Kia Ora from Aotearoa
Trip Start
Sep 02, 2007
1
26
35
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Auckland,
North Island,
New Zealand
Friday, May 23, 2008
So here we are in the land of the long white cloud, or 'godzone' as kiwi's refer to their country. It's easy to see why as you are surrounded by amazing countryside of breathtaking natural beauty everywhere you go. You can't help but describe it like that!
We arrived in Auckland where we were picked up at the airport by our friend, Paul. We were staying with him and Jo his wife and their two boys Adam and Nathan in Remuera which is a suburb of Auckland. The next day was a Saturday and we went to watch 7 year old Adam play soccer which was fun. Paul is a massive Arsenal fan and got the Ansell's into the gunners in about 1990! Paul is from England and Jo is a Kiwi and they moved to NZ about 10 years ago. We had seen Paul twice in that time when he had visited England to see his family, but we hadn't seen Jo for all that time and never met the boys
Bay of Islands
! So it was a really good opportunity to catch up and soon it felt like there hadn't been such a huge gap in time. Our plan was to buy a car to travel around both islands instead of renting one or using coaches. We picked up an old 1991 Subaru Legacy station waggon (estate!) at a car fair. We named it the 'beast' in honour of our other car back home which is the real beast, a monstrous Ford Ka. We spent a few days around Auckland and the surrounds, enjoying the scenery of the harbour, Mission Bay, St Helliers and the city.
We then hit the road to begin a five week tour of NZ. We started by heading up to Northland, the northern tip of the North Island. We stayed in the Bay of Islands at Paihia which is a stunning large bay and famous as the place where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed which made NZ a British colony in 1840. We self-catered at the backpackers and we ate green lipped mussels which cost $1.99 a kilo (about 80p)! Can't beat fresh NZ muscles. We tramped through wetlands and forest to the Haruru waterfalls and generally enjoyed being outdoors.
The next stop in this part of the island was Cape Reinga which is the tip of the North Island where you can actually see the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet as the two bodies of water clash and create some white water
beauty and the beast!
.On the plane we had read an article about the Coromandel Peninsula and we decided we wanted to go there as the article made it sound good!. It's another peninsula which has more of the same beautiful coves, beaches, hills and valleys and was even better than the article made out. The best bit here for us was a visit to a place called Hot Water Beach near to Hahei beach. As NZ is on the fault line of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates it is a land of volcanoes, earthquakes and general thermal activity. Anyway, on this particular beach there is a natural hot spring which runs under the sand from the hills into the sea. You turn up, hire a spade for five bucks and dig a hole in the sand which fills up with very hot water, all natural, and a little bit smelly due to the sulphur. We sat in our 'spa' for a couple of hours with loads of other people doing the same thing nearby and watched the surf rolling in and the sun shining on the shimmering sea and the green hills all around. It was something you can't do in many other places and lots of fun. When the water got too hot you just dig another hole near by to filter in cold water.
After that we headed further along the coast to Mount Maunganui, a beach suburb of the port city of Tauranga. Whilst in Adelaide we had met a Kiwi couple, Mark and Kath
Cape Reinga, Northlands
. They had given us their address and offered us a place to stay at their home when we got to NZ. We took them up on their offer. They have four kids, Alexandra, Jessica, Hoani and Sophia, all under 12 years old! We enjoyed our stay with them, but their toy poodle Tama didn't seem to like us. He even escaped from the house one day when everyone else was out and we had to chase him down about 4 blocks before trapping him in a corner of a garden. A passer by had stopped to help and gave us a piece of rope to tie around his collar so we could get him home. Another passer by almost called the police on us because he thought we were trying to break in to the house where we had Tama trapped in the garden! Kath kept the rope on his collar for a few days and called it the 'collar of shame!' as he had bitten both of us when we tried to bring him home. It was a great location to spend a few relaxing days so close to the beach and to have a nice family to talk to and eat dinner with.From Mt. Maunganui it wasn't far to Rotorua which is famous as a thermal area. We visited Te Puia, a Maori cultural park which also has geysers and mud pools. We saw a Haka performed here and the Prince of Wales Geyser which is quite a big one. In the evening we went to a hot pool complex called the Polynesian Spa where we relaxed in 7 different outdoor hot pools. It was very cold out of the water but in it was great
Cathedral Cove
. Some of the spa's overlooked the lake which at night was lit up along the banks by houses. It was good spot to send a few hours after dinner as it was open until 11pm. It got busy at one point when a coach tour of maybe Chinese or Japanese people arrived and a number of them got into the pool we were in. As soon as they sat down next to me in the pool another Asian lady spoke to them and they moved away. This happened several times and was getting weird. The lady then spoke to me in an American and Chinese accent and told me she had been telling people not to sit near me because "she knows English people like their personal space"! I tried to explain it was OK, but she just kept telling everyone who came near me to move on (she was speaking Chinese or whatever) It was getting embarrassing so we had to move pools before the whole coach tour thought I was racist.The weather (we're English so we have to mention it!) had been fantastic, bright clear sunny days, considering it was winter which made the driving from place to place a pleasure.
By the way, had you guessed? Kia Ora means Hello in Maori. Not an orange drink in a carton.
