Farewell Lurch...meet Fat Tranny

We broke Lurch - well, technically speaking his engine warning light started coming on and he went limp. Lost a day in Taupo while the VW doctor looked him and diagnosed sticking vanes in the variable geometry turbo, probably due to his being old and knackered. Would have taken several days to get fixed so the rental company delivered us a replacement last night.

Fat Tranny has a manual knob so a bit more controlled on the gear change, but still feels like its numbering around on platform boots. And there is a strange bulge at the front of the drivers seat that is quite uncomfortable to sit on...

From Kauri forests to geysers

From Ahipara and the end of 90 mile beach, we continued down route 12 on the north west coast to Waipoua Forest, home of the giant kauri trees and Tane Mahuta, the Lord of the Forest. They were enormous…

  

We stayed at in a lovely rural town of Matakohe and saw the Kauri Museum

Over the next few days we drove south of Auckland and across to the Coromandel Peninsula. Up through Thames and along route 25 to Coromandel Town. The views were amazing, even down to the mountain cows on the terraces…

We went around the peninsula and stayed at Hot Water Beach. Here, at an hour each side of low tide, you can dig a hole in the sand and watch it fill with hot mineral water, creating your own private spa bath. Unfortunately, the timings didn’t work for us (low tide was at midnight) and we were leaving the next morning (low tide at midday), so we didn’t get the chance to see this work. The beach was nice though…

We continued our drive along the coast of the Bay of Plenty on route 25 to Mount Maunganui. A little stroll (!) up the hill (232m high) gave us stunning views across the bay and the port of Tauranga

That night we stayed at Papamoa Beach, and what a wild and stormy one it was. This is the view in the morning as the storm was clearing…

We drove down into Rotorua and the first thing that hits you is the smell of sulphur. Then you see steam rising from the lake, cracks in the stone and even little wells in peoples gardens. Government Gardens is a lovely park near the centre of town and next to the city museum, which began life as a bath-house.

The gardens contain a boiling cauldron known as Rachel Spring and water from here was piped into the bath house.

We visited Te Puia, one of the main Maori cultural centres in NZ, a place of gushing waters, steaming vents, boiling mud pools and a geothermal valley of geysers. The Pohutu geyser erupts up to 20 times a day up to 100 feet in the air.

We visited the Kiwi House and saw a pair of football shaped birds with long beaks, hiding in the dark. The guided tour included the Carving and Weaving schools where students carry out the traditions of their Maori ancestors. In the evening, we enjoyed a cultural experience and welcoming ceremony, heard stories of the past and saw the performing arts. We had the opportunity to twirl the ‘poi’ – a large pom pom on a piece of rope (women) while the chaps learnt the ‘Haka’.  We then had a great dinner or ‘hangi’ where the meats and veges are roasted in a pit of hot coals.

From Rotorua we headed down to Lake Taupo, visiting Aratiatia rapids and Huka Falls on the way

And got to Lake Taupo on a very wet and grey day

From here we head to Napier on the east coast and have a look at Hawke’s Bay and the wine trail :-) 

If the van is rocking...

You can still come knocking - its the wind, not us. Honest.

On the beach overlooking the bay of plenty, and yet again its raining, this time with strong winds coming off the pacific. I know its out of season, and we arrived a bit earlier than maybe we might have, but I'm now getting almost as bored with the grey and intermittent rain as I was with the blue skies and sunshine in oz. And lurch (living up to his name even when static) is nowhere near as nice a place to hole up as Tigger was. I miss my toys😞

Northland

So, you’ve met Lurch and now our travels have really begun. We visited Haruru Falls which cascade in a horseshoe shape, and into the Waitangi River.

The holiday park was overlooking the bay and a short walk across the bridge to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds which is known as the birthplace of New Zealand as a nation. On the 6^th February 1840, the treaty was signed between 500 Maori chiefs and the British crown, handing over sovereignty of the land to the Queen. The history is really interesting as the Maori translation of the treaty is a little different to the English version, and hence the land wars started. A beautiful meeting house was completed in 1940 to mark the centenary of the treaty.

A 35m war canoe was also built for the occasion, made from giant Kauri logs

A short walk away is the small town of Paihia

where we caught the ferry to Russell, once the capital of this country and also known as the “Hell hole of the Pacific”, largely due to the number of rowdy whalers and drunken sailors that used to go ashore for drinking and whoring, not necessarily in that order. Now it is a quaint seaside town and marketing have rebranded it “Romantic Russell”.  We walked up Flagstaff hill and looked down over the bay.

We also saw this on a house in Russell which made us both laugh…

From Russell, we toured the Bay of Islands which is truly spectacular. Captain Cook recorded 150 islands when in fact there are a lot less than that.

Motukokako Island is also known as ‘Hole in the Rock’ for obvious reasons…

The captain also took us right into the cave, but the boat was too big to go all the way through!

We were also lucky enough to see bottlenose dolphins swimming alongside our boat and playing in the sea

The next day we continued north along Route 10, through Kerikeri to Mangonui and Doubtless Bay. After a quick stop to have a look around, we carried on through Kaitaia to Ahipara and the start of 90 Mile Beach.

Today we did a day trip up to Cape Reinga, right up at the top of the island. We drove along the beach up as far as Te Paki Stream, where the bus then drove up the stream to the large sand dunes where people could have a go at sand boarding. Far too energetic for me, so I had fun watching the young uns’ careering down the wet sand into the muddy stream at the bottom :-)  Cape Reinga marks the separation of the Tasman Sea from the Pacific Ocean.

Tomorrow we head back down via the west coast to Waipoua Forest.

Welcome to the City of Sails...

... aka Auckland. There are more boats per capita than anywhere else in the world, and given that this city has about a third of the country’s population, that’s a lot of money floating around on the water!

Auckland sits on 50 dormant or extinct volcanoes and our legs have certainly been getting a good workout as we explored the area. The skyline is dominated by the Sky Tower, at 328m high it’s the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere and houses restaurants, bars, casinos and a theatre. Up on the Sky Deck you can see up to 80kms away (apparently)

We visited the National Maritime Museum and saw the history of NZ as well as some excellent presentations on the Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup races. We went for a sail around Waitemata harbour aboard their heritage sailing ship and out under the Auckland Harbour Bridge

The following day we took the ferry to Devonport, home of the NZ Navy. We took a tour of the Military museum and learnt about the country’s naval heritage. We walked up to North Head, explored the gun emplacements which were aimed at thwarting various invasions that never came and some of the underground tunnels

There were also fantastic views across the bay back to the mainland.

We also went across to Waiheke Island where the scenery is breathtaking and winemaking origins date back to 1970s.

The climate is likened to Bordeaux, although it was a wet and blustery day which blew the cobwebs away as we walked between a few of the 30 wineries. Here are a couple of the locals making use of the inclement weather...

Tomorrow we pick up our motorhome and start our journey north into the unknown.

PS - I had hoped to post this from Auckland before we left, but the connection fell over so it's a week late

US Planning

I know we have only just got to New Zealand, but one of the first things we did here was get our US 10 year multiple entry visas sorted, so we can start putting down some plans for the first stage of the US trip. These visas still only allow us to stay for 6 months at a time, maybe a year if we are lucky - it all depends on the border guard who lets us in each time - so we can only plan so far ahead, but this is what we are thinking for the first stage so far:

We are due to fly into Los Angeles on October 21st, so clock starts running from there

•  November/December will be spent around LA and the South West buying a rig, 4x4 and setting everything up and getting used to driving on the right
• Xmas/New Year  in Las Vegas - Blair and Cheryl are going to Vegas for Xmas from the Canadian winter, so figured we may as well try and meet them as we will be in the neighbourhood. And of course that includes places like the Grand Canyon, Palm Springs, etc
• January/February - head through the south - Arizona, New Mexico and Texas
• 4th March - Mardi Gras in New Orleans
• March/April - head on through to the Florida Keys before it gets too hot

and then if we have to leave the country after 6 months we can look at getting a cheap deal from Florida to a Caribbean island to reset the visa entry..

So, if anyone is planning on visiting the US in the next few months and fancies meeting up...

Meet Lurch

Like the Addams family faithful old retainer, he's a bit top heavy going around the corners, and also the automatic gear changes going up hills are not particularly smooth.

Picked him up yesterday after a couple of hours buggering about with paperwork, computer errors,  EFTPOS payment  limits and other frustrations, loaded up at the supermarket, went back in to Auckland to pick up the luggage and the hit the road north. Stopped for the night in whangarei as the first sensible stop, then pushed on to bay of islands this morning where we will stop for a couple of days, nice little campground right next to the Waitangi treaty grounds.

We opted for the high top camper for convenience - technically its a 6 berth although you would have to be very good friends - we can leave the bed made up at the back and still have another table inside to sit and eat at. And we thought we would have to put a load of luggage over the cab but actually once its unpacked its all disappeared into the cupboards, under the seats and in the lockers. Nowhere near as well equipped as tigger, with far more basic amenities so we will mostly be staying on camps and using their kitchens and showers. And everything does rattle on the road - I dare say it was the same in Oz, but being in a separate vehicle you didn't hear it. Might get a bit wearing after 10 weeks, but we shall cope...