Category: Simon

Our last full day in New Zealand, and what better way to sign off our stay in New Zealand than jumping off something. However, the only thing you can jump off also happens to be the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere, the Auckland Skytower, standing at about a third of a kilometre tall. Donning a rather fetching jumpsuit and stepping into the familiar harness I was standing in the lift with a glass bottom watching the floor disappear beneath me, trying not to think about the fact that I’ll need to somehow convince my legs to throw me off. In mere seconds (it was a quiet day and a slick operation they run) I was outside, standing on a ledge 192 metres above the ground, clammy hands gripping on to the rail, coming close to hitting the abort button in my head. But no, must do this one last jump. Waving to the camera with what can only be described as pure apprehension, I moved to hang on to the final two rails before preparing to let go, and passed on the invite to look down. A short countdown and somehow my hands let go of the rail, moving quickly to grab the harness for an odd sense of safety. Hang on a minute, this is actually fun! After a few seconds of hanging around, the wind started whistling past my ears, and the ground started moving up. The fall felt quite relaxed, even though moving toward the ground at 85km/h the harness still pulled back so it wasn’t like a freefall. 12 seconds later and it was all over, would I like another go for free as it was so quiet? Damn right!
P.S. Cat – That jump was a cracker, right?! It’s so easy to imagine you calm-faced jumping off that ledge, in fact did you run off? 😉

The end of an era has come: 5 months, 3 vans, 2 countries, and 22,000Km on 5 islands and our campervanning days are over, for now. To say we’ve had fun is an understatement, and whilst we can’t deny there’s been times we wished to have more than a few cubic metres space to live in, I’m sure we’ll do it again sometime.
With our belongings nearly shoehorned back into our rucksacks we checked into the Auckland hostel and marvelled at the space afforded to us, and the fact that we didn’t need to convert the bed each night.

I could be wrong, but it appears that Papamoa is the world centre for Blokarting, the sport where a sail is attached to three wheels and the wind does the rest. All was going well until we sat in the kart all prepped and ready to go when the wind died down to a whisper. Fair play to the two guys running the place who were determined to get us going and pushed the karts in the hope that the wind would carry us on. The furthest I managed to get was one complete lap before slowly grinding to a halt, and no amount of me pushing would get the kart going on it’s own. I’m still not convinced how you get it to go into the wind, but I’d definitely like to try it again on a windier day.

Sounds odd, having a day off when you’re on holiday, but with our stomachs complaining due to a probably dodgy curry (that does not bode well for the India visit!) we were not up to much.
Caroline did manage a half day visit to Kelly’s school whilst I found some waterfalls with no water, but in the afternoon there was nothing for it but to enter the dark sanctum of the cinema and veg out to Indiana Jones, ah bliss…

The good thing about staying with the locals is that you get to go to the good places you’d otherwise miss. Paul took us out to the gentle slopes at the back of Rotorua for a quick mountain bike, and despite Caroline’s previous experiences, she still came along. The whole of the forest is a maze of tracks to be explored, and are designed for bikers with gentle slopes along with weaving downhills and jumps to test your balance. The bike’s lack of toe clips meant the bike and I parted company on one jump, gravity brought us back together with a bump though. Apart from that I only came off once, the pedal clipping a log and throwing me off onto the soft forest floor – haven’t had that much fun on a bike since my school days. Caroline chose to skip those crazy downhills, maybe she has really retired now, or is just more cautious when I say “fun mountain biking”…

Well a trip to Rotorua just isn’t complete without a visit to the luge. Seeing as I didn’t manage the advanced track last time there’s even more of a reason to hit the concrete with avengence. With 5 tickets for the luge in hand, and praying for a distinct lack of school trips at the top we took to the hill. Last time I couldn’t do the advanced track, but this time nothing held me back, and the track impressed. It was faster, bendier, with more two-wheeled antics and some jumps thrown in too, but also over way too quickly. Pete – it’s also been toned down since you were here, the jumps are smaller as people were getting injured – that doesn’t sound like New Zealand! The intermediate track was fun, but not quite as thrilling as last time, so maybe you do begin to get immune to these sort of things. Caroline took the final run down the luge, speeding down like a pro, and oddly claiming that the chairlift ride was the scariest bit…

The only problem with an excellent road map is that you don’t realise when you are close to places, and today we realised that Taupo, Rotorua and their crazy activities were within grasp. So off we went, eagerly checking what would be next, and settling on Quad Biking as a scenic flight around volcanoes just isn’t the same when they (still!) have cloud around them. Opting for the sporty quads we whizzed around the dirt track, down steep hills and through thick bush, until our thumbs could take no more (thumb accelerator = aching thumbs).
The cold night was coming in, so back at Rotorua we headed for the Mitai village to culture ourselves in the Maori traditional canoeing, greetings, songs, dances and of course Haka. The Maoris are also dab hands at cooking too; Hangi is dinner cooked in the smouldering embers of an outdoor fire so that meat falls off the bone, gives it a nice smoky flavour and makes you eat until stuffed. Which we did, mmm!!

From the start to the end in one day, not bad eh? Probably not what you’re expecting though (although some form of extreme sport involving a fighter jet would have been good). We started off in Waitangi, site of the first treaty between Maori and European settlers to share the land and considered to be the start of modern New Zealand. Beyond the controversy that surrounds Maori and European relations, the area conveys an old-world and pioneer feel, as though you could imagine the settlers arriving on the shore. It’s also a melting pot of the two cultures with huge war canoes and Maori town hall next to the first governer’s house.
Later that afternoon after about 20km of rough unsealed road we reached the end of New Zealand at Cape Reinga, the most northerly land (technically not, but as far north as any road goes) and the turning point for our journey as we’ve done west, south, east and now north. It’s quite surprising that there is a road and that they are starting to seal it as there is literally nothing but a car park, toilet and unmanned lighthouse – keeps us tourists entertained at least I suppose! Not only is it about as far north as you can go, it’s also where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet which causes huge waves to oddly break far off the coast. Maori also believe that when they die their spirits come to Cape Reinga and leap off an old tree to reach their mythical homeland of Hawaiiti. It may sound a bit silly to some, but it’s no sillier than meeting your maker, and I reckon it’s a nice place for a spirit to leap from. I’m sure there are still a few nooks and cranies of New Zealand left to visit so that should keep us entertained for the final couple of weeks.

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…

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!