NZ Day 6, In Rotorua

Morning dawned at the lake and a chance for a swim.The next door camper occupant came back from a morning run – Englishman in NZ for a wedding and only touring around for 3 days, though his parents had bought a cottage in Hamilton(?) to spend half the year in UK. half in NZ.
We headed into town to Whakarewarewa Maori village. Here the people had relocated from the pink and white terraces after the eruption that destroyed the terraces in 18xx. The village wa built on thermal geysers, pools and mud volcanoes. The Maori cooked food using geothermal heat and the pools, bathed in water from the pools and so on. Some of the houses had vents beside them, and occasionally when a vent started under one they had to relocate the family.
This took a lot of the day and we were too late to tour the Rotuorua museum which closed at 5pm, so back to the campsite and another swim in the lake and a quiet evening.

Geyser at Rotorua	Cooking corn in the thermal waters at Rotorua
Fumarole; Boiling, roiling mud	The museum at Rotorua

NZ Day 5. On to Hobbiton!

Tuesday dawned nice enough for a swim, before heading off towards Matamata (or as the GPS would drawl it “Martamarta”, the site of Hobbiton from the LOTR movies. The site is on a farm and was chosen because of the small rolling scenery and the invisibility from the road and gossiping watchers! You have to go as a tour, accessing the site with a bus and a guide. The original set, from the first movie, was just film prop material – plastic and cardboard, but when they returned to the site to film “The Hobbit” the condition to re-use the site was that they had to rebuild the set with permanent materials, even the bits that weren’t actually used in “The Hobbit”. The result is very impressive – the workmanship that went into it isn’t skimped at all and the attention to detail is excellent. You can see Bag End and the party field as well as Sam’s house and the Green Dragon, where the tour ends and you can have a complimentary ale, which is, actually, very drinkable!



That over we headed for our next overnight at Rotorua and a DOC campsite at Lake Okawara, about 8 kms outkide the town. A very peaceful spot IMHO. This was a DOC ‘Scenic’ campsite. This has campsites and toilets, water only from the lake, and no garbage facilities – pack in, pack out.

NZ Day 4. On the road! To Tauranga and Mount Maunganui

Monday morning we drove across town and picked up our Road Runner Rental camper van. Nissan van with a raised roof, 2004 year. After orientation we headed back to Innes and Rita to return their car and have lunch. Then set off, heading south. We elected to miss all the North Island North of Auckland, Bay of Islands, Coromandel peninsular. In 4 weeks something has to go and we felt this would have been too much driving in the wrong direction. So first night in Tauranga. The campsite, under Mount Muangini (well, hill!) was nicely next to the beach…except that the path along the beach, between our campsite and the beach, was the main route for hikers and joggers making a trip up the mountain! And it seemed that everyone in town does the trip once a day! All ages, school groups, visitors, residents, young, old, they all seemed to head for the uphill exercise!
And driving along the coast (the beach is hugely long) it is full of surfers, joggers, bikers and exercise nuts generally. It’s no surprise that New Zealand excels in sports, they seem to start with a higher level of fitness in the first place!

At the bottom of Mt Maunganui at Tauranga. This picture belies the number of people who seem to make it their purpose in life to climb it every day!	Looking down at the first part of the beach. It continues on for miles past the top of this picture. Golden sands and largely deserted!
Our home from home after we survive our first night camping. As you can see it comes nicely equipped with external drying racks!	Looking down at the campsite. You can see that the delightful beach-side camping spot is also delightfully adjacent to the walking track up the mountain!

NZ Day 3 in Auckland

Sunday! Lazy start to the day, skyping with Tristan and Sean and showing them the view from Innes and Rita’s windows and decks. In the afternoon Innes had a golf game and we took the ferry and tour to Rangitoto Island, off Auckland. This island is volcanic, last erupting 500 years ago. Its a classic cone with fairly shallow slopes. The tour, in a carriage behind a tractor, circles the peak, allowing a walk up to the top and around the crater, which is completely vegetated now. The track goes through several lava patches. At first they look like dried ploughed earth, but then you realise it is actually solid rock! There are a few cottages (Batches) on the island, but they will all revert to nature when the current owners give them up – they can’t be passed on or sold. The Department of Conservation has been aggressively poisoning and hunting anything that moves on the island for the last 20 years. Possums, rats, rabbits, mice…any non-indigenous mammals (and there are no indigenous New Zealand ground mammals!). Then they are reintroducing some of the native bird species that these mammal invaders have decimated over the years.
Sunday evening was the final of the Cricket World Cup, Australia vs. New Zealand in Sydney. unfortunately NZ won the toss, elected to bat first and promptly lost 3 wickets very cheaply and were all bowled out for ~150. Australia overtook that easily. The neighbours, Alistair and Jackie, joined us for dinner watching the game.
Unfortunately, at this time, I cant find the photos from this day or the next…

NZ Day 2. In Auckland

Saturday morning started uncharacteristically…I was up at 8am and down in the bay for a swim at the beach! Great to see the various users of the shoreline, dog walking, launching kayaks, walking. Saturday morning a trip to Mt. Eden with Innes and round the sights of Auckland!

Looking over Auckland from Mt. Eden

Innes and Mike on Mt. Eden Another view of Auckland from My. Eden, looking across the old crater

In the afternoon we went to see the Muriwai Gannet colony and visit friends of Innes and Rita who live on the hillside above Muriwai bay. Turns out Mick and Jackie visit relatives in Calgary every year in Discovery Ridge!

Rocks beside Muriwai Beach

Muriwai Beach

Gannet coming into the circuit

The Colony

Evening saw dinner at ‘The Mediterranean’ restaurant. Food was excellent, again! This time I got close enough to argue about the bill, but lost, 2 – 0.

Arrived in New Zealand

The flight made good time from Sydney to Auckland, and the automated immigration/passport check worked brilliantly, as it had in Australia. However all the time gained was immediately lost because of the delay in the baggage arrival. Finally got a taxi and sat back for the drive to Innes and Rita’s house and our first introduction to the cost of living in New Zealand. $130 for the taxi! After arriving at 2am it was good to get a good nights sleep…not so good to realise we had forgotten to adjust time from Sydney to Auckland and what we thought was a reasonable 9am getting up was really 11am! So nice to see Innes and Rita after so long – It was a Friday and Ines was working from home so he drove us up Beach Road for orientation, which goes for miles along the shore! The beach is only 100 yds from the house and the view from the living room over the bay is to die for!
In the afternoon Innes had a meeting and the impetuous lad let us borrow their Golf GTI to do some exploring! As an aside, this was a great fun car to drive, very sporty and exhilarating when the power kicks in. We checked out the peninsula a little and Randi was happy because we found a Starbucks in Milford. Innes and Rita were horrified – if there are so many good local coffee shops, why are you going to Starbucks?

Coastal defences at Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park. Built in fear of Russian intentions but never used

View of Auckland from the maritime park

Randi capturing the view

Sailboat crawling around the headland

In the evening we went to ‘Salt’ restaurant 50 yds down from their house. A chic little place with very good food and an enticing wine list. It was clear that Innes and Rita were regulars!. We enjoyed Fickle Mistress Pinot Noir from Central Otago This first timeout for dinner I was blindsided and Innes had paid the bill before I even realised it…