NZ-The final part of our NZ adventure
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2008
1
12
22
Trip End
??? ??, 2009
Auckland,
North Island,
New Zealand
Friday, March 20, 2009
First up on this blog is another driving day. We left Westport and headed north and east, to the top of the South Island and a small town called Motueka. We went there as it is the main access town for the Abel Tasman National Park, which is famous for it's walk of up to 4 days and sea kayaking, both of which we wanted to experience. Now, don't get me wrong here, we had no intention of doing all 4 days of the walk, but these canny New Zealanders have set up all types of excursions from 4 days walking or 4 days kayaking, to a half day kayaking or 1 hours walking on the track. On top of this they have water taxis that go along the coast showing points of interest! and I bet you can't guess which one we did? ................. It was a half day walking with a half day Kayaking, and we were taken to the starting point in a water taxi, where we were shown all the points of interest along the way!!
When we set off in our water taxi, all in our seats with life jackets etc, we were actually being pulled by a tractor, which was a little bizaar, but necessary all the same. It was due to there being no harbour or docks and the boats going into the sea from the beach. So we pilled in and got pulled down the road and onto the beach. From there it was off into the park. The "taxi driver" was very informative and gave us all the info on the park, including how the Maori land and sea gods fought over "split apple rock" before it was split, and in the end splitting it! hence the name.
A-Split Apple Rock
After a half hour journey, we were dropped off in the beautiful Torrent Bay, literally!! We had to wade through the sea to get to the beach. From there, we set off on a two and half hour walk along the Able Tasman track to get to Watering Cove Beach for our pack lunch and to meet up with our kayaking guide, which we managed. After lunch and a quick safety briefing, you know the type of thing, remember to swim if you fall in and karate kick your way out if the goes over etc, it was into the sea for 2 and half hours kayaking back to the start. A nice casual paddle we thought, mmm...turned out we were way off on that point. It all started well enough, Suzanna and I getting in time and cruising along listening to our guide and having our picture taken etc, but as we went along the wind continually got stronger and stronger, and into our faces, which was the problem. First issue was spray. As we paddled through the waves we were getting spray covering us, which then, despite sunglasses, went in our eyes, which eventually stung like hell and meant we were paddling virtually blind, as we could only open our eyes for a few seconds a time. From there, the wind continued to build until eventually we were pretty much going nowhere, as despite our efforts to go forward, the wind was pushing us backwards!! It got so bad that after 2 hours paddling with all our effort and still at least another hour to go, our guide took pity on our group and pulled us into a beach and called the water taxis, all the other groups out that day also pulled into the beach, I might add.
B-Torrent Bay Drop Off Point
We were pleased, as it had stopped being fun. Turned out though that the water taxi wasn't for us worn out tourists, it was to pick up the kayaks!! We had an hour and a half's walk along the track to get back to the start, meaning what should have been a pretty easy day of strolling and kayaking had became a challenging 4 hours walking plus 2 hours kayaking. We deffo left with a sense of achievement.From Able Tasman National Park we headed for the town of Nelson for a stopover and a quick look around before taking the ferry back over to the North Island. We had another one of our weekends out of the car in Wellington, before heading north and west. We hugged the coast going from Wellington to New Plymouth and Mount Taranaki, with a view to doing a walk or 2 along the way. As it turned out, the weather on the 2 days it took us to do the drive, was so horrible we decided not to walk, so just drove with a night in Wanganui. At the end of our second driving day, we ended up in New Plymouth, which is nowhere special or of great significance, except as the main town around Mount Taranaki national park (apparently Mount Taranaki is the perfect cone volcano, like mount Fuji, but we'll have to take the travel writers word for that, as the day we were there, the said bad weather meant, we couldn't see the volcano!). Whilst here we managed to do a couple of good local walks. One along the coast and then one around a picturesque lake.
After New Plymouth we continued north and onto the much hyped, Waitomo Caves.
C-Keep paddling!
I should say here that I was apprehensive about how good it could be and it was Suzanna who was super keen to go. Well, it turned out Suzanna was spot on in her choice and the hype, isn't hype at all, it's fact. It was brilliant and deffo something we can recommend to all, unless you're claustrophobic, can't swim or are afraid of the dark! We took an afternoon trip into caves which took in glow worms and some tubing along an underground river (the one that carved out the cave funnily enough!). Once we arrived, late I might add, as the tour company had not set up our booking correctly, we were herded into an old shed to change into our very fetching outfits of a full body wet suit, red helmet and finished off with some lovely white Wellington boots!! Suzanna and I, along with one of the guides, then had to hot foot it over some fields to catch up with the others at the entry point. You know, it's only just dawned on me how ridiculous we must have looked running across those fields! From there, we checked our head lamps were working and then headed down into the caves. It started with us being surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites, with us standing in the river, a trickle at this stage. After a quick check that everyone was comfortable, we were off into the cave and an afternoon of adventure. We got covered in mud, waded in waste high cold rivers, saw the most amazing glow worms, there were thousands of them. We also crawled through holes and tunnels that nightmares are made off, you know the type, were you are running from something and the tunnel gets narrower and narrower? Or is that just me? (I should point out here that I seemed to be the guinea pig for the guides, as every time we got to a narrow tunnel, they seemed to send me through first.
D-The calm before the storm
I figured they thought, if that lardy arse can get through, the rest of the group will have no problem! The cheek of it ay?) As well as all of that we also got to dive off a rock face backwards into the water, cruise along on rubber rings on the current of the under ground river and then we had some swimming to do. All in all, it was fab and deffo something we would do again.Next day we were moving onto Taupo, the adventure capital of the North Island, but not before we did, what we decided afterwards, was the best short walk to date. It was just outside Waitomo and took us through forest, along a river, past waterfalls and to some caves, it was beautiful. Taupo was a hive of activity when we arrived, due to the annual round the lake bike challenge. It's 160k, with lots of climbs along the way and there were 10,000 participants this year. We did not take part, but enjoyed the spectacle and watching them finish, from the comfort of a bar stool! We weren't completely lazy in Taupo though, we did manage to do a 10k walk out to Huka Falls, which are amazingly powerful, and back. We also took a trip out to a volcanic museum and information centre and also to Aratiatia Rapids. These were considered a stunning part of the local area, so when the government decided to put a Dam in front of them, therefore ending the flow of water which made them so stunning, there was uproar. So, as a clever compromise, it was agreed that water would be released from the dam every couple of hours to allow people to continue to enjoy looking at the rapids, which we saw and thought it was all pretty cool.
G-Best short walk so far
From Taupo we continued north and into the main volcanic area of New Zealand, which is Rotarua. The area itself is huge and is known as the Taupo Plateau, but Rotarua is the main point to go exploring from. With all this volcanic activity, it's pretty smelly!! It's all the sulphur coming out of the ground you see, well that's what I told Suzanna! Apart from the smells though, there's volcanic parks, hot pools and boiling mud a plenty. We spent a day at this great park called Waimangu. It was all created only 120 years ago, when a nearby volcano erupted and it had some great info on how all the thermal activity happens. We also had a few hours in the Polynesian spa, relaxing in hot pools and a massage for Suzanna, as well as taking a walk around the town., where they have park areas that have thermal pools and my personal favourite, hot mud pools, all over the place. It was all great and full of things we found v v interesting, especially as it's not something we get in back home, although Suzanna found it a bit unnerving that at any point a volcano could go off!
From Rotarua, we set off for an area called The Coromandel and the last part of our trip in New Zealand. It is an area that is a favourite holiday destination for New Zealanders, as it is only a couple of hours from Auckland, so close enough for them to get to for the weekend. It is a beautiful area, full of very secluded beaches, forested mountainous areas along with some very quaint villages. It is also very historic as it was one of the first areas for settlement, with logging, ship building and farming going on there.
H-Walk to Huka Falls
We spent three days looking around and left understanding why it is so popular. The first day was spent heading up the east side of the peninsular that is the Coromandel. We spent the night in a small town called Hahei, that was virtually deserted, despite the number of houses, which is due to them all being holiday homes and therefore empty during the week. It had a great beach though, as well as a walk along the coast taking in other beaches, one of which had its own Cathedral Caves!! You'll see from the picture that it's not actually a cave, more of a Cathedral Arch, but impressive none the less. It also meant that we got to see some Cathedral Caves, after missing out in the Catlins, so we were happy. When we got back to the town we were staying in, we found the only bar in town and it is here that we found the cheapest beer in New Zealand. Admittedly it was happy hour, but all the same it was only £1.20 a pint!! and that was with a crap exchange rate. The following two days, after I'd calmed down a bit, were spent working our way around the Coromandel, following the only road and continuing to take in the lovely scenery along the way, stopping in more quaint towns and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. It was all very pleasant and nice way to spend the last few days on the road and sleeping in our beautiful Delica. We became quite attached to it along the way and whilst sleeping in the back of a car means you miss some of life's luxuries, like running water, electricity, a floor etc. It was home and we loved it.
I-We made it to Huka Falls
From the Coromandel we headed back to Auckland and spent a last 2, emotional nights in a camp site, while we cleaned up the Delica ready to sell. We had visions of selling it for $1500 dollars more than we bought it for, as we were given the impression that so many backpackers would be heading into Auckland around Christmas, they would be fighting over it. As it turned out, no fighting was to be had, so having set the price initially at $5495, we spent 10 days reducing the price every three days, until we got an offer from some German guys of $3600, which, in view of the fact we wanted to get to Sydney for Christmas and New Year, we were happy to take and it meant in the end, we had driven just under 8000 Km's of trouble free motoring and made $300 dollars. Not bad when you put it like that. What did you do while you where waiting to sell the car? I hear you cry. Well, not very much. We splashed out (it only cost £40 a night) on a self contained room that was like having our own flat. We had a kitchen, lounge, bedroom and bathroom with a bath!! and a telly with cable, so spent most of our time in there, nervously waiting for the phone to ring with an offer for the car. Rod and Fi did continue to look after us though, keeping us occupied with whole bunch of activities. Rod had his birthday bbq, which they invited us to and Fiona took us on a drive to a bunch of very swanky suburbs/beaches. On another day, they took us on a boat trip around the islands off Auckland, which was fab. The sea wasn't the calmest, but the scenery was great and I can confirm that Rod's boat (The cleverly named Prawn Star) is flipping quick. Once again, we have to thank Fi and Rod for making so much time for us and making us feel so welcome. Not only did they look after us, lend us stuff and invite us to their bbq, they did it all while they were trying to get ready for Christmas and a trip back to the UK! So again, thanks so much Fi and Rod and Fi when we can free up our millions of pounds in the bank, we'll go half with you on that island you want to buy!
And that pretty much wraps up New Zealand. It's safe to assume, just in case we haven't got it across in the blogs, that we loved the place. From start to finish, from the people to the places, it is amazing and, so far, easily our favourite place. That's not to say we haven't enjoyed the other places, but New Zealand has it all in our eye's and we will go on about it lot when we get back.
Next up is Australia and Suzanna will start us off on that Country. Take care everyone and don't forget to let us know what you think, as well as what you're up to.
Tobs and Suzanna.
xx
Comments
Great photo essay!
I think you'd get a kick out of this video showing what it can be like to go for a paddle on the coast just outside of Vancouver:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z76s8xyoV4