We've been on north island now for almost two weeks already, and that's nearly all the time we've got here. We had been advised by others that we should spend the majority of our time on south island and that has turned out to be true. Up north there is a sense of a more frenetic pace of life, much bigger towns, and not such an endless list of obvious things to see and do. That said, it is no bore and still has some incredibly beautiful places - we have been enjoying ourselves again!
We arrived off the interislander ferry on a Sunday afternoon in Wellington. It was tricky to have a proper look around and we didn't find much of interest aside from Te Papa, the national museum, which is really impressive. Spent a while wandering through the natural history sections although didn't venture into the earthquake simulation machine! Since most of what we wanted to do was further up the island we decided to get moving asap, covering quite a lot of ground the first night. Surprised by the length of Wellington's suburbs, and the heavy traffic (compared to South Island, not compared to UK).
We stopped off at a little beach town to spend the night, but it wasn't that nice so didn't hang around next morning. Instead, we made for Oakura, near New Plymouth on the west coast. It's on a little bump on the side of the island created by Mt Taranaka, a volcano and a beautiful sight. The main road that encircles the great mountain is known as surf highway, so we had views and the promise of plenty of activity from Tom! To top things off the holiday park we had chosen was right on the shore, just a few steps from van to beach. Absolutely brilliant. The only blight was a plague of rather too-friendly not-very-clean-looking cats who put me off eating at the picnic spots provided, but we can't have total perfection all the time, and we did have some rather pretty sunsets... The next day we followed the coastline till we found some decent waves for Tom to surf while I finished my latest book, a Jodi Picoult. And after another night beach-side we explored New Plymouth a little before retiring to yet another beach for some more wave relaxation.
It turned out to be just as well we had started the day at an easy pace, as we innocently headed east that evening, trying to reach Tongariro for bedtime so we could go tramping next day. Naively we took the most direct looking road, not understanding that its nickname of Forgotten World Highway was really quite serious. Nothing alerted us for the first little while - it was the usual NZ mix of twisty roads and pretty countryside (although everything is a little more hobbit sized up north when you have spent a lot of time with the south island's southern alps in your sights), just that we didn't meet much other traffic. Then we realised we hadn't passed through many towns, which was unusual, and when we did hit one it was pretty odd - a collection of run down houses, a dilapidated pub and a shop-front that was fake (no building behind). Weird. Eeerily lacking in people. We left again pretty quickly. It was a long time before we reached another town, and in the meantime we came across a long section of road (main highway remember) that was horribly narrow and also just gravel. That was of course when we met a massive lorry - the only one we saw the whole three hours of the journey. We eventually emerged unscathed, but it was pretty late as had taken double the time a normal road would have, so we had to resort to an emergency McDonalds (seriously, it was a hunger emergency, and they have a premium range with chicken burgers that come with guacamole...very civilised really...).
Back on proper roads we made it easily onwards to Tongariro and set off tramping next morning on the Tongariro crossing - a very popular one-day walk in the centre of the island. It's pretty obvious when you get there why it's so popular. The first part of the day was a pleasant walk through a valley, then a steep climb up to a saddle between two volcanoes. At the top we crossed a massive crater - lots of dust and rocks, the most barren landscape we've seen here so far, but quite fantastic. Another climb (and subsequent crazy slip-slide gravelly descent) to see the emerald lakes - really beautifully green, dazzling - and down to another crater crossing. Then we came across the blue lake, and snaked around the second mountain before gradual descent on the forested side. A fabulous day of walking with really unique sights. Highly recommended!
After our long walk we knew exactly where we were heading next - up the road a couple of hours to Taupo, to the De Bretts Spa Resort campsite. Checked in, quick dinner and straight down to the natural hot spring pools. Really helped the legs! So we went back next morning. Tom persuaded me onto the water slide (once only) and then we explored the super-hot private pools as well as the communal jacuzzi ones. Thankfully it didn't have the sulphur smell too much, so we enjoyed another visit that night too. In between we wandered into Taupo. Tom had a go at the hitting a hole in one onto a pontoon target competition and came pretty close but no big prizes. The town itself was nice enough - a useful tourist place where we found internet to post my previous epic - but not massively attractive, so next day we moved on again.
We picked a good day for spending on the road - torrential rain that didn't ease up till late afternoon. It only bothered us a little as our first stop was at Waiotapu where we watched the daily induced eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser - a chap drops some soap flakes into it and then stands well back and it spurts water up about 10m in the air. Really impressive, and scary to think that some chaps discovered it by accident when washing clothes in the natural hot spring and their soap made the same thing happen. We carried on northwards through the thermal area - lots of bizarre steamclouds in the landscape - towards the Coromandel Peninsula. Of course a detour to check out Hobbiton, the setting for Lord of the Rings filming about to be used again for The Hobbit.
Destination: Hot Water Beach, and yes it's a beach with hot water - not the sea water, but it has a natural spring beneath part of the tidal area so at low tide if you pick your spot carefully you can dig a shallow pool and the hot water seeps up into it, creating your own little bath on the beach. Not something to miss, so we trotted down next day, spades in hand, only to find a huge swarm of people already settled in. We dug a few test holes but couldn't find warmth as it was already mined to saturation. A handy grey cloud meant a few people fled in case of rain (which didn't materialise) so we occupied their pool, and discovered that the spring there is really hot - up to 60 degrees in places - not one to sit in! Our pool had some cold seeping in too which helped, but still a bizarre experience to be sitting in hot water on beach. Eventually we had to retreat to the sea for more normal temperatures to resume.
In the afternoon we went along the coast and took a walk to see Cathedral Cove - another popular feature of the Coromandel, it's a very beautiful beach only accessible by a half-hour coastal walk, with huge cliff sides, a high waterfall, and some pretty impressive waves coming in.
On Monday it was time to head up to the north end of the island for our last week in the campervan. We had a long drive up through Auckland and via the west coast to reach the beginning of the peninsula at the top of Northland. We stopped off at a forest of Kauri trees - old NZ trees which are massive, lords of the forest, and now protected by the Department of Conservation. That night we stopped at Waipapakauri - the beginning of 90 Mile Beach (actually 90 km long, but still pretty impressive!). The sea was pretty fierce there, and next day when we got to Cape Reinga (right at the top of the island) we saw even more turbulence at the spot where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.
Cape Reinga is where the Maori people believe their spirits go after death to jump off to the next life, so it's kept as a sacred place. It's very beautiful, and strangely peaceful given the sea collision going on below. We spent some time there before heading back down south to spend our last few days in the Bay of Islands area. On the way we stopped off for Tom to have a quick go at another bizarre local activity - surfing the giant sand dunes. It's more of a throw-yourself-onto-a-boogie-board-head-first-and-hurtle-down-a-steep-slope type thing really. Will try to post video clip when can get it downloaded...
These last few days we have been staying in Russell, an old town with some rustic buildings and NZ's oldest licensed hotel and first petrol station. It is really stunning here. We booked onto a dolphin viewing and swimming boat for yesterday. Having had our previous two south island attempts scuppered by storms, this time we headed out on a perfect day into a serene bay with water as flat as a pond. Once again, don't think we're getting constant perfection though - we didn't see a single dolphin! Apparently the previous day there had been a pod of killer whales in the bay which had scared them all into hiding. Gutting. After a commiseration visit to the local winery we rebooked for this morning - 4th time lucky? Well, only partially. Today we saw a pod of about 20 dolphins but couldn't get in to swim with them as they had babies with them so by law you can't. Really enjoyed viewing though, it was pretty special. Another imperfection: I forgot to pack the camera this morning, so no photos to share I'm afraid - sorry!
We got dropped off by our boat to spend this afternoon on the island of Otehi Bay - we briefly visited yesterday, and wanted to have some proper time to explore. A short walk took us across the summit and over to another bay with crystal clear water for swimming and an empty beach for picnicing. Gorgeous. A wonderful afternoon on this sub-tropical Lundy and then scooted back to Russell by water taxi for (really fresh) fish and chips.
Tomorrow we leave to head to Auckland for a couple of days before flying to Chile on Tuesday...the adventure continues...
We arrived off the interislander ferry on a Sunday afternoon in Wellington. It was tricky to have a proper look around and we didn't find much of interest aside from Te Papa, the national museum, which is really impressive. Spent a while wandering through the natural history sections although didn't venture into the earthquake simulation machine! Since most of what we wanted to do was further up the island we decided to get moving asap, covering quite a lot of ground the first night. Surprised by the length of Wellington's suburbs, and the heavy traffic (compared to South Island, not compared to UK).
We stopped off at a little beach town to spend the night, but it wasn't that nice so didn't hang around next morning. Instead, we made for Oakura, near New Plymouth on the west coast. It's on a little bump on the side of the island created by Mt Taranaka, a volcano and a beautiful sight. The main road that encircles the great mountain is known as surf highway, so we had views and the promise of plenty of activity from Tom! To top things off the holiday park we had chosen was right on the shore, just a few steps from van to beach. Absolutely brilliant. The only blight was a plague of rather too-friendly not-very-clean-looking cats who put me off eating at the picnic spots provided, but we can't have total perfection all the time, and we did have some rather pretty sunsets... The next day we followed the coastline till we found some decent waves for Tom to surf while I finished my latest book, a Jodi Picoult. And after another night beach-side we explored New Plymouth a little before retiring to yet another beach for some more wave relaxation. It turned out to be just as well we had started the day at an easy pace, as we innocently headed east that evening, trying to reach Tongariro for bedtime so we could go tramping next day. Naively we took the most direct looking road, not understanding that its nickname of Forgotten World Highway was really quite serious. Nothing alerted us for the first little while - it was the usual NZ mix of twisty roads and pretty countryside (although everything is a little more hobbit sized up north when you have spent a lot of time with the south island's southern alps in your sights), just that we didn't meet much other traffic. Then we realised we hadn't passed through many towns, which was unusual, and when we did hit one it was pretty odd - a collection of run down houses, a dilapidated pub and a shop-front that was fake (no building behind). Weird. Eeerily lacking in people. We left again pretty quickly. It was a long time before we reached another town, and in the meantime we came across a long section of road (main highway remember) that was horribly narrow and also just gravel. That was of course when we met a massive lorry - the only one we saw the whole three hours of the journey. We eventually emerged unscathed, but it was pretty late as had taken double the time a normal road would have, so we had to resort to an emergency McDonalds (seriously, it was a hunger emergency, and they have a premium range with chicken burgers that come with guacamole...very civilised really...).
Back on proper roads we made it easily onwards to Tongariro and set off tramping next morning on the Tongariro crossing - a very popular one-day walk in the centre of the island. It's pretty obvious when you get there why it's so popular. The first part of the day was a pleasant walk through a valley, then a steep climb up to a saddle between two volcanoes. At the top we crossed a massive crater - lots of dust and rocks, the most barren landscape we've seen here so far, but quite fantastic. Another climb (and subsequent crazy slip-slide gravelly descent) to see the emerald lakes - really beautifully green, dazzling - and down to another crater crossing. Then we came across the blue lake, and snaked around the second mountain before gradual descent on the forested side. A fabulous day of walking with really unique sights. Highly recommended!
After our long walk we knew exactly where we were heading next - up the road a couple of hours to Taupo, to the De Bretts Spa Resort campsite. Checked in, quick dinner and straight down to the natural hot spring pools. Really helped the legs! So we went back next morning. Tom persuaded me onto the water slide (once only) and then we explored the super-hot private pools as well as the communal jacuzzi ones. Thankfully it didn't have the sulphur smell too much, so we enjoyed another visit that night too. In between we wandered into Taupo. Tom had a go at the hitting a hole in one onto a pontoon target competition and came pretty close but no big prizes. The town itself was nice enough - a useful tourist place where we found internet to post my previous epic - but not massively attractive, so next day we moved on again. 
We picked a good day for spending on the road - torrential rain that didn't ease up till late afternoon. It only bothered us a little as our first stop was at Waiotapu where we watched the daily induced eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser - a chap drops some soap flakes into it and then stands well back and it spurts water up about 10m in the air. Really impressive, and scary to think that some chaps discovered it by accident when washing clothes in the natural hot spring and their soap made the same thing happen. We carried on northwards through the thermal area - lots of bizarre steamclouds in the landscape - towards the Coromandel Peninsula. Of course a detour to check out Hobbiton, the setting for Lord of the Rings filming about to be used again for The Hobbit.
Destination: Hot Water Beach, and yes it's a beach with hot water - not the sea water, but it has a natural spring beneath part of the tidal area so at low tide if you pick your spot carefully you can dig a shallow pool and the hot water seeps up into it, creating your own little bath on the beach. Not something to miss, so we trotted down next day, spades in hand, only to find a huge swarm of people already settled in. We dug a few test holes but couldn't find warmth as it was already mined to saturation. A handy grey cloud meant a few people fled in case of rain (which didn't materialise) so we occupied their pool, and discovered that the spring there is really hot - up to 60 degrees in places - not one to sit in! Our pool had some cold seeping in too which helped, but still a bizarre experience to be sitting in hot water on beach. Eventually we had to retreat to the sea for more normal temperatures to resume. In the afternoon we went along the coast and took a walk to see Cathedral Cove - another popular feature of the Coromandel, it's a very beautiful beach only accessible by a half-hour coastal walk, with huge cliff sides, a high waterfall, and some pretty impressive waves coming in.
On Monday it was time to head up to the north end of the island for our last week in the campervan. We had a long drive up through Auckland and via the west coast to reach the beginning of the peninsula at the top of Northland. We stopped off at a forest of Kauri trees - old NZ trees which are massive, lords of the forest, and now protected by the Department of Conservation. That night we stopped at Waipapakauri - the beginning of 90 Mile Beach (actually 90 km long, but still pretty impressive!). The sea was pretty fierce there, and next day when we got to Cape Reinga (right at the top of the island) we saw even more turbulence at the spot where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. 
Cape Reinga is where the Maori people believe their spirits go after death to jump off to the next life, so it's kept as a sacred place. It's very beautiful, and strangely peaceful given the sea collision going on below. We spent some time there before heading back down south to spend our last few days in the Bay of Islands area. On the way we stopped off for Tom to have a quick go at another bizarre local activity - surfing the giant sand dunes. It's more of a throw-yourself-onto-a-boogie-board-head-first-and-hurtle-down-a-steep-slope type thing really. Will try to post video clip when can get it downloaded... 
These last few days we have been staying in Russell, an old town with some rustic buildings and NZ's oldest licensed hotel and first petrol station. It is really stunning here. We booked onto a dolphin viewing and swimming boat for yesterday. Having had our previous two south island attempts scuppered by storms, this time we headed out on a perfect day into a serene bay with water as flat as a pond. Once again, don't think we're getting constant perfection though - we didn't see a single dolphin! Apparently the previous day there had been a pod of killer whales in the bay which had scared them all into hiding. Gutting. After a commiseration visit to the local winery we rebooked for this morning - 4th time lucky? Well, only partially. Today we saw a pod of about 20 dolphins but couldn't get in to swim with them as they had babies with them so by law you can't. Really enjoyed viewing though, it was pretty special. Another imperfection: I forgot to pack the camera this morning, so no photos to share I'm afraid - sorry! 
We got dropped off by our boat to spend this afternoon on the island of Otehi Bay - we briefly visited yesterday, and wanted to have some proper time to explore. A short walk took us across the summit and over to another bay with crystal clear water for swimming and an empty beach for picnicing. Gorgeous. A wonderful afternoon on this sub-tropical Lundy and then scooted back to Russell by water taxi for (really fresh) fish and chips. Tomorrow we leave to head to Auckland for a couple of days before flying to Chile on Tuesday...the adventure continues...
Awh guys, sounds like the best trip ever. Glad you are getting to see so many amazing sights and pray you continue to keep safe on all these scary mountain paths.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter!
Nicola (and Colin as well!)