New Zealand - North Island

We arrived in Auckland disappointed that we wouldn’t get to see Ireland in a World Cup semi-final and under pressure to pick up our camper van/car before the depot closed.  After getting plenty of jokes from the immigration and customs officials about departures being on the other floor we sprinted out and got to our camper pickup 10 minutes before closing.

To use some real estate agent terms, the camper van “Star Strider” was to be our ‘quaint and cosy’ home for the next 3 weeks (it came with great views).  After a car naming dispute which (sadly) entertained us for most of our first days driving we settled on ‘Kiri Jonah Star Strider Te Kanawa Lomu’.

Our wheels & home - Star Strider

 

From the airport we drove straight out of Auckland in the pouring rain and 3 hours north to the Bay of Islands.  We awoke the following morning to a ‘soft’ day (we were to experience a lot of these).  However, it didn't dampen the beauty of the place.  We took a cruise out into the bay, saw some bottlenose dolphins up close and got to take a beautiful stroll on one of the islands.  The pictures show how lovely the place was with golden beaches, green hills and sea in every direction.

A bottlenose dolphin - they weigh about 250kg

A private island beach

The grass gets greener when you walk on it

We ate some delicious fish & chips and toasties in the cute towns of Russell & Paihia (some of New Zealand’s first western settlements).  Fish is so plentiful in New Zealand that the fish is actually cheaper than the chips in your order.  This area is where modern New Zealand was founded with the signing of the treaty of Waikato between the Maori and the British and there were various commemorations and information stations to view.  Here too we got our first insight into the importance of the game of rugby in NZ.  I think the following restaurant menu picture sums things up quite well.

The township of Russell

Colonial Structures in Russell

No food when there's Rugby on

From Bay of Islands we drove from the east to west coast where we were greeted by a fresh, un-spoilt sand bar beach and headland.  A swim would have been great if it wasn’t pouring rain and 15 degrees C (we felt like we were at home).  We headed on to a remnant rain forest and went to see NZ’s biggest tree, Tane Mahuta.  It’s quite a sight and as well as being huge it looks quite unique.  It apparently has a garden of other plants growing in its canopy and its bark is made up of scaly flakes that prevents any form of crawler, vine etc. from growing up on it.  The forest itself is quite a bizarre sight with palm trees and ferns growing side by side and numerous indigenous (I assume) tree varieties I’ve never seen before.

That's a Sand Dune

NZ's biggest tree - Tane Mahuta (14m girth)

Given that our time in New Zealand was so short we decided on a flying stop in Auckland and only spent an afternoon there.  We drove through the city centre and took a trip to the Auckland Domain.  A superb winter garden was showing the best of New Zealand springtime flowers.  A glance at the Auckland Museum, a bite to eat and we were on our way South.  It seemed a pleasant place.

Auckland Winter Garden

The Auckland Museum

On our way southwards Claire ran into a number of her work colleagues who gave us some great tips for the adventure sports ahead.  Our first stop was Rotorua to see a volcanic landscape and do some white water rafting but our luck wasn’t in as the Kaituna river (home to world’s highest commercially rafted waterfall) was closed due to high rain/water levels. 

Rotorua still had a lot to offer.  We visited a traditional (but still living) Maori volcanic settlement where we got a haka performance from the “tribe” and saw how the people used the hot earth to cook food, wash etc.  They have adapted to modern living but still keep their traditions alive here and we thought it was a really good setup.  Living on a volcanic plateau has its problems though with one of villagers having to move out of their house as a geyser decided to materialise beneath and hence into the middle of their kitchen.

Ahh, the ground is on fire

With no rafting to do we decided to give Zorbing a go.  This is where you throw yourself down a hill in a big plastic ball and is probably best described as a tame good laugh.  It’s still great fun though and Claire laughed so hard it probably made the ball go faster.  A few hours soaking in a volcanic spa and a huge NZ rib-eye steak rounded off an enjoyable day.  The only complaint you could have is the permanent smell of sulphur (rotten eggs) that’s in the air everywhere from the volcanic activity. 

Woohoo, Zorbing

The following day we took a tour around a scenic volcanic area called Wai-O-Tapu.  This area looks other worldly, best described by the picture/video below.  In some areas the ground/water/mud is bubbling away as it’s boiled by the activity beneath the ground.  Then you’ve got lovely forest and lake views mixed in for good measure.

Alien Landscapes

Our next stop in central northland was Waitomo, famous for its glowworm caves and their associated sporting activities.  We found a place (Rap Raft ‘n’ Rock) where we could do all of the activities of abseiling, tubing, caving and climbing and off we went.  Getting to the cave itself was an experience driving in a clapped out old Toyota Hiace across desolate ridges covered in sheep (it reminded me of the classic NZ movie ‘Black Sheep’).  The water was freezing and due to all the rain fast flowing and tough to wade/raft through but this probably made the experience.  Getting boulders in the bum while tubing is an unfortunate hazard but totally worth it.  Also, while in the cave, we saw thousands upon thousand of glowworms which were incredible.  Turn off the lights and your eyes slowly adjust till you can see shadows, make a loud noise and they glow brighter/wiggle, brilliant.

Down into the caves we go

Crawl through some passages

 & tube through some rapids

Claire does 1970's bond girl

So so cold

With cave adventures increasing our appetite for NZ adrenalin, we headed to Lake Taupo for a skydive.  There’s probably no better place in the world to jump out of a plane as the view you see on the way down is remarkable.  There’s a wonderful lake as your centerpiece with Tongariro mountain and friends (Mount Doom, Mordor) to the south, the town of Taupo to the North and valleys, rolling hills and farmland to the east and west.  I was calm but rationally afraid and Claire smiled the whole way (she clearly loves the smell of napalm in the morning).  Unfortunately due to the extra cost and our budget constraints we have no photos of the experience but they wouldn’t really do it justice anyway.

Lake Taupo - from the south

The rolling hills of Northland

Thankfully in Taupo our luck held and we had beautiful weather for the jump.  After we got down the day failed and we got to see the cloud and rain coming at us over the lake.  We really wanted to walk the Tongariro Alpine Crossing the following day, but at 18km, and when the lady started talking to us about our experience with ice-crampons we realised we were a bit out of our depth.  We’ll have to come back in summertime.

Somewhere behind those clouds is Tongariro Mountain (Mount Doom)

After this we made our way down to Wellington taking in the scenery along the way and stopping in for some wine tasting (watching the All Blacks semi-final on a camp site with a school tour was great fun).  Wellington itself is quite a sight as you drive into it around a long flat bay.  We went to the national museum of Te Papa and the contemporary art gallery which were both exceptional.  Te Papa is the national museum and it had great exhibits on everything NZ.  We really liked the geology/volcano exhibit and the NZ in recent times information which gives a great context for the country. 

City ahead - what an entrance to Windy Wellington

The NZ Parliament - bet you didn't know what it looked like

A walk around town, visit to Parliament and a tasty lamb meal in a fancy pub called Matterhorn concluded our North Island trip.  In all of our NZ conversations with people everybody said something like ‘get to the south as fast as possible, it’s so much more beautiful’.  We thought the north was beautiful and as I sit on the ferry typing this I can’t wait to see how the South Island tops it.  Let's wait and see...

Ferry Ahoy - South Island here we come