The ferry across from the South to the North Island was slightly disappointing – it’s apparently one of the most spectacular ferry journeys in the world, but unfortunately the mist and rain prevented us from seeing very much at all. Nevertheless I finished the 3.5 hr journey with a sense of achievement having managed not to feel even slightly sea-sick despite Bob recounting stories of people vomiting on tables further back in the boat…
We had one of our periodic (and now all too common) lapses in financial sense and checked into a 5* hotel in Wellington, NZ’s capital at the bottom of the North Island. (The rate on last minute.com was too good to pass up and we did get an upgrade to a suite, for an extra 15 dollars a night…). We fitted in a bit of culture with a visit to the Te Papa national museum but as the weather was bad spent most of the rest of our stay in the hotel pool and sauna.
From Wellington we headed for wine country and the art deco town of Napier – bizarrely enough we could see the Aon office from our hotel room here, which was a little off-putting. As it seemed impolite not to, we took a ‘gourmet’ tour of the local vineyards, which was excellent. Disconcertingly it started at 12.30 and having had a late breakfast we didn’t feel like eating lunch before we left. As a result, I was stupidly (and I suppose inevitably) giddy after the first wine-tasting, which was surprisingly generous. We were taught how to taste the wine properly but that fell rapidly by the wayside and although we were trying to make all the right noises, in reality we had no idea what we were tasting after the second vineyard. Despite this (or maybe because) it was a great afternoon, although we forgot the camera so unfortunately there are no photos of the lovely vineyards we visited or indeed us clutching a wine bottle looking uncouth and grinning inanely… which is no bad thing.
Our activities in Taupo, our next stop, were slightly more sedate than the last time I was there about 14 years ago. Then it was a tandem parachute jump, this time around it was mini golf… Although Bob did manage to haul himself out of bed at the crack of dawn for a swim in the lake – it seemed like a good idea to me the night before but by the next morning there was absolutely no chance of me getting myself into a freezing cold lake at 7.30am.
We also managed a walk from the town to the Huka Falls but were disappointed not to have our swimming things as the route passed an area where a thermal spring entered the river and people were lying in the warm water drinking beer – which looked pretty appealing.
We’re now in the Coromandel, a very pretty area of beaches and seaside towns – we spent most of yesterday in the car on the way here from Taupo, taking a detour to visit a thermal reserve and see the bizarre bubbling mud pools and steaming thermal lakes and springs that are too hot to stick your hand in. (Yes, Bob did try…)
At the moment we’re staying in Whangamata, a little seaside town in the south-east of the Coromandel. Our motel (we have now abandoned our resolve to stay in hostels) is well and truly stuck in the 70s, in fact Bob is convinced it’s a holiday cottage he stayed in as a child in Wales. It is pretty cheap though and has a brilliant view of the harbour and beach so I can deal with the quilted bedspreads and Bob is positively thrilled by the happy memories it brings back!
The forecast for the next few days is heavy rain so we may have mistimed our arrival at the beach but we’re looking into what else there is to do in the area (although probably not the cinema which is only open on Wednesdays and Fridays…)
