Back from New Zealand after a great, scenic and refreshing road trip

We arrived in Auckland on Friday evening. Fiona (Greg’s cousin) and Noa (her son) welcomed us and drove us to their (nearly tree house) place where delicious pizzas were waiting. We had a great time trying to catch up after more than 10 years.

 The plan on Saturday was to meet Trevor (Greg’s other cousin) at the ferry to go to Rangitoto, a young (600 y-old) volcanic island, just 25 min away from the city. As we were late for our meeting time, we jumped on the ferry, 10 sec before it left and only to discover 10 min latter that Trevor was also in the ferry. The top of Rangitoto offers the most beautiful view of Auckland and sailing boats enjoying the breeze in the bay.

We walked down, through rain forest, basaltic caves and black lava fields. We spent the rest of the week-end at Trevor and Caroline’s place. We couldn’t stop admiring the view of the bay which is just breathtaking. A Gray (Hall) family reunion was organised on Sunday.

We started our NZ discoveries on Monday with the help of a typical SA VW Kombi lent by Fiona and David, and our “Darling GPS” lent by Trevor. We wondered along the Waterfront before hitting the road. Our aim was to enjoy the trip as much as possible and see the landscapes more than the towns. The scenic drives offered us what we were looking for, and the sunny weather was a great bonus. We stopped at 5pm just before Coromandel in a little camping site where our abilities to put the tent up didn’t prove to be too bad as our new home for the next week was up in 15 min, without too much shouting. Our 1^st night on the hard was pretty good.

Tuesday was another driving day (in fact like the rest of the week). The little roads took us through the Coromandel Forest Park. We stopped on the East side at the Hot Water Beach, where you are supposed to dig a hole where hot water will seep out so you can have a spa experience directly on the beach. However, the tide wasn’t cooperating that day so we jumped in very tempting waves and had a delicious swim.

It seemed like such a long time since we had played like that in the sea. Too lazy to walk 45 min down the slope under the mid-day sun, we only had a glance at Cathedrale Cove.

We’ll have to come again as apparently the walk is worth the effort as the white sand beach is beautiful. We weren’t too lucky that evening in Mount Maunganui to find a peaceful and green campsite, but our tent was up again just after 5 at the back of a quiet campsite.

 We decided to drive less on Wednesday as the little passengers were somehow complaining. We wandered around the side roads with few stops on the way to discover water falls or whatever the landscape had to offer us like the Okere Falls, the Green and Blue Lakes. We slept on the shores of Lake Rerewhakaaitu, where there were only very little facilities but tasting treasures to be picked up. The kids enjoyed filling up a bowl of blackberries and Felix couldn’t resist climbing the apple tree to give us 2-3kg of still green crunchy apples.

The silence of this a conservation camp site was only an illusion as tens of birds were practising their new symphonies.

 Thursday was thermal day. The area around Rotorua had wondrous geothermal landscapes and volcanic sites to explore. The mud pools and the amazing landscape from Wai-o-tapu were just extraordinary.

What a colourful experience to discover these craters, these sulphuric lakes and on going thermal smokes …however hard for the sensitive nose as the rotten egg smell is all around. At Waikite, just few km away, we found a small campsite which had 6 thermal pools, the “coolest” being 35deg and the warmest 42deg.

After planting our tent close to the smoking river (where signs were warning you of boiling water), we soaked ourselves for few hours in the different pools. The kids made some friends with other travelling kids and were the last to get out of the main pool at 9pm …and the 1^st to be there again at 7:30am the next day.

 We headed West on Friday. Our 1^st stop was beside the picture-perfect Lake Maraetai.

We then didn’t stop at he famous Waitomo caves where you can see millions of glowing worms in caves as we wanted to discover some by ourselves in  Piripiri cave (as the Information Center lady said we could see some …if we were lucky). Apparently we weren’t lucky as we didn’t see any but we loved the walks we did that afternoon in the Pureora forest Park

We stopped at Kawhia which is a small fishing harbour but which is apparently where the 1^st Maoris arrived. The lights at the sunset over the bay at low tide offered us the best view while we were doing like the very friendly locals: eating our traditional Fish and Chips (which are considered as the best in the district : and yes, it was a delicious meal).

We started our Saturday with a visit to Ocean Beach where you could also dig your hole which fills up with hot thermal water. After 30min of unsuccessful digging we weren’t convinced by the tale until a local showed us where to find the hot water. So Greg was digging with more conviction and enjoyed his warm (sulphuric) bath, right on the beach.

With rolling green and gold hills at the backdrop, we took our time to drive the gravel roads between Kawhia and Raglan. Again, what scenery! We had quite a odd lunch as we started with the desert as it was a 2L box of ice-cream which was melting fast. We ate as much as we could before giving the last 500ml to other travellers. Raglan is known as the Surf Capital in NZ. However, we were very disappointed as there was only one guy surfing far away on the bar and the waves were pretty small. However, our swim was refreshing. We spent our last night in the tent on the shore of another peaceful lake.

 After a short visit at the local market on Sunday, we went to say goodbye to Trevor and family and joined Fiona and David for our last afternoon in Auckland. They took us for another dynamic and fun swim at Piha, another popular black-sand surf beach.

Before heading towards the airport, Fiona drove us around Waitakere where we could enjoy once again the impressive native rainforest.

We loved that land trip, far away from our day to day preoccupations and boat life. It wasn’t hard to adapt to driving and camping. The only disappointment was the fact that we didn’t see living kiwis (the bird), but this is just a good excuse to go and visit NZ again.

Comments

[Emma]

Wonderful! It looks like you had a ball and makes us even more excited about our trip there in April. Welcome back!