Category: New Zealand

 

Relatively late start this morning before our long drive across the south to Fjordlands. The drive south of Dunedin passed through the edge of the Catlins, a scenic area of rugged coastlines and forests in the far south east of the country.

First stop was what our Central American guides called a technical stop – fuel & toilets. We were warned off the service station coffee.

First proper stop of the day was the town of Gore. This is the country music capital of New Zealand, which tells you most of what you need to know. The broad main street has a number of small local shops and what looks like a former department store, which must once have been quite grand. The biggest building in town by a long way is a former cereal factory. Gore is the ‘The World Capital of Brown Trout Fishing‘, the shops have signs such as Goregeous clothes for sale. We bought our usual flat whites and walked the high street in search of some lunch, nothing looked very good – I asked one bakery if they had anything vegetarian, he pointed me to a corn fritter sandwich that looked like it should be in a museum. We made do with hummus and pitta bread from the Countdown supermarket. On the way back to the bus we passed the Country Music hall of fame. This has hand prints from a lot of local musicians as well better known artists like Ricky Skaggs and Glen Campbell. Back on the bus we listened to Wichita Lineman in honour of Mr Campbell.

As we drove west – a country line if ever I heard one – the hills got bigger and some snowy peaks appeared in the distance. We stopped in Te Anau at the Fjordlands Visitors Centre to sign the three people from our group onto the Routeburn trek they’re starting tomorrow. The sun was now shining so I bought an ice cream.

The drive onwards from Te Anau into Fjordlands brought more scenery that increased in grandeur the further we drove. We stopped at the Eglinton Valley Viewpoint to look down the valley into the mountains beyond. A few minutes later, we had a look at Mirror Lakes, which was too breezy to be mirrored, and was more of a pond than a lake.

After an hour or so we crossed The Divide which is the watershed between the rivers that flow east towards Queenstown and west towards the sea. Our campsite was about 5 miles up a small road that goes nowhere. When it was started in the 1930s it was planned to cross the mountains to the east but the money ran out and the war intervened and after that it was never restarted, it stops a few miles further on, quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

The campsite is named after Davey Gunn, a dashing adventurer who lived here in the 1930s. He walked out on his family in Dunedin to start raising cows; he also had a sideline in taking visitors into the wilderness. Gunn called the area the ‘Land of doing without’. On one trip he saw a plane crash in the hills nearby. He walked, rode and kayaked for 22 hours to get help then returned to get the walkers. He eventually died trying to save a 12-year-old boy who was thrown into a river by his horse, the boy’s body was found but Gunn’s never was.

The campsite is in a deep valley with a river running nearby and high peaks on either side; they were just catching the last of the sun as we had dinner. We ended the evening round a fire hearing stories of previous trips from Simon our driver, a bit of an adventurer himself.

We got up in the dark. When we opened the curtains, the sky was a dark grey and the sea a slightly lighter dark grey.

Moeraki is a small fishing village. The name means ‘a place to sleep by day’ but you wouldn’t really want to sleep during the day – we saw great scenery and wildlife on our small cycle ride. The other main attraction there is the Moeraki Boulders on Koekohe Beach.

We took our chance with these – we think we’re coming back here in a few weeks so we opted out of the 7am walk down the beach to the boulders.

Instead, we left the campsite at 8am, and drove 10 mins down the road. This gave us a ten minute window to walk down the beach a little and catch a glimpse of these large spherical rocks scattered on the beach. They were formed in sediment on the sea floor (mud, pebbles and shells) and gradually buried something like 55 million years ago. They were only revealed as a result of shoreline erosion. Some stand-alone; others are in groups. One had imploded. They’re approximately 1m wide, and can weigh several tons.

We got back to the bus under spitting rain and drove on towards Dunedin, stopping briefly in Palmerston en-route. The memorial to Sir John McKenzie on the hill was a clue to the origins of the early settlers in this part of New Zealand.

Our first stop on the outer part of Dunedin was Baldwin Street – the steepest street in the world. So, we got dropped off at the bottom; walked up and walked back down. Yes, it is steep and yes, we took photos which show how wonky the houses look against the street. But no, we did not spend £2 NZD to get our certificates.

In Dunedin, we had just over four hours to ourselves… enough time to have a decent look around. We started with flat whites at Strictly Coffee Company; it was good to have the time to sit down and people-watch. And then, we went on Mission Sightseeing. The gothic Victorian buildings around the Octagon (the central square) were very reminiscent of Edinburgh. Dunedin has its own tartan. And outside the cathedral, there’s a statue of the poet Robert Burns. Presumably, he was recently yarned up as we’re heading into autumn.

According to Lonely Planet, Dunedin is derived from the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh: Dùn Èideann. The city was founded when a group of breakaway Presbyterians – passionate about their Christian beliefs and their identity as Scots – were looking for a ‘vigorous new community where members of the Free Church of Scotland could live out their faith and advance themselves’ (text from the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum).

There was an organ concert in the cathedral when we visited; the organ is meant to be one of the finest in the southern hemisphere.

With so much time on our hands, we made for the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. All the art galleries we’ve visited so far have had great art, and they’re free. Our usual strategy worked well – we went to the information desk, stated how long we had and the woman manning the desk gave us her top five must-dos.

We started with Kushana Bush, a New Zealand artist whose work is intense. Her works are all extremely demanding and full on. She is known for producing highly detailed paintings, with multi-ethnic characters and open-ended narratives. Looking at one of her painting in depth could take hours; they are complex and often they contain references to many historical manuscripts. The next gallery was taken over by Australian artist Rebecca Baumann. The space contained huge colourful Plexiglas panels. We really enjoyed how the colours took over the room and how they mixed depending on where you stood. The works of New Zealand artist Nicola Jackson were contained in a small gallery and that was insane. The works – all with anatomical subjects – and the colours were all too much for us. They reminded us broadly of the works of Frida Kahlo we saw back in Mexico. We had just enough time to take in the permanent exhibition which had a few treasures, including a sculpture made of pencils that Andy can’t stop talking about.

Leaving the gallery behind, we walked to the first church built in the Otago region. The inside is quite plain and vaulted which we weren’t expecting from the tall spire. It was built in 1848 with the arrival of the first permanent early settlers, pious hard-working Scots.

We had about one hour in the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. Highlights were many but we concentrated on the history of the settlers. We’ve been fascinated by this question since we got to New Zealand: what made these people leave everything behind and embark on a three month sailing to New Zealand? Poverty? The prospect of a better life? Gold (from 1861)? But it’s clear too that the New Zealand propaganda machine had been working overdrive. They arrived and faced hardship. It would all come together for them if they were prepared to put a lot of hard work into it. One of the rooms contains floor-to-ceiling portraits of early settlers. Each wall has a dedicated machine with all the portraits on that wall and by selecting a portrait, you could learn the name of the person and when they made the journey across. There’s a reproduction of a passenger-ship cabin and some artefacts. There were a few other displays which caught our eyes such as the Maori and the old transport sections.

Dunedin Railway Station, a few minutes away, is the most photographed building in New Zealand and allegedly in the southern hemisphere. The interior is well preserved.

And this is where we were picking up our tour for the afternoon. After a 40 mins drive along the Otago peninsula, we boarded our boat for a wildlife cruise. We saw so much: royal albatrosses; white-capped albatrosses; Buller’s albatrosses; fur seals; New Zealand sea lions; white-fronted terns; cormorants; a royal spoonbill and a handful of little blue penguins!

Our camp was in St Kilda, on the outskirts of Dunedin. After dropping our bags in our cabin, we walked to the Esplanade in St Clair for dinner. This was the first time in weeks we had dinner in a restaurant, with proper cutlery and everything. The sea outside was wild. There was a shark warning bell on the promenade, the surf was so loud we wondered the futility of it.

Woke at 4:00, 4:15, 4:40… and finally 6:10 – tent life is not for us.

I walked down to the lake – it was still dark, just a little light from the moon. The wind had picked up so there were some small waves on the lake.

After breakfast, we drove down the far side of the lake towards Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in Australasia. Edmund Hilary and his team climbed Mount Cook in 1948 as part of their preparation for their attempt on Everest. Mount Cook village is the starting point for a number of mountain walks – a two-day trek goes over a pass and down to the west coast. We were doing a shorter walk up the Hooker Valley to a glacial lake. The path has a gentle incline up the valley but we were walking into a strong gusty wind, which slowed us down. There are three suspension bridges on the route, these bounce as people walk across them and swing in the wind too so it’s quite a struggle to get over them. On the left hand side of the valley, snowy peaks tower over us, precarious glaciers cling onto the sides. At the end of the walk, there’s a large glacial lake, which is a milky grey colour. We were on a tight time-table as usual so we only had 10 minutes to admire the view then we had to return. The sky was clearing so the peaks above us were now in the sun.

We had a quick coffee and toilet stop in XXX, a one-street town with a couple of shops then drove on to Oamara. We had 55 minutes to explore the town – not enough. The main street isn’t very interesting but there’s a Victorian area around the waterfront where the old buildings have been renovated and are now shops, cafés and museums. There’s a radio station broadcasting from the middle of a shop that sells old radios, a nightclub called The Penguin Club and a Steampunk museum. Another few hours to explore properly would have been good. There was a café recommended by Lonely Planet but they were closed by 15:30 despite the sign on the door saying 16:00.

We arrived at our camp in the small fishing village of Moeraki about 16:30. We dropped our bags, grabbed some bikes and headed for the wildlife sanctuary on the end of a nearby headland. The sanctuary is home to fur seals, rabbits, numerous seabirds and best of all – yellow-eyed penguins. These penguins are one of the rarest, there are thought to be only about 4000 of them currently. They are also number eight in my quest to see all seventeen penguin species.

The 4km ride was down a bumpy, hilly, unmade road – it wouldn’t have been quicker to walk but there wasn’t much in it. Once we arrived at the sanctuary, the first wildlife was a number of rabbits munching in the late sunshine. On top of grassy point, there was one penguin preening its feathers, another waddling out of the sea soon joined it. These are quite large penguins – nowhere near king or emperor size but bigger than most. Further round the headland, two more sat in the sun almost motionless. The penguins spend the day at sea feeding and return to land at night when they’re full.

On the other side of the point a number of young fur seals played in a rock pool. The view of the beaches down the coast as the sun got lower was lovely – could we cycle that far? No.

Our chalet had a large window looking out across the Moeraki harbour and right round the bay. We ate our dinner quickly and sat with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc – it was a warm day – watching the sky darken.

 

 

 

Tonight is our second (and last) night camping. Our tent is Bob Marley. Our bush camp is basic – no facilities apart from long drop toilets. We’re camping by Lake Pukaki, with a great view of Mt Cook.

We arrived at camp very early. This gave us time to pitch the tent in very hard terrain. Andy had to use a big rock to get the tent pegs in. We’re expecting high wind during the night, so the pegs had to be secured properly. We managed to get hold of two mattresses each, and a spare sleeping bag, so we were hopeful of a decent night’s sleep.

We had loads of time to take in the view – a panoramic view of the lake – before dinner. I even managed a swim in the lake.

Dinner was quickly consumed and we rushed back to the lake for the sunset. We were treated to a spectacular sunset – a light show of colours and reflections. Everybody had that feeling that you get when you witness something incredible – wow, aren’t we lucky to be here for this; what a show… just for us. Absolutely amazing, and I’m not even a sunset person.

We’d left Rangitata at midday. We’d spent the night on a sheep-shearing farm, and our room was one of the rooms that the sheep shearers use during sheep shearing season.

We were woken up when the white water rafters left for their excursion. Andy got dressed quickly and walked down to the river to capture the mist. The light was soft.

After breakfast, we went to explore the sheep-shearing building. There was wool left behind, and tools. It looked at if it had only recently been used, and at the same time, it had that abandoned feel to it.

From there, we wandered down to the Holy Innocents Church. It is currently being repaired following the earthquake. Many of the stained-glass windows had pastoral scenes with sheep, unsurprisingly.

The churchyard was fascinating. Many immigrants taking their chances in the new world. A great variety of people. So many stories there.

On the road. Not much driving today.

We passed through the pretty town of Geraldine – lots of enticing cafes, restaurants, bars and shops.

Our first stop was the small town of Fairlie… where everything is Fairlie something or other. This was a convenience stop, but we had time to pop into the Fairlie Bakery for our daily flat whites and baked goods.

Through Burkes Pass. The views and colours, as we drove through Mackenzie Basin, reminded us of some of the landscapes we saw in the Christchurch Art Gallery the previous day.

I’d been looking forward to our next stop – the Church of the Good Shepherd. It sits right next to Lake Tekapo but what online photos had failed to prepare me for is the hordes of tourists and the fact that it is by the main road. Having said this, it is a lovely church, and I still managed to get a few peaceful moments to reflect. Behind the altar, there is a panoramic window, which perfectly frames the wonderful view of the lake and the mountains. This is very much an active church and no photos were allowed inside. The lake was pretty special too and Andy enjoyed the huge vistas.

See. New Zealand can be a great place to be when it wants to!

Another later start today so time for coffee in bed and a leisurely wake up. The sky was a leaden grey, a couple of early risers swore it was clear at 6:00. We left Hanmer Springs at 10:00 and almost immediately hit the rain. The hills were a washed out ochre colour, very few trees, but the river was still deep blue.

More crazy kiwi humour by the roadside – a sign advertising Unicorn poo for sale.

We were headed to Christchurch; the city was hit by a terrible earthquake in February 2011 and is still recovering. Many buildings are unsafe and awaiting demolition. Large areas of the city centre are open ground. But there is a lot of regeneration going on. The Gap Project has created a number of art, retail and event installations across the city – filling in gaps where buildings used to be. Many buildings have been or are still due to be demolished. The Re:START mall is a buzzing shopping and eating complex created from shipping containers.

For a Saturday morning, the city is quiet; we were told this is because a lot of businesses relocated to the outskirts after the earthquake when the city centre was closed off and people have got out of the habit of coming into the centre.

We started our exploration at the Christchurch Art Gallery. The helpful staff pointed us to some highlights we could see in thirty minutes. The collection has works from the 1860s through to the middle of the last century. There were paintings featuring the surrounding area where we’d driven in the morning and some more modern abstract landscape works. One room had an exhibition themed around hair – Bad Hair Day – a diverse collection of paintings, sketches and sculptures. The last work I saw was a large room painted varying shades of ochre; the shades were very precisely calculated so that each panel had half the intensity of the previous one.

After the gallery, we walked to Cathedral Square, stopping to look at a large mural of penguins and to buy flat whites on the way. The Cathedral is a stone building constructed between 1864 and 1904. It is currently fenced off awaiting repairs, rebuild, demolition or replacement.

The new Transitional Cathedral – known as the Cardboard Cathedral because of the 98 cardboard tubes used in its construction is a few blocks away. It was designed by a Japanese ‘disaster architect’ who did the work for free. The spacious interior has a false perspective effect created by tapering the building to make it look longer. Behind the cathedral is the ‘185 Empty Chairs’ memorial to those who lost their lives in the earthquake – it consists of 185 white chairs, all different to represent the diversity of people who died, the 185 were of 20 different nationalities. 115 of those who died were foreign language students, most of them had only arrived a few days before for the beginning of the new term. The memorial is simple but represents 185 people very clearly. We knew of the earthquake from the news at the time but neither of us had realised how much of the city had been damaged and how much still remains to be repaired. New Zealand lies on the fault lines between two tectonic plates so earthquakes are a fact of life – we didn’t even notice but there was a small tremor last night while we were in a bar in Hanmer Springs.

We left Christchurch at 14:30 having said goodbye to Matt, the last person who was on the bus when we joined, and said hello to four new people.

On the journey to our campsite we went along Hinds Arundel road, the longest section of straight road in New Zealand, 21km without a bend.

We were on cooking duty tonight, a lot of chopping of vegetables and grating of cheese to go into our roasted vegetables and frittata. We had a pinot noir to help it all along.

Lazy morning. After breakfast, Andy managed to upload yesterday’s post (the internet was free at the Sequoia Lodge and Backpackers and so dead slow). We only have nine days left on the bus so it was time for me to start looking at what we’re doing next and send a few emails about.

We had time to walk into Picton, or more accurately to the Picton Village Bakkerij. The place was filled with goodies. We picked a few treats to go (tough decisions had to be made, as well as our daily flat whites; these are definitely keeping us going.

We left soon after 11am. Our convenience stop was at Wairau Valley. Just outside the church, there was a little book swap library by the side of road and it was filled with many good books but mine’s in my rucksack so my book swap will have to wait.

We drive through Marlborough Country, vineyards either side of the road. We climbed a little, driving through the Six Mile Scenic Reserve and then Nelson Lakes National Park.

We stopped for lunch at Kerr Bay by Lake Rotoiti. Andy went on a small loop walk. I went for a refreshing swim.

We’re using an alternative road today. Our original itinerary was for us to spend the night in Kaikoura with some pretty amazing wildlife viewing options for tomorrow. But following the Kaikoura earthquake last November, the road is still closed and the itinerary was amended. The road we’re travelling on used to have little traffic. It had 40 trucks on it a day, it now has 400. This means that they are frantically trying to expend it, so lots of road works are going on. Endless road works. Often, our speed is regulated to 30 or 50. Where sections of the road used to be one lane, this is now extended to two lanes. They’ve got Bailey bridges from The Great War out of storage and these are working as second lanes over rivers. They reckon the route to Kaikoura will re-open by Christmas, just over a year after the earthquake. But rumours say it will take much longer.

The sky’s blue. There is not one cloud.

The landscape is rural and agricultural, against a mountainous background.

The quiet town of Murchison, where we had a convenience stop a few weeks ago, is now seeing a lot of traffic passing through. We had a twenty mins stop there today too, and we discovered Dust & Rust – full of amazing vintage and antique stuff. I was tempted by an English-Maori dictionary but the $59 NZD price tag was prohibitive. Instead, I got a lemonade ice block.

We crossed the Lewis pass and got spectacular scenery.

We arrived in Hanmer Springs around 7pm. We got our swimmies, and rushed to Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools. The complex closes at 9pm so we had 90 mins going from pool to pool – some geothermal ones, ranging from 33c to 42c; other pools had cool features like the Lazy River where the current carried us round a course, and the pool where every five mins a bucket of water would fall over.

We walked back down the main street, located our cabin and dumped our bags and returned to the main street. It was near 9:30pm by then; the first bar we went into was closing (we’d been hoping to try local wines there). We ended up in Fire and Ice – a much larger bar attached to the Mac’s Brewery – where we had a couple of beers.

We missed breakfast again for some extra sleep. We were heading to Wellington where we’d have plenty of choices for breakfast.

Our campsite was only 30km north of the city but we joined the morning rush hour – rush hour by Wellington not UK standards – so it took us about an hour. We stored our bags for the day and started our third rapid look round Wellington.

Unusually ‘Windy Welly’ was warm, sunny and windless. First stop was 86 for a delectable flat white.

We then got a taxi to a mystery destination that Florence had found on the internet. Five minutes away from the central business area, we’re already in leafy suburbs with old wooden houses and lots of trees. The taxi dropped us next to a cemetery. Florence went into the office to find out where our target was – she came out with an A4 map with a long wiggling pink line across it – it’s a very large cemetery.

While she was in the office, I found an information board abut the wreck of the SS Penguin – New Zealand’s worst sea disaster. Most of the victims are buried here – could this be the surprise? No. We followed the path through many different sections: Chinese, Greek, Jewish, Military. Finally we were there. An unremarkable grave with a bronze cat on it, was this it? Yes but there is more. The plaque next to the grave explains that Harry McNish was the carpenter on Shackleton’s failed expedition to the South Pole. He was one of the five men who rowed with Shackleton from Elephant Island to South Georgia to get help for the remaining men. We’d seen the place where they finally reached help at the whaling station in Stromness, South Georgia last time we visited. He was known as Mr Chippy because of his wood-working skills. He also adopted the Endeavour’s cat who got the name Mrs Chippy – the name remained even after it turned out ‘she’ was a ‘he’. Sadly the decision was made that everything non-essential had to be left with the wrecked Endeavour to maximise the men’s chances of survival. Mrs Chippy was included in this and was reluctantly shot.

It’s a beautiful cemetery spreading up and down the sides of a wooded valley.

We walked back through the cemetery to the main entrance via the War Veterans section, mainly graves of former WW1 servicemen and a number of memorials to those who died but whose remains were never found.

A taxi took us to Fidel’s Cafe in Cuba Street for brunch. Very good food, smoothie and more flat white. We hadn’t seen this end of Cuba Street before. It seems a bit more bohemian than the more commercial northern end. We stocked up on warm clothes at the Icebreaker store, the weather is turning cooler and we’re heading south. The pedestrian crossings on Cuba Street have the outline of a drag queen from the 1970s for their green light figure.

Te Papa, the national museum is one of the best anywhere. We’d already spent a couple of hours there on a previous visit but there’s still a lot more to see. They currently have an exhibition detailing the Gallipoli campaign from WW1 where so many ANZAC soldiers lost their lives in an ultimately failed attempt to gain control of the Dardennelles from the Ottoman Republic. The exhibition features larger than life figures created by the studio who did a lot of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings special effects. These figures are based on real people and the story is told from their perspective. A few facts stood out – in the first part of the campaign they lost a man for every foot of ground gained, eventually it was all lost. There was a ceasefire in the middle of the campaign so that both sides could bury their dead; some of the bodies had been lying in the sun for weeks. During the ceasefire both sides swapped cigarettes and chatted – then a whistle was blown and the slaughter recommenced. The exhibition was harrowing at times. We both came out feeling emotionally drained, but it also explains very well the horror and futility of this episode which still looms large in the memory of both New Zealand and Australia.

There was still a lot of the museum to see so we picked out a few more things we could fit in: the history of the original settlers from the Pacific Islands; an earthquake simulator, the story of immigration to New Zealand and a recreation of the ‘Golden Age’ of New Zealand with many old toys and artefacts.

A combination of better weather and seeing some more interesting and unusual aspects of the city has made us like Wellington a lot more after this visit.

We had an hour to spare so we walked back along the waterfront and had a quick beer in the sun. We collected our bags and took the shuttle bus to the ferry terminal for the 17:00 sailing back to the South Island. Unlike our previous trip the sun was blazing and the sea was flat calm. As we sailed into the Marlborough Sound, the sun dropped below the hilltops, leaving just the highest points in the light.

 

Andy and I were always going to do different things today.

Well, originally, we weren’t. The idea was to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing – one of New Zealand’s great walks and rated as the best one day walk in the World. ‘Towering mountains, turquoise lakes, sparkling rivers, lush rainforests and lunar landscapes. […] awe-inspiring mountain backdrop’ (quoted from Flying Kiwi’s itinerary).

Unsurprisingly, the night before we got the news that the crossing wasn’t going to happen. Too windy up there – wind speeds of up to 100km/h were forecast for the highest parts. Unsafe. Andy was very disappointed; he’s been looking forward to it. Following our walk to and from Cathedral Cove, Andy had made the call. I wouldn’t be walking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing; my knee was too sore.

There was an alternative day walk on offer and Andy signed up for it.

Him

5:00 alarm – it was still very dark and cold. Quick shower, got my stuff together and put on all the clothes I had. Grabbed some breakfast then boarded the bus for the 40 minute drive to Whakapapa where the walk started.

We were given a map but our walk was only about 2cm long on it so not too helpful. The paths are very well marked and maintained so a map wasn’t really necessary.

The sun was still just below the horizon when we started; the highest peaks just catching the first rays. To start with, the walk climbed gently across some lava fields; some low cloud on the horizon was keeping the sun from us.

After a couple of miles we crossed over a small ridge and there was the wind. Any jackets that had been undone were soon zipped up again. The path carried on for a few more miles over gently undulating ground then started to climb more steeply as we got to the first of the two lakes we were aiming for.

Lower Tama Lake is a brilliant blue colour reflecting the sky. It’s a volcanic crater lake, surrounded by the remains of the crater and some scree slopes.

The hardest part of the walk came next, a steeper climb to the Upper Lake. At one point the wind suddenly got stronger, two people were blown off their feet, no harm done. The upper lake is much darker than the first, nestling between steep scree slopes with mist and cloud hanging around the peaks above it.

The return walk was mainly in sunshine; the landscape looked quite different. For the last hour, we took a different route to see Taranaki Falls – an impressive 20m cascade and then walked back along the river valley to Whakapapa.

There’s one café in the town, their garden tables were the perfect place to enjoy a flat white and sit down for a bit. It was hard work at times but overall a very enjoyable 11 miles.

Her

I heard Andy get up, and I heard him leave the house. I didn’t think I’d go back to sleep but clearly I did. I woke up around 8:45 (ooops). After breakfast and after checking out of the house, I borrowed a bike and went off to cycle the Tongoriro River Trail. I was given a map of the trail, but I didn’t quite get the instructions on how to get to the trail… so that was interesting. But I got to the river, and had a wonderful time. I made a number of stops to look at the river – there are many cool names on the trail such as Breakfast Pool and Never Fail Pool. Sadly, I had to be back at camp before 12.30, so I didn’t have time to go as far as Silly Pool. The trail was flat, a little hilly, a little gravelly and sometimes muddy. On my way back, I made a few more stops, and got chatting to a man who was inspecting the Major Jones swing bridge. It is inspected once a month. I joked that I should let him finish his inspection before crossing the bridge. Funnily enough, he found that one of the cables was too loose.

Back at camp, I had my lunch on a pallet converted into a swings and soon enough, it was time to go and get the others.

About forty minutes drive away, through some absolutely out of this world scenery, we met up with Andy and the rest of the group in Whakapapa Village, on the slopes of Mt Ruapehu. Simon had chosen to drive the slower but scenic route to the meeting point, and I’m grateful to him for that. We had amazing views of Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu.

Him and Her – back together

After forty mins or so, we stopped in Taihape. We had just over 20 mins. We walked down to the main street and I popped into the i-SITE and got a town walk leaflet. We had enough time to see nine of the town’s sixteen highlights. Two of the most memorable ones – the Court House which was built around 1906, probably ‘spurred by the frequent unruly keg parties held in local paddock and the King’s (Majestic) Theatre which first screened films on Sunday nights from 1913. Taihape is also the Gumboot town. Remember Dargaville’s the kumara capital of New Zealand? Well Taihape is all about gumboots. There is a massive gumboot at the entrance of town. Just a little earlier, we’d passed Ohakune… and that town is all about carrots. Here’s what Lonely Planet has to say about it: ‘Expect to see carrots crop up all over Ohakune, for this is indisputably the country’s carrot capital. Carrots were first grown in the area during the 1920s by Chinese settlers, who cleared the land by hand and explosives. Today the venerable vegetable is celebrated during the annual Carrot Festival, and immortalised in a roadside tribute – the impossible-to-miss Big Carrot, erected in 1984′.

An hour or so later, we crossed the town of Bull. Now, they have a thing going on there. All town shops, restaurants and establishments have ‘bull’ in their names such as a deli advertising the fact that they sell ‘delect-a-bull’ food, or the police station where you can find ‘const-a-bull’. No kidding.

Dinner was fish and chips on Paraparaumu beach. We’d placed the order from the bus and we collected this huge box full of fish, chips, vegetable rolls, potato fritters, donuts and pineapple rings. The perfect food to re-fuel the walkers. A nice breezy walk on the beach after dinner and onwards to Paekakariki where we’re spending the night.

Usual stuff this morning. Two pieces of toast with peanut butter for breakfast. Nice late start, we had a date with a Geyser at 10:15 so no point in rushing.

As we left the camp and joined the main road, there was a sign saying ‘Geothermal Highway’. On the way to the Geyser we stopped at some boiling mud pools. The stench of sulphur was once again everywhere but the mud is amazing to watch. The pool is about 20m round. There are patches of steam and little eruptions of mud all over it. Unfortunately timings were tight today so we only had 20 minutes.

Next stop was the Lady Knox Geyser, named after the daughter of the governor when it was discovered. The geyser has seating for about 200 in a semi-circle around it. A cheesy Kiwi gives us a brief introduction and then drops in a bag of chemicals which breaks the surface tension and starts the eruption. Left to its own devices it would blow every 12-72 hours anyway but they like to make it regular for the tourists. It’s an impressive sight – it starts with steam, then some water and then a jet of steam 10m into the air. Most of the crowd disappear after a few minutes but it carries on for at least 20 minutes.

Almost everybody at the Geyser hits the highway to the Geothermal Wonderland a few miles down the road. It might sound a bit corny and touristy but it more than lives up to its name. A guided path takes you past a number of bubbling pools and steaming craters – the devil’s ink pots, thunder crater – each more impressive than the last until we reached the centrepiece – the Champagne Pool. This is a huge pool of boiling blue water with patches of rich green and orange round the edges. The steam rose against the sun into a bright blue sky. Despite the warning signs two tourists climbed over the fence for a selfie closer to the water, the guides quickly told them it was very stupid and to get back immediately.

To enable three of the group to meet their white-water rafting guides on time, we only had an hour to see the site, we could easily have passed a whole day there – definitely one for the ’next time’ list. On the way out, I just had time for a photo of the ‘Devil’s Bath’ – a large pool of unbelievably bright yellow-green steaming water.

Leaving the geothermal wonders behind, we headed for Taupo. We were dropped at the Huka Falls a few miles out of of town to see the cascades and walk the last few miles along the Waikato River. The falls are a section of rapids where the river is forced through a narrow canyon creating a fast and furious torrent of deep blue water. The path roughly follows the east bank of the river, in some places down at water level and in some climbing to viewpoints looking out over the valley. Away from the rapids, the river is wide and flows at a sedate pace, the water is still a rich shade of blue. The last part of the walk is on the road into the town centre; we spotted a cafe recommended by Lonely Planet, strangely located in the middle of a small industrial estate. They serve some very nice local beers, cold from the fridge.

We walked the last mile into town and visited the Taupo museum. The museum is a mixed bag, the first room is Maori-themed, the centre-piece is an old wooded canoe which was discovered half rotted away but has been well preserved, it’s about 12m long. The central section is about the timber industry in the area, featuring a model of a forest railway, each miniature figure has a label giving his name and explaining his job. The last section is an art gallery, the current exhibition is by a local artists calling himself Michael Angelo. The work is a combination of wood-carving and painting.

Lake Taupo is a huge volcanic crater lake. The last eruption was in about 3500BC. Records from Rome and China record months of dark skies and strange weather allowing the date to be pin-pointed. The lake is the same size as Singapore, where (incidentally) we’ll be in a month.

The campsite is about 45 minutes drive around the lake, on the edge of a small town called Turangi – ‘the trout capital of the world’.

We’d been warned to expect a ‘rustic’ camping experience but our cabin is palatial – lounge, four bedrooms and bathroom. It also comes with a cat who thinks he lives here; as soon as unlocked the door he walked in like he owned it. After a chat and a cuddle we tried to get rid of him but he wanted to stay – he had to be man-handled out of the door.

We arrived at dinner with our pinot noir and wine glasses – this is how to camp.

As we boarded the bus this morning, I told Andy I thought we could just stay in Hot Water Beach. Digging hot pools on the beach is fun, and we could go back to Cathedral Cove, exploring the other coves on the way. And the campsite’s great. This was our third Top Ten Holiday Parks campsite, and it was perfect. Our cabin was amazing; the reception sells beers from local breweries; there was a huge fun inflatable pillow to jump on and it was very close to Hot Water Beach.

Andy got up early to se the beach again. We left camp at 8:30 and made our way back to Tairua where we had a twenty mins coffee stop. Being 9am on a Monday morning, all but two coffee places were closed. The group went to the one nearer the bus, we went to the other one and got two average flat whites.

Back on the road, it threatened to rain when we crossed the pass. A bit of the road was sectioned off due to a small landslide. The heavy rain we’ve had continued to make the news as 50mm of rain fell in West Auckland in just one hour.

We stopped at a viewpoint and it was lovely to feel the warmth of the sun.

We drove to Paeroa and let six cyclists out. Five minutes down the road, Holly asked Simon to go back as she’d sent the cyclists the wrong way (‘All part of the fun”). To be fair, she’s had little time to research a cycling route for them as the road we were on this morning was a detour; the normal road’s closed due to flooding. We caught up with them and what’s even more funny is that they had cycled through a sign informing them that the cycle path was closed due to flooding, so they couldn’t have carried on going the wrong way anyway. With that sorted, we got back on the road and made our way to Te Ahoha (which means The Love). We only had an hour until the cyclists met us there so six of us popped into the i-SITE, got maps and walked up the track to the waterfall. The track was well marked, up to the point when it wasn’t. We continued and saw a river with a small waterfall (we were expecting a larger one). The track continued across the river, but it was quite deep due to the recent heavy rainfall. We retraced our steps, trying to figure out where we’d gone wrong. We still don’t quite know.

We then thought we’d have a look at the town’s geyser. The map indicated we were in the right place and we laughed when we realised that it was the huge slab of concrete near us. The geyser goes every 40 mins, and we were confident we hadn’t missed it by trying to find the waterfall as there was no fresh water about so we sat down and waited. ‘Is that it?’ we exclaimed when it geysered. Yes, that was a pathetic attempt at being a geyser.

On the way back to the bus, I popped my head through the door of the museum. I had been tempted to do that instead of the waterfall walk but the review in Lonely Planet wasn’t that great. By the little I saw, I think they’re wrong and that would have been a better option.

The news greeting us back was that the cyclists weren’t back so we had a bit more time. Andy and I set off to explore. Te Aroha was a booming thermal and mineral spa town in the early twentieth century. There are still many historical buildings and they are well maintained. There are also some nice looking cafes, restaurants and antique shops. Tourists still come to experience the spas. I really enjoyed my time there, and wished we’d had more time to look around. Eventually, however, all cyclists were accounted for and we left 30 mins later than planned (one of the cyclists had made too many photo stops along the way).

It was a race to Matamata where we were picking up a new travel buddy, and where all but seven of us got off for their trip to Hobbiton. We only had 20 mins in Matamata to get lunch. Andy and I found a cafe and sat down to enjoy our sandwiches and smoothies when Holly came racing towards us, asking if we could get it all to take away as two people had missed the bus to Hobbiton and we’d have to drive them there. The reason they’d missed the bus in the first place is that despite being told that the bus was leaving at 2pm, they heard Holly telling us we’d have 20 mins for lunch and thought that applied to them too. We got there ten mins after the tour started so hopefully they didn’t miss too much.

The rest of us continued on the road to Rotorua. We had two hours to explore. As soon as we got off the bus, we could smell the rotten egg smell the town’s famous for. Rotorua is renowned for its geothermal activity and Maori culture. There are many bubbling mud pools and geysers – in town, near town and on the outskirts of town.

We decided to walk along Lake Rotorua to Sulphur Point and along the Lakefront. We did a loop, following the boardwalk path. Hot bubbling water and steam. The lake is rich in wildlife – we saw black swans, New Zealand Scaups, some pied shags and a few other feathery things.

Back in town, I had just enough time to get my dinner for later. It was close to 5.30pm by then so a few places were closed – or hadn’t opened today.

Back at the bus, we got the news that our departure time would be delayed as we were missing a passenger. Of the seven people who didn’t go to Hobbiton, three went on a luge thing adventure. Two of them had cycled back to the meeting point. The third person was to get the bus there. In the end, Holly sent Simon to camp so people could set up their tent and she would stay behind and try to figure out what had happened to the missing one.

Our arrival at camp coincided with the Hobbiton people being dropped off. The group had 20 mins to put their tent up as they were due to be picked up at 7pm to go to Tamaki Maori Village. The Maori experience is supposed to be authentic (read not too touristy). The village is in the Rotorua forest and guests are formally welcomed into the sacred grounds and taken through Maori art forms, ancient rituals and Maori traditions, signing and dancing.

Turned out that the missing person had decided to walk to the meeting point (about 4kms) and had misjudged their walking ability! Grumble, grumble. A few people are not happy with the chaos today (most of which isn’t Flying Kiwi’s fault). This group’s not gelling and it’s quite funny to see.

After seeing Andy off (he went to the Tamaki Maori Village), I went in the hot pools we have on site. That was nice and relaxing. I got chatting to a woman who just got married on Saturday. Her wedding was delayed by four hours due to the rain, and the marquee (which had been beautifully decorated) was blown away. She was cool about it all and was really enjoying the hot pools.

Back at the cabin, I had my dinner and spent the rest of the evening reading my book. Pure bliss.

The perfect end to a truly chaotic day.

It didn’t rain today and we got out of the bus to do stuff so yeah!