05.11.09 - 06.11.09 Rotorua

Kiwi Paka Backpackers Hostel camp ground

a drain in Rotorua- notice the steam venting from it!

Rotorua is the most active volcanic town in New Zealand with thermal pools, geysers and bubbling sulphurous streams covering the entire area. It sits on the banks of Lake Rotorua, one of the biggest inland water sources in New Zealand and is surrounded by pretty, innocent looking green countryside but who knows what's happening only inches below the earth's crust. Our camping ground is located near Kuirau Park which has many thermal pools, bubbling away, producing continuous hot steam clouds. This area of parkland was the most recent to have significant activity and erupted only in 2003. Inhabitants of Rotorua don't seem to be too concerned by threats of boiling hot explosions- they have developed ways of harnassing and controlling the endless source of heat energy below their feet. Most houses have a water pipe directly pumping hot water into their taps and under floor heating for free, which keeps their houses toasty warm 365 days of the year.

04.11.09 Coromandel Peninsula

Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

After stopping back in Auckland at Bamber House again, for one night, to pick up our registration document for the van and do our laundry, we decided to tackle the Coromandel Peninsula as our next port of call. And what drew us there first and foremost was the alluring idea of Hot Water beach on the eastern coast, where thermal hot springs beneath the sand bubble to the surface and, if you dig deep enough, you can create your very own spa pool. The waters are most active two hours before and after low tide which today occured at 3pm so when we arrived just after 1pm, we were perfectly timed to catch the heat, but also the many other tourists who'd had the same idea. Everyone'd hired a spade each from the local shop cum cafe to dig their own private pool but, as we found out, the springs were only really hot at certain points so we ended up gatecrashing someone else's pool. They didn't mind though and we proceeded to get to know them pretty well, chatting away as the hot water warmed our tootsies, sometimes proving too hot to handle (it can reach 58 degrees celsius). It was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, being bathed in hot water overlooking a stunning beach setting and later on, when the tide starts to come in, our handmade pools will be washed away, a virgin beach awaiting the next horde of tourists tomorrow. We got dried off and headed up the coast a few km to another tourist magnet, Cathedral Cove, so-called because of the way the sea waters have formed a tunnel in the volcanic cliff which resembles a cathedral vault.

view of Te Whanganui-a-Hei Marine Reserve

Cathedral Cove

The cove itself was picturesque but the panoramic views of the Te Whanganui-a-Hei Marine Reserve with its many rocky islands and the fern forest walk down to Cathedral Cove proved stunning in themselves. Foxgloves lined our path down through Pukuhatawa fern forest. The Pukuhatawa fern is the country's national emblem, used on the All Blacks shirts notably, and is justly so, as it appears almost everywhere along the forested roadsides and is very pretty, especially when seen against the sun's rays. Our road driving so far has encompassed mainly green scenery against blue skies with the odd bright red mailbox or corrugated iron roof punctuating the landscape. The range of greens is diverse with a huge variety of foliage from fir, kauri, fern, grass, gorse, palm and thistle.

01.11.09 The Far North -Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach

in the ancient Kauri forest


our Tank on the famous Ninety Mile Beach

After leaving our camping ground at Rarawa Beach on the eastern coast of the Far North peninsula we head up to the tip of mainland New Zealand, Cape Reinga. They're in the middle of tarmaccing the highway up here. It's obviously proving a more beaten track as campervans, motorbikes and full blown tour buses are increasingly making the trip up here to view the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and witness the Moari souls make their final journey back to their Polynesian homeland, according to the ancient legend. We're impressed by the sight of the waves of the two bodies of water meeting, crashing and changing current and by the expansive views across the seas. It's pretty chilly so we beat a hasty retreat back to the cosy comfort of our van and head on to the entrance to the top of Ninety Mile Beach, Te Paki river bed. Greg's excited to try out his new motor on the legendary drag strip otherwise known as 90 mile beach so we spare no time in worrying whether we'll be able to get it off again (everyday cars are stranded in the sands) and switch to 4x4 mode. The Tank makes easy work of the sand and soon we're cruising down the stretch, surfers' waves on one side, dunes on the other. For a good while we're the only ones in sight and we decide to take advantage of the waves and try out our boogie boards for the first time. It's not long before we're bounding back ashore as the cold water is not as inviting as it looks but it's fun and, if we weren't awake before, we sure are now! At the exit from the beach the sand gets deeper and for a split second we're not sure if we'd make it to the concrete ramp, but, sure enough, the Tank survived. Our campsite at Kauri forest offers nightime guided walks to birdwatch for Kiwi so we sign ourselves up, have a quick shower, and meet up with our guide, Herb, at the office at 8. Herb drove us to the Kauri Walks car park and furnished us with torches for navugating the forest paths. He himself carried a powerful red light which he used to scan the undergrowth in search of the elusive Kiwi. He explained that Kiwis, because they cannot fly, have been preyed upon by stray and farmers' dogs, the unwanted possum (that was brought in from Australia) and rats who steal the eggs. Therefore the populations of the nation's bird have been in decline and every effort is now made to protect them from becoming extinct. The Trounson Kauri estate is a success story, now boasting 200 birds, due mostly to the use of predator traps around the area. The Kiwi is a nocturnal creature, sleeping 18 hours during the day in the small nests they make in the roots of trees, and coming out to feed at night. They pair off for life (lifespan 15 years) and, as a couple dominate a sizeable territory, calling out to each other as they search for food to let each other know where they are and to fend off any other Kiwis from their land. We are lucky enough to hear a pair calling to each other across our path but are unable to catch a glimpse of one. The nine of us tramping along on a gravel path has probably warned them of our presence. I am very excited however to see many glow-worms for the first time- flickering little lights in the upturned roots of a toppled kauri tree and the kauri trees themselves are a very impressive sight. They are ancient giants of the forest, the oldest one Tane Mahuta (Moari forest god) is in excess of 2,000 years old. They grow higher than the forest canopy in their first 2-300 years (on average 50 metres in height) then they start to fill out in the trunk and their girth can end up reaching anywhere up to 16 metres. They have an unfortunately shallow root system and can easily be toppled if damaged. Herb shows us a dead kauri which fell last year and explains that the tree is completely legally protected from being touched even when on the ground. It is illegal to remove any part of it but it can be a temptation to master carvers in the area who view the kauri wood as the most valuable for making into all sorts of furniture.

31.10.09 Boat Trip - Bay of Islands

We made an early start from our campground today to get to Russell for 9.30 (when our boat comes to pick us up). We do have time for a fresh pastry pie from the bakery and a chat with the baker herself. Most people around here are very friendly and don’t mind passing the time of day. It’s still quite sleepy here but come Christmas and the tourists will be flooding in. On our boat trip one of the highlights is to swim with dolphins, so we have our wetsuits ready to hand but, although our captain is in constant contact with all other boats in the area in case they spot anything, the dolphins aren’t coming out to play today. We do manage to catch a glimpse of a mother whale and her calf, swimming through the waters, which we’re told, is a much rarer sighting to make. It’s cold out on the water but the sun is beaming, showing all the many islands in their full glory. Most are privately owned but public access is allowed during daylight hours. There were many famous landings in these bays including Captain Cook and his ship, the Endeavour. Missionaries set up a church on one of the coastal embankments and this whole area was extremely significant in the relationship building between the Maori and the Brits. The historic treaty of Waitangi was signed just up the coast, in 1840, which was the agreement drawn up between the Maori and the British to decide on governmental power and land ownership. The Northland is the seat of the foundation of New Zealand as this is where all pioneers including the Polynesian Maori first landed. It subsequently has the most population of Maori in the whole of New Zealand.We jump ship at a little scenic reserve island for a stroll to the lookout from where an impressive panorama of the Bay of Islands can be viewed. Back on the boat we go on a wild dolphin chase but to no avail. Sometimes they don’t want to be found, or if they’re with their babies it’s not possible to get in the water with them anyway. So we head back to shore where we have a long drive in front of us up to the Far North because we want to make it to Cape Reinga tomorrow morning.

Tour of Northland 30.10.09

After saying goodbye to the young Dutch couple pitched up next to us, we headed towards Paihia, a small resort town on the Bay of Islands to see about booking a day out on a boat for tomorrow. The Bay of Islands is a kiwi tourist trap and also the Brits have bought up a lot of the local property to use as holiday homes. We reserve a spot for tomorrow’s Dolphin Spotter cruise and journey out of town, round the coast to a DOC site for tramping (walking). It is possible to walk your way up to the top of the peninsula, Cape Brett, and camp at a DOC trekking hut, but that takes 6 hours each way so we opt for a gentler 1 hour 15 min walk over the crest of the hill to the charming secluded beach of Whangamumu Bay where we can also see the remains of a whaling station. The concrete bunker style buildings were where the whale’s carcass was chopped up and the blubber, oil and meat extracted. It’s a much quieter place now and our only company is a few daytrippers who’ve paddled ashore from their yacht anchored in the bay. This is the only other way of accessing these bays aside from walking. Having completed our exertion for the day we speed off to a campsite further down the peninsula at Bland Bay, which is not as it’s name suggests. It’s a very pretty beach with picturesque craggy islands which are perfect against the setting sun.

Arrival in Auckland 24.10.09

Greg outside his new best friend, the 'Tank'


Shakespear regional Park- our first campsite

a massive yacht in Auckland harbour- the city of sails

24.10.09 - 26.10.09 Bamber House, Mount Eden, Auckland

27.10.09 Shakespear Regional Park Camping Ground

28.10.09 Otamure Beach DOC Camping Ground

29.10.09 Keri Keri Top 10 Campsite
We’ve been in New Zealand almost a week now and so far we’ve managed to buy a van, kit it out with a homemade bed and curtains and buy up all the camping gear we’ll need for our two month driving tour. This process has been greatly speeded up by the helpfulness of the kiwis we’ve come across so far. In particular, the girls Dawn and Claire who run Bamber House backpackers hostel in Mount Eden, Auckland. Admittedly they’re not kiwis, hailing instead from the UK, Glasgow and Yorkshire respectfully, but they were extremely helpful, going above and beyond to get us all the info we needed on buying a car, allowing us to use the hostel’s car park to create our new home from home and granting us a free night’s accommodation sleeping in our van on their premises. It’s been a hard slog, especially for Greg, who’s found a new vocation as a carpenter and general DIYer and we’ve spent a lot of money on the van getting it fitted up as we wanted it, but it’s been worth it because it’s a great little beast (we’ve named it Tank because of it’s 2 ton weight) and we should recoup our costs by selling it into the backpacker market when we’re done. We’ve come across dozens of young couples, singletons and groups of travellers hailing from all parts of the globe who buy themselves a second hand motor to tour in and it’s an extra bonus if it has sleeping quarters in the back. We’ve found New Zealand to be a pretty expensive destination as it’s almost 2 dollars to the pound at the moment. Only a year ago it was 3.5 but the country’s economy has been booming and, of course, ours has been in decline. In the supermarkets food is proving more expensive than the UK but we have found the quality of even basic brands to be better owing in part to the fact that the majority of produce is grown in New Zealand.We’re on the road now, touring the North Island, north of Auckland, heading up to the top - Cape Reinga. The eastern coast has so far been impressive for its beaches but unfortunately the Spring temperatures are not quite inviting enough for us to try swimming. We have however, recently purchased ¾ length wetsuits and foam boogie boards (small surf boards) so we have no excuse not to try some of the famous surfers beaches.

Easter Island 2

a moai not yet removed from the volcano quarry where it was made


Tongariki moais - 15 in total which have been re-erected


cave we clambered through

There are numerous underground caves near the west coast of the island, previously inhabited by the Rapa Nui, which can be seen from the remainder of many small walls left inside. There are still islanders today who remember times before the arrival of the first aeroplanes. They speak of being brought up in the caves, fetching water daily from the freshwater lake in the volcano crater. They have a history of being persecuted by the people who arrived after the explorers, including Peruvian slave traders who kidnapped many of them and later, a sheep farming company who took over the land surrounding Hanga Roa village, hemming the last of the population in. Many also died when smallpox and TB were brought to the island by continentals. In the 19^th century only 111 natives remained. Since 1963, when the island was granted freedom, the population has significantly recovered and modern day life on the island is different to how it was only a generation before. Three aeroplanes daily bring tourists with money to spend in the local community, on souvenirs of hand carved statues and shell necklaces and hiring either cars, scooters or quads to tour the sites. The younger Rapa Nui generation is split between those who remain and those who leave for the continent, although when asked most would admit to wanting to return to the island at some point. There is a strong connection with the ancestral history and culture and a pride in being part of the most isolated community on earth. We explore the caves, amazed at the fact we can walk 200 metres underground through pitch black tunnels. We head back to the pretty beach at Anakena for a last dip in the huge waves of the Pacific Ocean before cooking our last meal in the Mihinoa Camping Hostel and chatting with some fellow travellers who’ve just been to New Zealand and only had great things to say about it.