Author: sigormley

She’s a Lady

Today began with an early start and a race up the road to get to the Bay of Islands. However, we did make time to stop at the Hundertwasser toilets. They are world famous so I know you will have heard of them. No? Well they were created by an ecentric painter / architect from Austria and well, lets just say, as public conviences go these are quirky!
When we arrived in Paihia we hooked up with Glen, our skipper for the day who promised to show us around the Bay of Islands on board his yacht, ‘She’s a Lady’ (I made the mistake of asking how she got her name and was told it was because she was high maintenance. Huh!)
Our track record with sailing led us to believe that the weather probably wouldn’t be great and it would no doubt rain. I’m thinking of our last day trip sailing from Brisbane, heart of the sunshine state but where it rained all day for our sailing expedition. Sure enough as we set sail it looked like a rather grey morning. There was also not a great deal of wind around (kind of a pre-requisite for sailing) which meant that we kind of drifted along in a very relaxed manner, which set the tone for the rest of the day. We drifted past many islands, some very exclusive and privately owned. How do the owners get to their homes I hear you ask. By boat more often than not but we did also spot a helicopter hanger (ah how the other half live!) As we came close to where the islands stop to reveal endless miles of sea, we chose our very own deserted island and dropped anchor. We passed up on the proposed swimming although we did brave a wee bit of kayaking, alas despite the glass bottom I saw nothing except some rocks and the sea bed. We also climbed the hill of our wee island and were rewarded with 360 degree views of the area and a light spattering of rain.
After what were quite possibly the best sandwiches ever we boarded ‘the lady’ once more and continued with thè ‘relaxed’ sailing back to harbour.

Sheepworld

Although you could probably rename New Zealand Sheepworld, that’s not what we’re talking about here, instead there is a theme park (well, a farm) dedicated to the woolly four legged creatures. Some may think we’re baa-rmy but we were up early to make sure we saw the sheep shearing show, goaded on by the guide book hinting at a chance to shear one ourselves. Alas there was no such opportunity, which is a good thing as the clippers were exceptionally sharp and could easily whip a finger off (I’m 90% sure our travel insurance doesn’t cover sheep shearing). The sheep dogs were particularily impressive – the handler told one to “get the sheep” and two minutes later sheep were running over the hill and were pinned against the fence as close as they could get to the handler. Then came my part in the show, helping to sort the sheep according to the colour on their heads. Armed with a three way gate, the dogs barked the sheep along a passage way to the gate where I flapped away trying to get the sheep going the right way. Squashing a couple of heads in the process, I only got a few wrong which means I am good enough for a job in Australia but not New Zealand. The show ended with us holding milking bottles as lambs stampeded in, obviously well drilled for what was in store. Somehow Cat managed to be the last one with milk left and was surrounded by the lambs eager for the last drops, not sure if that is an enviable position…

New convoy

The age of the Jucy camper has come to an end. The Chaser has done us well through the South Island and up most of the North Island with such luxuries as a bathroom and heated water, as well as not needing to change gear as we tootle along. But such luxuries come at a price, so we’ve swapped to a Britz camper. Gone is the bathroom, but in is the upstairs bedroom (which I’ll break if I go near), alfresco dining (folding outside table), and a grill of all things! As we marvelled at the clever design it’s odd to think that: a) we’ve been in the same type of van since we left Sydney, and each interior design feels huge compared to the last, and b) we’ll have spent 5 months living in the back of a van by the time we’re done.
So with our new van we zoomed up (it’s petrol instead of diesel and moves somewhat for a van) the imaginatively named Northland peninsula north of Auckland to meet Cat and re-establish the convoy, ready to continue our tour. Oh, we’ve also been reunited with our passports and India is on, woohoo!

One big train set

There’s a few things you could say about the Driving Creek Railway, like it’s the only narrow guage railway in New Zealand, or the owner is committed to being eco-friendly, but basically this is one man’s rather large train set. Started as a way to get clay down from the hill, the line meanders then reverses a few times up the steep hillside until it reaches the Eyefull Tower view point at 173 metres high. It was only reluctantly opened to the public about 10 years ago, well if you had such a big toy, would you share it?
We also stopped off to see some Kauri, New Zealands second tallest trees. Doesn’t sound impressive when it’s put like that, but they are the largest by volume, and that’s what really counts in my book. The relatively young 600 year old trees we saw were a mere 2 metres across, and given that they can live to 4000 years old, these monsters can get to some impressive sizes. What a shame someone thought it was a good idea to chop most of them down.

That summer holiday feeling

Last night we arrived in the Coromandel Peninsula on the east coast and lucked out by finding THE best campsite. To paint a picture it was right on the beach (imagine being lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves and morning strolls / jogs by the shore), the facilities were uber clean, but best of all there was an awesome TV room where Cat and I enjoyed CSI on a large flat screen TV whilst lounging on a leather sofa each. Ah bliss! (and I had peace to geek out with the Wi-Fi, check the map page! – Si)
After a morning beach walk we made our way further up the peninsula and found ourselves another idyllic beach for lunch. The sun was shining, the sea was beckoning, we had that summer holiday feeling and frolicked around like kids (check out Si on the rope swing).
Eventually, when we were able to drag ourselves away from the fun and frolics we hiked to Cathedral Cove, a beach with spectacularly eroded cliffs and a huge rock archway. We ran through the arch and dodged the waves to get to yet another beautiful beach. It has been a bit of a beach-tastic day! This particular beach boasted views of several stranded arches not that dissimilar to the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean road in Australia.
The guidebook informed us that there was only one thing round these parts that could top Cathedral Cove and that was Hot Water beach. We had been waiting all day for the appropriate low tide time of 6pm to enjoy this little treat. Apparently there is a hot spring under the sand so the idea is that you dig yourself a little pond to sit in and enjoy the hot bubbling water with the occasional sea wave to cool it down. Sounded easy enough. Our first path to the designated area was unfortunately blocked by some rather unsurmountable rocks with ferocious waves crashing on to them, after a bit of a soaking we gave up on that path and drove round the corner to the much easier more direct route. All we had to do from here was walk along the beach to the correct spot and dig. Finding the exact spot proved a little difficult however. In one spot Cat and I were pretty sure that the sea lapping at our feet wasn’t as cold as it should be but a little digging with our toes proved fruitless and we had to admit defeat, especially since the tide did not seem low as promised. We later questioned the lady at the campsite who informed us that this natural phenomenon was not working at the moment. Right!

Shearing capital of the World

I’m sure the Aussies might have something to say about Te Kuiti’s self-prolaimed title of sheep shearing capital of the world. However, we’ve learnt that the Kiwis are good at forgetting other parts of the world, the “most easterly point” and “see the sunrise first” claims of East Cape conveniently forget about Fiji and Siberia that straddle the international date line. Te Kuiti does have a quite impressive 7 metre tall statue of a sheap shearer, which must be hard to match.
Our journey today took us to a remnant forest of kahikatea, New Zealands tallest tree. Most have been chopped down to make butter boxes which is a shame as their moss covered buttress roots make for an enchanted forest feel. There was also a stop at Karangahake, an old gold mining town, topped off by the 1km disused railway tunnel walk, that’s a long way to go in the dark!

More hiding mountains

Mount Taranaki is supposedly an almost perfect cone shaped volcano, made more impressive as it stands alone on flat coastal land. That’s also the reason it’s normally covered in clouds, and as the tourist information lady said: if you see it, photograph it as it’ll be gone again soon.
We were going to do some walks around the mountain, but just counted ourselves lucky that we did manage to catch half of the mountain peeking out from behind a cloud for a few seconds. As you’d expect, when we were about 75km up the road taking sunset photos the mountain was there in the background in it’s full glory without a cloud to be seen!

Going nowhere, fast.

After the jetboat taster a couple of days back, we were back for more at the Whanganui River today. The air was cold and a mist hung over the river gorge, meaning that it was a bit nippy as we zoomed about 50km up the river in the jetboat. Where we were going? Nowhere, or to be precise the bridge to nowhere, built when the Kiwis were trying to convert the land to farms, and the bridge was completed just as the farmers were leaving. So since the 1930’s the bridge has been sitting there not being used, and without a road at either end – literally the bridge to nowhere.
With the farms long gone, the forest is returning to nature, mostly fern trees with their big umbrella leaves filling the steep hillside (not sure why anyone thought it would be a good idea to farm there!). Just as we returned to the boat the rain set in, not too bad on shore, but with the jetboat hurtling down the river each drop was like a needle to the face – good job we had raincoats!

Mount Ruapehu

Sometimes plans don’t work out, and today we had to resort to plan c. We were planning on doing the Tongariro Crossing, said to be the finest one day hike in New Zealand, crossing between two not-so-dormant volcanoes. We were a bit dubious about attempting the 16km trek anyway, but as we visited the information centre yesterday and saw that alpine conditions were in effect, (meaning ice picks were required) we decided to give it a miss. There was also the possibility of rain, so that sealed the deal.
This is New Zealand though, always lots to do, so plan b was to catch a scenic flight over the three volcanoes and see them that way. Unfortunately as we woke this morning, the cloud cover was so low you could almost touch it. Instead we took the scenic route around the national park, the mountains still hiding behind clouds. Eventually we were far enough south to get out of the cloud cover and see Mount Ruapehu, New Zealands tallest volcano, in all it’s glory (apart from the power cables obscuring the view…).
The volcano had erupted 8 months ago, and had a large eruption in 1996, so quite an active one! The 1996 eruption threw out 5 to 15 metre boulders (that must be like a house flying at you!) along with hot ash and other debris. The volcano is currently under alert as there is increased activity in the crater, meaning a possible eruption could occur. There was also a map indicating where lava flows and water from the crater lake would go if an eruption occurred. Came in quite useful for us when picking a campsite!

Riding the rapids

Those Aratiatia rapids from yesterday were way too good to only visit once, but this time we added one more ingredient: speed. There have been ample opportunities for jetboat riding, however this one is special as it’s the only jetboat that goes over rapids, along with going airborne and sinking a few boats in the rapids over the years. Small mercy is that we don’t go over the rapids we were looking at yesterday, and instead head downstream. Twisting, spinning and coming within a knats whiskers of things sticking out of the river, we hurtled down to some other rapids. The river was five times higher than normal, which meant lots of water churning, and waves to ride as we went up and down, getting airbourne and soaked quite a few times. So, putting an 8 litre Chevvy engine in the back of a small speed boat makes for just about the best mode of transport, ever.