Hi all,
Well we're currently sat in an internet cafe in Wellington having had a pretty wet last week or so..
After collecting the van on Weds we drove North to Leigh/Pakiri beach and spent our first night in a campsite right on the beach.. It was fun just having a fridge and stove inside the van rather than having to use the camp kitchen! The van so far has been great. As you will hear it has been pretty wet so it's been invaluable to have space inside the van to hang wet clothes and to be able to move around as well.
After Leigh we drove further North to Paihia which is in the Bay of Islands and is the best spot in the North Island to see dolphins.. So we booked ourselves on a days cruise with the hope of seeing and swimming with the dolphions... After a couple of hours cruising we found a group of about 15-20 Common Bottlenose dolphins which are the only tri-coloured dolphins in the world. They were incredible, they swam along with the front of the boat and were very playful. Took lots of photos which we'll eventually get around to putting up on Flickr.. (Sorry we're so behind but uploading takes forever... There are some more of Oz though which we did recently). We then visited the Hole in the Rock and Cathedral Cave but we didn't get the chance to swim with the dolphins because there were young in the group.. Shame.
Whilst here we also visited the Waitangi Treaty House and Maori Meeting Place. This is where the 1840 Treaty between the British Government/White People (Pakeha) and the Maori's was signed in agreement that both Pakeha and Maori's would live side by side in peace.. It was a very interesting place to visit, most poignant having come from Australia where there has never been a treaty between the white people and the Aborigines and it's very sad to think how Australia could have been so different if a similar treaty had been signed over there.
After leaving Paihia we drove even further North to Doubtless Bay and then started South to the Waipoua Forest where there are a large number of Kauri trees, these are only found in NZ, and there is also the largest kauri tree in NZ here called Tane Mahuta which is named after the Maori God of the Forests. We drove for 10 hours this day to get south of Auckland and spent the night in the Waingaro Hot Springs campsite.. Very dodgy place which might have been hip in the 60's but very run-down now...! Pleased to get on our way the following morning! We visited the Waitamo Caves where we saw glow worms for the first time.. We took a boat ride in the cave and saw about 30,000 glow worms all shining bright blue.
From Waitomo we headed east to Rotorua, land of the geyser and hot springs. Due to the amount of suplhur these beasts give off the whole place smells like eggs... Nice. We stayed the night in a campsite on the edge of Lake Rotorua and the following day, even though it was pouring with rain, we visited Te Puia. Te Puia is an area of geothermal activity and has a famous geyser called Pohutu which spouts every 30 mins or so... We also got to see Maori carving and weaving and were treated to a Maori concert. We saw many Maori dances and songs and then the famous Haka was performed. Afterwards they invited the men of the audience to join them on stage. Carl being shy and retiring jumped up on stage and gave the BEST performance of the group of his haka. I'm not being biased but he was definitely the best, even other members of the audience came up and said he had 'potential'... !! It was hilarious and I have photos to prove it!
We also visited the Waikite Thermal Valley Springs where we treated ourselves to a private hot pool for only 6 pounds each! We had our own thermal pool for 40 minutes which was great to relax in...
From Rotorua we drove south to Lake Taupo and spent the night there although by now there was a severe weather warning in place so we bought some waterproof walking boots in preparation for the wet weather. Sadly we couldn't see Lake Taupo because the visibility was so poor. So we drove east to Napier which is a nice retro city with lots of Art Deco buildings. The town was flattened by an eathquake in 1930 and the whole area was re-built in the style of that period which was deco. Had a nice walk around the town and then headed back to Taupo to pick up the road to the Tongariro National Park. En route the weather cleared and we were able to see the Lake so we were pleased.
Tongariro National Park hosts three very large active volcanoes, including the one which was Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings.. As we approached the park we could see the three mountains in the distance and they were incredible. One of them has a hot spring on the side of the mountain that spurts out steam so the whole place was pretty mesmerising. We stayed at the Department of Conservation campsite for two nights and on the second day we walked a fantastic 17km walk up the side of Mt Ruapehu which took us about 5 1/2 hours to complete. The middle of the walk we saw the Upper and Lower Tama Lakes which were spectacular and then there was the most brilliant rainbow over the top of one of the lakes. The walk out there was sunny but as soon as we started back towards the campsite it chucked it down with rain. We were soaked but our new boots and waterproof trousers were worth every penny. When we got back we read in the paper that a group of children and one teacher from a school trip had drowned in the area so we were grateful to be back in the safety of our van.
Wanganui was our last stop before Wellington and it's a quaint town but we didn't really do much there. Nice to stop for a bit. Oh and the weather was dry too so we could finally tidy the van! It's not ALL fun and games you see, household chores are still done even on holiday!
And now we're in Wellington until Monday when we get the 3 hour inter island ferry to the South Island. We're very excited about seeing snow capped mountains and getting the chance to climb up the Fox Glacier!
Love to everyone,
Becs and Haka Haines! xxxxxxxx
