tent, it was like cardboard, lucky we are staying the next few nights in huts along the trek.
Our Tramp starts @ the Whakapapa Visitor Centre, so we hand in our intention form & off we go.
Whilst writing this we are sitting in Mangatepopo Hut toasting ourselves in the afternoon sun glad that we have our backpacks off our backs. Our first day was fantastic. We started @ 11.30 & then finished @ 14.15, just 15mins over the estimated Tramping time. The views were amazing, we had cloudless scenery of all three volcanoes, Mt Tongaririo, Mt Ngauruhoe (whish is Mt Doom for all of you LOTR fans). Mt Ruapehu (last erupted 25th Sept 07).
During the evening we watch My Taranaki (150km away) surrounded by what is a superb sunset.
10th April 2008: -Left Mangatepopo Hut @ about 8.00am with frost still on the ground. We had a very hard slog today to reach Mangatepopo saddle, but as the guide book states you are rewarded with views of the valley below & as it was a clear day we were able to see Mt Taranaki in the distance. We then walk along the flat south crater which was a nice casual walk, if you can say that with our lovely packs on! After our stroll we have another climb & it is exhausting, up to the Red Crater (highest point 1886). Yet again the views are amazing & the red crater pumps out smoke around the side & gives off a smell of sulphar that gets stronger as you descend the crater. Which is a task in itself as it is just loose stones & you slip side all over the place.
Getting to Ketetahi hut is so rewarding & it is made even better when the warden gets out a telescope to view the night sky, very interesting.
11th April 2008: - Start out from Ketetehai hut @ 7.00 with a grueling climb up the hill we descended last night. Although it was tough we made it to the North Crater to enjoy it to ourselves, the silence was overpowering & the sights so inspiring, made you feel so insignificant. From the emerald lakes we head towards Oturere Hut, down old lava flows & surrounded by interesting rock formations. Some expanses make you feel like you are walking on the moon, with volcanis sand & very little sign of life. Final part of this route includes a climb through a beech forest & start descending to the hut @ Waihohonu. Once @ the hut we are exhausted & take some time to soak up the sun on the decking. Tonight we cooked outside as the hut was full & there was a queue for the gas stoves. Once we finished cooking on our Trangier we kept it alight to keep warm & to use as light. By the end of the night there were 7 of us sitting around chatting about our travels.
12th April 2008: - Today we amazed ourselves as the terk from Waihohonu Hut to Whakapapa Village (our car). It was suppose to take 5.5 – 6 hours & we managed to complete it in 5hrs with a lovely long lunch break @ the very picturesque Taranaki Falls. After lunch it took us about 1/12 hours to get back to the car, which thankfully was perfectly fine. Once we informed Whakapapa VC that we had arrived back we then got back in the car & traveled down to Waitaki Valley to the campsite with the spa pools. This was a very welcoming sight & we spent the evening bathing in the hot water. Tongariro Northern Circuit has to be one of the best experiences we had in New Zealand. It is one of nine great walks here & we would reallyt like to come back & try to complete the other eight. You can not beat the views & the sense of achievement you have once the walk is completed.
13th April – 16th April 2008: - I write this section as one, because over these four days we have been basically sorting out everything for our departure to South America. Just basically posting gear back to the UK, getting travelers cheques, washing (you’ll be happy to know Nanna) & of course writing up this very long entry to the blog.
New Zealand has been a lovely place to visit; we have visited some great places & achieved so much. The people we have met along the way have been extremely friendly, whether from New Zealand or travelers just like us.
Again this is a place that we would recommend to everyone & would love to come back one day!
