New Zealand
1/2 February 2012 Tahiti-Auckland
We were up with, or even before, the larks to catch the flight to Auckland.It was a painless journey and we were on the ground by just after lunch but it was 2 Feb as we skipped a day crossing the IDL. Immigration and Customs took an age as the Kiwis are very strict about deliberate or inadvertant introduction of alien species into their country. Our walk in the forest at Papette sparked a flurry of searching and boot cleaning. It was tedious but I have more sympathy with the objectives than I do with the confiscation of nail files from old ladies in the name of security which is what happens in UK and US. The car hire was a bit off-beat, we booked it over the internet, and we ended up with a old but comfortable Mazda with paintwork well past it's prime which suited us perfectly. We found the hotel which Alex had booked for us and gave her a ring. Alex is the Grand daughter of Pirko Ham who I have known since 1964, when I was a young 2 Lt and she was married to Sid our Tech QM, and when she heard that Ann and I were going to New Zealand she suggested that we meet with Alex her granddaughter who stayed on after her mother and stepfather returned to England. I had not seen Alex since she was 3 and then only for about 30 mins so it was an unusual meeting for all concerned.
The whole family, Alex, husband Glen and daughters Anastasia and Trinity came round to the hotel for about an hour and they were lovely.
Glen took the girls home and Alex took Ann and myself to a choir rehersal at her Destiny Church. Which is an evangelical social group with lots of enthusiasm and modern music. Not my scene at all, but the schools have a great record of getting bursaries to university for kids who would otherwise be unlikely to get that far in education, and even non believer me was made very welcome. The church and music obviously play a very large part in Alex and Glen's life. If you would like to here more of their music try googling 'Freeday'.
3 February 2012 Auckland
We decided to go into the city centre by train to avoid parking and navigational problems.However we had problems at the station and in the event it would have been easier, faster and cheaper to
have just driven, but Hey ho. The train ended us up on the waterfront so we wandered along looking at some amazing boats and buildings and getting the swing of western style traffic again after laid back Polynesia. We had a trip through the Maritime Museum and took a ferry across the harbour to Devonport, appropriately enough the home of the NZ Navy. The town was delightful and had a certain Victorian charm after the bustle and skyscrapers of downtown Auckland. We climbed a hill on the advice of a chap we met on the ferry, and it was well worth the hike. It was a 360 degree panorama of inlets and islands, peninsulars and bays, ports and cities and countryside. A great lookout even on a grey day.
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| A view from Mt Victoria |
And then we had lunch in the Sierra Cafe to remind us of our mountains at home and our granddaughter in England.
In the evening Alex and Glen came round and we all went for dinner in the revolving resturant at the top of the tower in Auckand. Nice meal, lovely evening.
4 February 2012 Auckland - Hamilton
Alex and Glen said that they were taking the children for a walk the following morning and would we like to join them. Yes we would. So I dug out my disinfected walking boots and off we went. It was only a short walk up one of the remnants of volcanoes which pepper Auckland. It was a nice stroll and a pleasant way to say adieu to the family.
Then Ann and I were off heading South, once we got the hang of the road signs. We headed for Raglan and Kawhia along country roads. It was like driving through an under populated Wiltshire with the odd burst of exotic vegetation. The road sides were covered in yellow daisies, the banks were in the blue and white of agapanthus and there were drifts of orange montbretia everywhere. When you added tree ferns to the mixture it was a very pretty drive.
We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, a 55m single drop, not in the Papette league but it was a nice break and was well done as a tourist attraction.
As it is a holiday w/e all the places on the coast were booked solid. It was fortuitous really as when we finally got to Kawhia, where we intended to stay, there was a very noisy festival in full swing so we were well out of it! The inlets on the Tasman Sea side are like stretched versions of the S Devon rias with acres of sand and mud at low tide and picturesque headlands and points at high water. We headed back to Hamilton to find a motel in which we had great success, and church for Ann which was not so successful.
5 February 2012 Hamiliton Area
After church for Ann we walked around a lake in Hamilton. I admired the contestants in a beach volley ball contest. and then we went off to Lake Karapiro for lunch.
When we arrived at the dam there were numerous other families picnicing and watching speed boat racing. We joined them but were very little wiser about the racing which was very noisy and, I thought, distinctly unexciting. We left after about an hour and went to the Maungatauri Kiwi Reserve. This has been created out of a range of hills which has been surrounded by a 'pest-proof' 2.5m high chain link and electrified fences with deadlock entrances. All this in attempt to preserve some native habitat. The farm land runs right up to the edge of the reserve, with cow pasture, an enormous fence and then an abrupt transition to fern forest. It is a very strange even a weird sight more Stalagluft than nature reserve. The walk around the reserve was pleasant but uninformative and needless to say we saw no Kiwis as they are nocturnal.
There are '000s of cows, lots of milk tankers, but so far we have seen nothing that looks like a milking parlour. They must hide them away!
6 February 2012 Rotorua
After a potential disaster when the credit card was refused we eventually got it sorted, paid and left. The Anglesea Motel was a great place to stay nice helpful people, good facilities and reasonable prices. The drive to Rotorua was pleasant but unspectacular. At Rotorua the smell of H2S in the air was unmistakeable and sometimes powerfully unplesant. We booked into a lakeside motel and went in search of entertainment. We took the cable car part of the way up Mt Ngongotaha, watched various groups being launched in a gigantic swing with lots of screams and yells, and we had a go on the luge carts which was good fun.
Back at the motel we saw that there was a thermal area only 500m from the motel so we spent the rest of the day looking at steaming pools and popping mud pots.
7 February 2012 Rotorua
We still had not seen a geyser in operation so we went to the Wei-o-Tapa thermal park to watch one that spouts to order! The guide dropped some detergent into a fumarole and after about 2 mins the geyser erupted and ran for about 45mins with pulses of spray 4-10 m in height. the detergent breaks down a surface layer between water at 90 and water at 150 which results in instant boiling and steam. It was a good show and we have seen our geyser- Lady Knox.
After the geyser show we walked through the thermal area with it's boiling pools and rocks and water coloured red and yellow and orange and green, indeed a veritable coat of many colours.
By now we were just about 'thermalled' out so we headed back to Rotorua by way of some normal lakes set in beautiful wooded country. There was time for a walk and a swim at Blue Lake and then back to the motel.
8 February 2012 Rotorua - Whangamatta.
We headed out for Mattamatta and the Hobbiton set for 'Lord of the Rings'. It wasn't my idea of a must do but was on Ann's bucket list so off we went. I think you have to be a Tolkein fan to either love it or hate it, and I am not a fan so felt neither. The set was inventive and much as I would have expected. It must make the owners of the land a fortune, much more money and less hassle in punters than sheep!
After Hobbiton we headed North for the Pacific coast and the Coromandel Peninsular. I wanted to go there because the name has such an exotic ring to it. At first I was disappointed as the towns and countryside were very similar to what we had seen before, pleasing, manicured, but nothing different. Then at about 5 o'clock it was time to look for a room and we drove into Whangamatta. The town was much as before, but the setting was just wonderful. Whangamatta sits behind a long sandy beach which looks out to off shore islands, and is bounded on either side by deep protected estuaries with moorings and anchorages aplenty. The estuaries run back into steeply wooded hills. It really was a lovely spot and I wished we could have stayed longer but there is a plane to catch.
9 February 2012 Whangamatta - Coromandel
We left Whangamatta with a few regrets at such a short stay and headed up the coast to Hahai and Cathedral Cove. The coast road on the East side of the peninsular is nothing of the sort and views of the sea were few and far between. We waited to get into Hahai whilst a tree was cleared, and the parking at Cathedral cove was manic, so hopes were not high. However the walk along the cliff and the cove itself were just lovely and well worth the effort.
We swam and lazed in the sun, walked back up the cliff and lunched on the grass with lovely views of the coast and cliffs and islands, green in a blue sea.
From then on we bounced from country to coast, hills to estuaries all the way up to Coromandel Town. It is a quirky tourist place which sits in the corner of a wide bay bounded by a peninsular and a string of stunning islands. We found a smart motel and wandered out to look at the boats moored along the river and found them all parked in the mangrove fringes.
Dinner was Green lipped mussels, to be repeated, and stone cooked main course, not to be repeated!
10 February 2012 Coromandel - Auckland
There seemed to be a lot to do around
Coromandel but again time was pressing so we went over the hill to fantastic views of the Firth of Thames. The road dropped to sea level and followed the sea all the way to Thames, a moderately large town at the head of this enormous gulf. We had a look around and then moved on. We ate our lunch at the shore birds centre, didn't see many birds there but that was rectified shortly afterwards when we saw thousands of birds on the sand and mudflatsof the western shore. We also stopped for a walk along the beach at Orere Point, and then headed for our airport motel.
We had arranged to meet Alex and family at Bucklands Beach so Ann dived into Googlemaps and came up with the goods, and we got there in good time. We were greeted by the children like long lost uncles/aunts and warmly by Alex and Glen. Ice creams all round and a chilly walk back to the car and our time in NZ was drawing to a close. They escorted us back to our hotel which was nice. They are a lovely family and I hope we can stay in touch.
