We
were all quite happy to pack up the next morning and pile into the
car rental company's collection car. It took us out to near the
airport and we picked up our green flash station wagon rental (MOT
26) with over 200,000 km on the clock. Our first stop
was to yet another strip mall suburb to have lunch and pick up
supplies. Another fab food court – our relative proximity to Asia
furnishing us with much better quality and choice of food than we
were all used to. We got camp food and then went to NZ's answer to
Walmart – The Warehouse to pick up camping gear – mini bbqs, a
pot, a cool bag and such-like.
We
were fed, had stocked up and the car was full of petrol – but we
didn't really have a plan so we just headed North. Finally we got out
into the countryside – very picturesque with rolling hills, tidy
farms, wide bays and windy roads. Up the Northlands peninsula towards
Russell, NZ's first capital and the Bay of Islands. The initial plan
was to visit a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite but that was
foiled by lack of information – the place we were aiming for was
actually on an island. Plan B was to free camp so it was just a
matter of finding the right spot. We saved some time by using the
little car ferry to get into Russell itself but it soon became
apparent that it was all too nice to free camp. Signs abounded saying
no camping here and no loitering there and a liquor ban somewhere
else. We cut our losses, getting hungry and checked into a commercial
campsite – at a price comparable to staying in a hostel –
something wrong about that. Really have to get a DOC leaflet with
some facts on it!
The
campsite was actually quite good – we had an entire field almost to
ourselves. On putting up the tent we discovered that one of the
poles didn't connect to the others but the masking tape came to the
rescue again. It was Oli's birthday and we made a makeshift table of
wide wooden logs and had a little party complete with a cake and
candles. The sky was very clear and throughout the night strange
noises accompanied the chill– the prim owner told us that there
were Weka, wild flightless birds on
the site endangered like the kiwi yet more inquisitive and feisty .
One wandered over to the camp during breakfast and picked at a shoe.
Having failed to really get into the wilderness and the clock already
ticking – 8 days till the car had to be dropped off in Wellington,
we made a move. We managed to get a DOC leaflet in a picturesque
place called KeriKeri with an old (1800s) granite building by a
river. The building had been restored to its former glory to within
an inch of its existence – right down to the period dressed staff.
Unfortunately the DOC office was on the other side of the river and
there was no bridge so I had to ford it to get the leaflet. Bizarrely
there were a few stuffed kiwis in the office. They clearly take
conservation very seriously here.
Initially
we thought of making our way up to Ninety Mile beach but a friend had
said it was a long (ninety mile!) drive on a dusty road without much
gold at he end of the rainbow, so we made an arc around the peninsula
and started to head south along the west coast towards the native
Northland Forests.
New
Zealand lies on the ring of fire, the region of volcanic activity
surrounding the entire Pacific Ocean and has a large number of
geysers, hot springs and other volcanic phenomena. We chanced upon
Ngawha Springs in the heat of the midday sun and took a visit. It was
a myriad of pools of varying temperatures and hues of murkiness,
separated by wooden slats and all surrounded by a sulphuric gaseous
overtone. We stripped off and tentatively dipped our toes into the
murk, some for mere seconds, like “the Doctor” perilously hot at
over 50° C, others much cooler and bearable. At the bottom of the
opaque pools was a thick silt of minerals. We stayed for a few hours,
getting a bit burnt in the heat of the sun. Every stitch of clothes
worn anywhere near the place stank for days, but it was well worth
it.
The
next campsite, finally a DOC one, was beside the Trounson Kauri Park
and did not disappoint. There was no owner or guard to speak of, very
reasonable fees are paid into a little plastic envelope, plenty of
space, great facilities and quite curiously a persistent sound of
nature – not birdsong of cicidas as I might have expected, but the
last throws of what must have been the wild donkey of the apocalypse.
This thing was completely deranged and obviously very distressed and
very very loud. It became a bit of a joke after time but no matter
how hard we gazed at the field of cattle quietly grazing could we
identify the culprit. We had a pleasant meal, eating in the kitchen
as we had no table or chairs and it was pretty chilly. Our idea to
get fleece throws rather than sleeping bags now seemed quite
ludicrous.
The
whole point of being here was to trek in the forests so that was just
what we did the next day, driving back up the way we had come to
Waipoua Forest. First trek was up and back through the cool sub
tropical moist forest, complete with silver leafed ferns and fern
trees to a lookout – it was tall, well constructed and looked out
over .... the forest! Strange. Next was a refreshing dip in a chilly
swimming hole fed by a river and after lunch we drove up to the Kauri
stands themselves.
Kauri
are a type of monstrous pine which grow only in NZ and as if to
remind us of Alerces we visited in Patagonia, are the second largest
trees in the world after the Californian Sequoia. Individual trees
can reach over 2000 years old and up 50m in height and a staggering
20m in girth. While once upon a time they were all over New Zealand,
Australia and South East Asia, by the time humans arrived they had
been concentrated to the North of the North Island. The wood was
greatly valued bu Maori (for their Canoes) and Eurpoeans alike and at
this stage over 75 of the remaining mature Kauri are in the Waipoua
and Trounson forests.
We
walked to the Four Sisters, four slender Kauri growing in such close
proximity that they are as one, and to the enromous Te Matua Ngahere,
the father of the forest, second largest in NZ. Onwards to Cathedral
Grove, (the cathedral buttresses and pillars formed by trees) and
finally we came to Tane Mahuta,
the King of the Forest, staggeringly enormous.
All
this nature and walking made us hungry so we went back to camp for
dinner. I have to admit that I am a bigger fan of fauna than flora so
was looking forward to the evening's activity – a night walk
through the Kauri stand at the bottom of the campsite with the main
goal of hoping to sight the elusive Kiwi. They really are so good at
doing this sort of stuff in NZ the campsite providing red plastic to
put over your torch so you disturb the animals as little as possible.
The 90 minute jaunt failed to show us Kiwi, although we did hear them
call and managed to see lots of glow worms,, a large river eel and a
giant carniverous kauri snail “that eats worms like spaghetti”,
as the DOC information board along the track told us. What is, I
think interesting about NZ fauna is that humans only arrived about
1000 years ago. Before that the only mammals in NZ were bats. As such
the fauna that I am a big fan of actually don't exist in NZ, or
rather they shouldn't – native species are not capable of competing
with or defending themselves against introduced species such as cats,
dog and stoat. Possums are particularly vilified and poisoned or
trapped with aplomb. Our friendly neighbourhood apocalyptic donkey
serenaded us to a frosty sleep after the night walk.
Having
spent more time than anticipated in Northlands we needed to make
tracks so we made for the Coromandel Peninsula, meaning we had to
pass back through Auckland, but not before stopping in to look at the
remains of the Rainbow Warrior in the functional town of Dargaville.
We used the opportunity of heading through Auckland to go back to the
same food court for some more yummy Thai food and also to pick up
some sleeping bags and some citrinella candles in Warehouse. If
you're camping you need sleeping bags, no matter what height the
summer.
