WELLINGTON..ALMOST ONWARDS TO SOUTH ISLAND

Day 338

Monday 4th February 2008

Wellington, North Island

We’re here in Wellington after driving from Rotorua. We spent the day going to Wai-O-Tapu and firstly saw the Lady Knox Geyser erupt at precisely 10.15am! We wondered how this would happen at this time!

One of the staff actually put a few bits of soap into the geyser which made it erupt! And it blew silica and steam about 8 metres high! After this spectacular we headed to Wai-O-Tapu to see the Champagne Pool. This is the largest hot water spring.

The most impressive pool I thought is the one they call the Artist’s Palette which has colourful pools of steam…reds, yellows, greens..














The walk is about 3kms and the pools range from blue to this vivid emerald…so gorgeous.














The mud flats are just as impressive. Shooting mud out of the hot springs….
Now this is real Rotorua..the Rotorua you imagine. Sulphur smells in the air..and bubbling hot springs erupting…

The drive to Wellington was not as fun..but we made it! And………………….

TONIGHT WE ARE NOT CAMPING!

We’re living in luxury at a hostel………….cos it’s raining outside!

Well that’s not the reason really..our tent is pretty cosy and we already know it can survive the wet. And so can we.

But, we have to get packed up ready to catch the ferry to South Island..and somehow..spreading our packs and all our vegetables..and tent..and all the gear..on the ground in a camping site, just wasn’t that appealing!

Will tell you how South island is…we’ve heard it’s very beautiful.

But I wonder, how can it be more beautiful than the North?

We heard 22, 000 kiwi’s have left NZ to go to Australia….fancy leaving this paridise? They must be nuts! I REALLY wish we had longer to truly relax and travel around NZ….

I know we’ll be back here. I just KNOW we will! It’s truly magical. And, there is so much to see..that we've only just touched on!!!!

Okies, time to pack up ready for tomorrow..

Ciao xxx

RELAXING ROTORUA and POLENESIAN SPA!

Day 337

Sunday 3rd February 2008

Blue Island Holiday Park, Rotorua, Day 2

Rotorua is a beautiful, smelly place..but Blue Lakes is clean and fresh and has a great forest walk! We spend today, Sunday, going for a 5km walk up and down the forest trail around the lake. So relaxing! And that’s what we needed after all the driving! Vigorous exercise! It was great!

We visited Gwen today..and found her home! She is a friend of Mum and Uncle John’s. The place where she lives started is attached to an old people’s hospital . Her place is a unit of four , in a different section but when we first arrived we wondered whether we were visiting someone who wouldn’t know us at all!

We went to the wrong place! It was the wing for dementia patients! Anyway………we finally found Gwen, in her unit, and she was so gorgeous. We’d never met her before, and were visiting on mum and John’s behalf, but by the time we left, we felt we’d known this lovely lady forever! She shared so many stories. Elderly people have so much to offer..so many anecdotes and past experiences that can only make us feel very humble .

After our Sunday visit we passed the Polenisian Spa and decided to drop in…we found ourselves experiencing Rotorua’s natural hot springs in the form of a private spa that had this incredible view of the mudflats! Decadent! We felt like the king and queen. We hadn’t had a bath since Krakow in Poland where, for one night, we had a bath in the apartment we were in!!! So nice……it surely beat the Turkish Baths, which were must less private! (And where Greg had a harrowing experience..hmm.)

We slept like babies!

ROTORUA, NORTH ISLAND

Day 336

Saturday 2nd February 2008

Blue Island Holiday Park, Rotorua, North Island $18 each for tent site.

Our ambition today was to see the Aranui and Glowworm caves which were about 30kms south of our campsite. It was such a beautiful morning and we were looking forward to doing something other than the practical pastimes of driving, eating and setting up our tent!

And seeing the caves was just the thing to uplift our mood. It cost us $100 to see these caves but we thought it was worthwhile. We’re camping so we can use the rest of the money we’ve budgeted to see the sites!!!

The first cave we saw was the Waitomo Glowworm cave. And it’s something I’ll never forget! The caves were cold so we were glad to have our coats on! We spent some time looking around the main caves and then we went on a little boat down the river under the cave.

The glow worm cave really did glow with light. The roof of the caves had little glowworms that looked like stars. When the guide turned on the light to show us the worms, we could see crystal necklaces hanging down (their mucus to catch flies and insects). So beautiful! Apparently Australia is the only other country to have Glowworm caves!

The next cave we saw was the Aranui Cave which is about 3km’s away from the Waitomo Glow Worm cave. It’s set in the Ruakuri Scenic Reserve, was found in 1910 and is named after Ruruku Aranui, a maori man who found him while he was out chasing pigs with his dog.

The dog chased the pig into the cave..and when Ruruku went in…he saw the cave! He reported it and was given 25 pounds and had the cave named after him!
This cave is smaller. A the entrance is a nest of insects called the New Zealand Wetas! And further in, this cave has really incredible stalagtites’ and stelagmites!

And they looked like caramel in some places and white icing in others. Some had the texture of coral and other’s like candlewax. So different. These caves, we were told, were the most beautiful in the world. And I would believe it.

The guide told us some of the names they had for them…ie a butchers shop because the formations looked like meat and the various veges ie carrots and cauliflowers! There is also a wedding gown with Grumpy at the foot of it. They all spectacularly resemble the names given to them too! There was an Aladdin's Cave as well!!

Both caves had what they call a Cathedral..which all caves have apparently! I can just imagine people singin g in here with the acoustics as they were!
It was really funny listening to the guide because she had such a strong kiwi accent.

The ‘wee moment’ was used a lot..and the way she swallowed her vowels made me laugh! She pointed out the Silver Ferns in the Reserve…they are smaller than the tree fern..but so unusual!

We ventured onto Kiwi Park in Waikato after seeing the caves. We were really enjoying siteseeing! And..we wanted to see a KIWI! This park is owned and operated by the Otorohanga Zoological Society.

The Kiwi is an amazing bird! It’s indigenous to NZ and is flightless! It was hard to see the bird until it was feeing time. Then we saw it feeding (it looked like it was being fed bread soaked in milk but I’m not sure what it was it was eating!). The feeder had a bowl and she and the kiwi were behind closed doors…with us, the crowd watching. The Kiwi looked hilarious the way it sort of half walked, half danced to it’s bowl!

The interesting thing about the area of Waikato is the road signs..saying there are Kiwi’s in the area! Yet very few people have actually seen a native kiwi In the wild! But they must be there.

After all this activity we headed to Rotorua to our tent site. We stayed at the Blue Lake holiday Park which is ABSOLUTELY GREAT! It cost $18 each, in a powered site because it was the only one available (but it’s 3 phase power) and our site was huge. Our poor little tent looked so lonely set up on this huge tent site! The car parked in front made it look less obviously small..but they both only took up a third of the tent site!!!

This place had all the facilities you could want! It didn’t have cutlery or crockery though. And we still don’t have any either..so we’re still smelling everyone’s cooking but not cooking ourselves. We’re eating fruit and toast in the mornings on our plastic bags…great recycling! Ha! We also have a knife and a teaspoon..and of course, we still have our Berlin Kettle!

Rotorua is gorgeous! We went to see Mum and John’s friend Gwen today..but she was out, so we’ll try tomorrow!

We ate dinner overlooking the Blue Lake tonight..what beautiful forest it has..such a magical place.

Finally beginning to relax………………

Tomorrow..we will go and explore more of Sulphur City!!!! It really does smell here in hot springed, mud flatted Rotorua.....

OTOROHANGA, NORTH ISLAND

Day 335

Friday 1st February 2008

Otorohanga Holiday Park, North Island $15 each for tent site.

What a beautiful morning! No dew or rain droplets on our tent , just a very beautiful day!

We decided to go to the beach!

Goat Island beach is pebbly, like Brighton, and rocky, and it has magnificent sea life, we’ve heard. There were a lot of people snorkeling and diving, in wetsuits! Since we were not preparted to hire wetsuits or snorkeling gear, or go in as was, and be cold..we decided to go for a long beach walk!

And it was so gorgeous….

Greg was getting pretty anxious to get to Auckland so we stayed about 2 hours at the beach, just absorbing it all and asking the snorkellers what they saw. Not much, they said, the underwater life had mostly been disrupted by tourists!! We were happy with our walk after that!

We stopped at Tony’s café in Warkworth for lunch and contemplated our camera situation! What to do? The lens was stuffed and the only place in NZ we could get it fixed (after reading the warranty form) was in Rorotua, in Wellington!

We wanted the camera to take photos now…so..we decided to buy another one! It’s our most prized commodity..and possession. We couldn’t live without it! And..we decided after taking over 20,000 photos with the Samsung..it was probably TIME to get a new camera! We’d get one in Auckland. And we’d visit the camping place, R and R Camping and get the pump for our mattress!

We found a good camera and Greg got the smile back on his face!!! We also stopped at a fruit and vege place on the side of the road and bought the most amazing apples!!! Gosh! The fruit here is just SO YUMMY!!!!! The apricots and nectarines are so fresh and tasty..ohlala! We’re lovin’ our fruit!

We stopped in Hamilton to do our banking and quickly check email and then headed to Otorohanga for our next campsite!

The campsite was great too. Very well equipped! No view, but great facilities. We did our laundry and used the kitchen to prepare our dinner.
We also blew up our tent with the voltage in the car..and it was bliss having more energy to breathe!!!

Another exhausting day of travel!

I think we’re mad trying to see north and south island in the time we have. I whinged to Greg BIG TIME about this..and basically had a major meltdown. I hate setting up camp, taking down camp, and staying only one night in a place!!

Greg said..it's a reconnaiscence! (Spelling?) But..we negotiated..and compromised...

We're staying two nights in Rotorua. Thank goodness!!!!!!!

Tomorrow we'll go and see the ARAMIO and GLOWWORM CAVES..which is why we're in this neck of the woods..

GOAT ISLAND, NORTH IS, NZ

Day 334

Thursday 31st January 2008

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Dad would have been 85 today!!!
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Goat Island Holiday Park $15 ea per night plus $1 ea per shower!

We slept really well last night. Our air bed was So comfortable. We also found out it’s waterproof! It rained in the morning..we awoke listening to a guy ringing a tour company to tell them he wanted to cancel his boat trip (Boating is definitely the thing a lot of people do in the Bay of Islands).

We wanted to stay cuddled up in bed..but we had thing to do, places to see..and a very hungry stomach! Our breakfast was limited, once again. Bread with vegemite! (Can’t get enough of it!) We completed our breakfast with an apple and a banana. We really need to get some cutlery so we can cut fruit and vegetables..and use the bbq’s.

After packing up our tent we headed out of the caravan park, a bit sad, because it would have been nice to stay longer and walk the trail that I could see above our tent site!

We looked at some other sites for future reference and found a tent site at the Haruru Falls. It looked so peaceful and green and had a gorgeous view.
Highway 10 was even beautiful.

The thing about driving in NZ is…there is no shortage of scenery! No long stretches of boredom . There are lakes and rivers and forest and beautiful scenery everywhere! We drove passed Matauri Bay to Tauranga (where I remembered some friends of ours lived – Charles!) and drove the scenic loop in Cable/Coopers Beach and later, another loop in Pakiri to Goat Island Marine Reserve.

This is a place where we particularly wanted to see because we’d heard it’s quite spectacular. There is one caravan park there with the same name. Knowing we needed to charge the dreaded camera and the mobile phone we drove in and saw it was only a large expanse of green grass…with no powered sites. It had an amazing view of the bay though..and lots of green pastures and cows.

Reluctantly we drove out of this park to find another one that may have a powered site. We ended up coming back to the Goat Island Holiday Park tho! The other’s didn’t have the view! And..we later found out we could charge the camera in the family room at the park.

That’s one thing about the Caravan Parks, or Holiday parks as the Kiwi’s call them, they all have a communal area with kitchen and power sockets. Unfortunately the camera needed more than a charge, it needed tossing. IT conked out. We couldn’t get it going at all! What to do? We decided to go back to Auckland and see if Dick Smith (the outlet for Samsung) could fix it or change it for another one, since it’s under Warranty.

We put our tent up better this time! And we were right out on our own, against the backdrop of blue water, green pastures and howling cows! (No kidding..they really did howl when they mooed!)

We still didn’t have our pump so poor Greg blew up the mattress while I babysitted the charger in the ‘family room’. That was before we realized the camera was on it’s last legs (have we overused it??) and we were trying to charge it to it’s full capacity so the lens would go back in!

Tomorrow, we will buy the pump! And sort out our camera situation. Greg was withdrawing without the camera!~ And although it was nice not hearing that familiar, click, I was also mourning it’s loss. We really wanted to remember the view here at Goat Island!

Once again, we could smell the bbq’s……….but we ate Subway for dinner. Can’t wait to get to South Island so we can buy our utensils so we can cook on the bbq’s. Smelling everyone’s cooking has knobs on it!!!

The people at Goat Island site were mostly Maori’s on the last of the school holidays. They were so friendly. And all sat in a big group talking and singing. Reminded us of Angie’s family. So colourful, happy and family orientated.

The showers are to be desired here. There are only two per gender. And, they charge a dollar for the showers and they were not that clean. It really makes the difference when the showers are clean.

Communal showers are something I don’t like at all. I don’t like being in hostel dorms, and don’t like camping showers. But, we’re really saving a lot by camping this way..and we’re at the end of our trip so the money’s getting tighter by the minute!

Camping is great fun though…and aside from not having the comforts of ‘home’ we’re enjoying being at the camping grounds. And our bed is SO comfortable! There’s nothing like sleeping on a blow up mattress! (I’m not kidding!)

We zonked out again tonight. Really tired. Must be the fresh air…or not having any privacy, or time out from the world, not sure. I can usually stay up reading really late, but since being in NZ, I’ve been wanting to go to bed about 9pm..and not being able to get there till about 10pm and being absolutely exhausted when I finally sink into my pillow!

Jet lag still? Or is it because I know we’re on the homestraight and I’m winding down. Could even be because I feel more relaxed here. Whatever it is, I feel very tired.