Final thoughts

I did catch up the the 2 Mensa people on Saturday. We met at a movie theatre about 5 minutes from the motel and then walked a few hundred metres to a Vietnamese restaurant. The food was very good and I tried an Avocado shake which was an interesting and quite tasty drink. I had a couple of hours to kill in the motel before I left and was looking at the TV. They had quite a few Sky channels and I actually stumbled across a 30 minute program just covering hockey. They showed a number of the Olympic qualifying tournaments for the women. Mostly it was the goals and they made it look so easy.

The next morning I packed then drove down to Davenport for a look around. This is a harbourside suburb on a peninsular opposite the CBD so there is a great view of the city buildings and the main motorway bridge from the ferry terminal there.

I drove along the beach front seeing more of the water and came across a Maori war canoe off one of the beaches.

I then took a leisurely drove back the way I'd come in from the south, filled the car at over $2 per litre and then had fish and chips for lunch.

It was only a few km from there to the car hire depot and after checking back in I was dropped at the bus stop to the airport with a voucher for a ride. Even on that trip you drive along the water front. In fact the whole of Auckland is located on a series of beaches bays and rivers. The city and suburbs stretch from one side of the Island to the other.

I bought some Baileys at the duty free and that left me with just over $5 in NZ currency. I did meet some other hockey players and the mob from Rotorua in the airport. The plane was a bit late arriving but it seemed like we made up most of the time as it arrived in Sydney about the time expected. I watched the movie "I am Legend".

It took a while for my hockey sticks to come through and I was starting to get worried about making the connection. However you actually check in in the international terminal so that meant I was there in plenty of time. We then caught the transfer bus to the domestic terminal. The plane to Perth was again a 747 and was pretty full. I was sitting near the back in row 71. That suggests somewhere near 700 people. This time the film was "The Bucket List" There was almost time for 2 films. I did some channel flipping but in the end tried to get some sleep instead. Fortunately my bags were off early and David was waiting for my call, so I was out of the airport fairly quickly. It was still nearly 11 before I got home and well after midnight before I finally got to bed. That was 4 am NZ time so I've been a bit groggy today.

It was a great 2 weeks over all. It was fantastic to play for my country and the girls on the team and the result made it even better. New Zealand is such a picturesque place, you felt you needed to take a photo every time you crested a hill. Hopefully I will return some time and see the South Island which, hard to believe, is supposedly even more beautiful.

Cave emptor

This morning I was up about 8 and arrived at the glow worm caves but 20 to 9. It appears there are discount tickets for everything but the attraction you want to go to, or else you find the discount after you've been there (viz, sky tower) or cancel because you've left you camera behind (viz) Hell's gate or the trip gets cancelled (viz Dolphin cruise)

The tours are 40 minutes and start on the hour so there was a bit of a wait. We were the first for the day and only about 10 of us. apparently they can get 3000 per day and usually go in groups of 50.

Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside. I can understand not allowing pix of the glow worms themselves since the light might be bad for them and the average idiot tourist won't know that a flash will defeat the purpose. Time exposure probably would just give a blur. Before we got to that part we walked around the rest of the cave complex, with it's usual displays of stalactites, stalagmites and so forth. It was interesting but not significantly different from some other caves I've been in.

We then got into the boat and went through the glow worm cave and that is spectacular. It looks like stars in the roof of the cave. we actually follow the river out of the cave at its source and then walk back up to the car park while the guide takes the boat back in. We could take some shots in the cave mouth and the nature walk back.

It was just on 10 when I got back to the main road North and I was in Hamilton well before 11. In the end I didn't stop, despite thinking I might do a couple of things, so I would have been better off going the bypass route. I got to the Outskirts of Auckland about 12 and had lunch at that same Westfield that I stopped at on the way out. (opposite where we filled the buses). The trip back was the 3rd time on that same stretch of road so I didn't bother with and photos.

It was 3pm before I booked into a hotel. I wandered all over the suburbs, first looking for an internet cafe and then just for a motel. Having passed some and realising I was nearly in the city I tried to go back, took a wrong turn and got so frustrated with busy narrow and one way streets I gave up and went across the bridge to the North shore and booked in to one I saw in the AA guide.
I then contacted a couple of Mensa people to arrange to meet for dinner.

Rapid relief

At night the mud pools and geyser next door are flood lit so I took a time exposure shot before going to bed.

I left Rotorua about 10 to 10 this morning and had travelled less than 2km before the first road works. Fortunately there were only a couple and travel was speedy the rest of the way to Taupo. In fact, once I'd got onto the mostly straight and flat roads , it was easy to let the speed creep up. After a bit of travel through the hills there was a sudden change to a valley filled with thermal steam which seem to blanket a large area. (or maybe it was fog!). Later I passed through a pine forest. This time I checked out the attractions on the way into town so I wouldn't need to back track.

I saw the Aratiatia Dam, but missed the water release by a few minutes. I did however catch one of the jet boats speeding up and doing a 180 to brake. This rather spoilt the serenity as seen in the photo taken just before it arrived.

Water is released and flows through the rapids below. There is a rapids jet boat ride but the next one was at 2pm and $85. The one I saw above the damn goes the the falls and is $95. I gave that a miss as well.

I also looked at the prawn farm (boring - didn't go in but took some shots from the riverside restuarant) and the the Hakura falls. An amazing amount of water shoots down a small channel in the rocks. The colour of the churned, aerated water is quite different. It would fill an Olympic size pool in 1/2 second. It is hard to belive this is the start of the Wakato, the serene river that passes through Hamilton.

I had lunch in Taupo and then decide to drive around the lake rather than take the more direct route to the Waitamo caves. This took me clockwise around it heading south along the west side through Tauramanui, before turning East and heading towards Te Kuiti.

The lake itself is huge, many times the size of Lake Rotorua which itself was quite impressive. The drive south passed through Pine plantations then a road between the lake and the cliff. Once I headed east the road climbed the hills again and I stopped at the lookout to see the lake and surrounding area spread out before me. Surprisingly it was nearly 2 hours before the first roadworks so I made good time.

Eventually I reached the main road heading back north to Hamilton and it was about 4-30 when I came to Te Kuiti – “The shearing capital of the world”. Tauramanui was the trout fishing capital of the world. I wonder if the world knows about these 2 places? Once heading north the country side was more grazing land than forest and the sheep were again grazing on steeply sloping hillsides.

I decide to stay the night and look at the caves in the morning rather than try and see them today. I booked into a motel near the main road and then drove into the village where I found this internet café /bar. I will eat here once I finished.

Blowing off steam

I slept in this morning and woke up just before 10 – normal checkout time. I had a quick shower, packed and was on the road by about 10-30. It took less than 2 minutes to hit the first road works. This wasn’t to bad but at the end of the multi lane highway they’d close one lane and it took ages to get off. I then headed east along the coast. The plain widens here and the mountains recede in the distance. There seems to be a lot of orchards in the district, mainly kiwi fruit.

The sun was shining again, much like the last few days in Hamilton, so it was quite pleasant. I even took off my tracksuit top.

Eventually I turned south towards Rotorua and again crossed through a gorge. I had bought some more CDs and a pie at the last town before the turn off. Hint – do not buy a potato pie, take 2 bites out of it and then expect to be able to eat it while driving. Eventually I found a side road to pull over and eat it before it got cold but I had to get out of the car since it had fallen over and leaked. Still tasted ok.

It was just after 12 when I got to Rotorua. It is quite a large town, so I didn’t need to worry about finding CDs here after all.

I found my motel, which is just opposite the golf course. It was too early to check in but I picked up some maps and advice and headed back into the town centre.

The town sits in a large lake, which is almost as big an attraction as the thermal pools. The first place I visited was Kurau Park, which has a number of thermal ponds in it and is free. There is even a couple of bathing pools about the size of 4 normal baths and only a few feet deep.

From there I headed to the lake front and briefly wandered around before driving to the Government Gardens. There is a museum in an elegant former bath house – lots of carvings and so forth on the outside, The blue baths, the Polynesian spa and the bowling club. I also walked part of the lake front trail, seeing more thermal pools.

By then it was time to check in and I discovered my room looked over the Te Puia Geothermal park. The bubbling mud pool is only 50m or so from my room and the geyser a couple of hundred metres away. Since it’s a $50 entrance fee I decided to forgo the Maori concert and just take my free pictures.

I decided instead to visit Hell’s Gate, another mud pool attraction back past the airport that I passed on the way in. When I got there I realised I left my camera behind so I head back to the motel – 30km wasted. As it turned out the geyser next door was erupting, so I took some pictures and movies of that and decided to call it a day for sight seeing.

I had dinner with a group of 3 Australian couple in their 60's, which was more enjoyable than eating on my own. The restuarant did not excel. The soup and garlic bread came without garlic bread; the pork chops and glazed pear had no pears, the vegetables in a crepe basket came in a bowl and the prawns with grapefruit and avocado had neitehr grapefruit nor avocado. Fortunately my lamb shanks with a side of vegetables were as ordered and very nice.

I then decided to use my 1 hour free internet but they did not support wireles and could not give me a cable to connect via the network. Hence I'm down the street in an internet cafe again.

I also found out last night that my laptop only has a DVD reader/CD writer so I have had to buy more CDs to send the photos to the team. They will get3 cds instead of 1 DVD. I have burnt about half og them so far.

Plenty to sea

I left Dargaville about 9.30 and headed south through Brynderwyn to Wellsford. The land was a lot flatter than what I’d experienced yesterday, although to be honest I couldn’t see the last 50kms so that could have been flat as well. There were of course more hills on the way but the road didn’t go anywhere near as close to the beach. There were some spectacular views down to the river and the sea. It was again overcast and drizzling with rain from time to time.

When the countryside did get hilly it was more rolling hills rather than the jagged peaks for the north.

It took about ¾ hour to come across the first road works today and shortly after that I completed the loop rejoining the main north road that I’d travel up on Monday. I left it again at Wellsford again heading East on the Twin Coast road. This passed through Helensville to Kumeu and then headed east again. I must have taken the wrong turn as I finished up doing a loop through some farmland and decided to got back to the town and head straight to Auckland. This was through wine country, a bit of a change from the forests and farmland from earlier on. Even then I missed a turn off in the suburbs and went east to the main motorway before getting into the city.

I pulled off in Manukau to do a bit of shopping and then headed south towards Hamilton, hoping I’d get the right turn to Tauranga and not finish up back there. Eventually it came up and for about 80km the roads were mostly flat and the speed went up accordingly. At the end of the pain I drove through a gorge, which lived up to its name – it was gorgeous. The road ran between a sheer cliff on the left and a river on the right. I even pulled off a side road to see another waterfall.

Eventually I past through the hills and again saw the sea – The Bay of Plenty. I also saw the sun for the first time for a few days.

After a couple of tries I found an Internet place in a backpackers and booked ahead for a motel for the night, arriving about 30minutes later.

Tauranga is a beach town/city that was one of the unsuccessful nominations for our free day last Friday. The town has a number of deep bays and is a port. The entrance is dominated by a large mound call Mt Maunganui. It was nearly sunset when I got to it there are 2 sweeping beaches – one on the port side and the other pon the open sea where there were quite a few people surfing. That beach had a number of rocky islands in it as well. The mount itself is quite steep but that didn’t stop the sheep that were grazing on its side. I did a brief drive through the shopping/restaurant area and then headed back to the motel.

Up one side and down the other

I was up before 8 to get ready for the boat trip at 8.45. However a bit after 8 I got a phone call from reception saying the trip was cancelled due to bad weather. Fortunately, I hade put the ticket on my room bill so it was just cancelled and I didn’t have to chase a refund.

I decided that instead of staying in Paihia and heading south the next day as planned, I would check out and do a tour of the North instead. Last night one of the comments made by motel-owning friends was that only 16% of tourists to Auckland head North.

On the way up yesterday there were a lot of road works. It seemed every few km there would be a temporary speed restriction and then you’d pass a rood crew of some sort. This certainly adds to the travel time. It was similar for the first half of today’s journey although on the second half I only came across a couple of actual crews. There were still lots of speed restriction zones however, usually because a repair had left part of the road a bit rougher than normal. And once there was a temporary road for a few 100 m where the main road had literally been washed away.

It was overcast most of the time and drizzling on and off so not the best for taking photos. Probably not the best for being out in a boat either.

I decide to have a quick look at Phil’s hotel – the Swiss Chalet – before I left. The rooms were a bit bigger than where I’d stayed but there was no poll, so it would depend on the time of year as to whether this was a better deal or not.

When I left the entire street was filled with trucks re-surfacing the road. I had to wait till they moved a couple to get out of the side street to the main road.

I left about 10:30 and looked at the nearby Harura and Rainbow Falls. The latter one is much higher and there is a 5 minute walk to see it. You an look at the top and also get down to the bottom. I also stopped at a chocolate factory near Kerikeri, as recommended by the receptionist. I had one sample piece but after the amount of chocolate our room consumed during the hockey decided not to buy any. From then on I pretty much drove no stop to Kaitaia, apart from some quick photo opportunities. I headed North on the Twin Coast Discovery Highway. This took me along the east coast, across the top of the island and finally back south, down the west coast.

The east coast route was similar to the trip up from Auckland, with winding roads through the mountains that suddenly descended to the coast. Once again there were lots of road works so travel wasn’t as fast as one would have expected from the distances.

The road was literally metres from the beach at times. Typically there was a sandy stretch between 2 rocky headlands and sometimes some rocky islands in the bay. You felt you needed to take a photo and then there’d be another similar scene around the next bend. There was a series of towns, Mangonui, Coopers Beach, Cable Bay, Taipa and Aurere, along Doubtless Bay. I then swung away from the coast again towards Awanui and Kaitaia. The latter claims to be the most northern town, but I guess it depends how you define a town. Were the others on the map just villages, perhaps? I had a Pie and chips there spilling crumbs over myself and the car.

The next stop was Ahipara, an unintentional detour off the main road. However, it was worth the small extra distance since it is the southern end of the 90 mile beach.

I was then heading south again through Herekino and Broadwood to the ferry at Kohukohu. Unfortunately I missed the 3pm ferry by less than 10 minutes and lost the better part of an hour before the next one. By then I was running low on petrol and had no choice but to pay $2.13 per litre in Omapere.

With a half full tank, I went to the headlands of the Hokianga harbour where I saw a huge sand hill on the north side. From there it was through the Waupoua Forest. The sign for 24kms of winding roads was not an underestimation. It made the winding roads previously seem like gentle, sweeping curves. Most of the curves were so sharp that I rarely got above 60kph and still had to slow down for some corners. It would be a great trail for a motor bike. I did stop and look at the first big Kauri tree – Tane Mahuta – about 5pm. It was only just light enough to photograph. It was impressive though – 13.8 metres around supposedly. From there I headed south as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast till I cleared the forest half an hour later. I was glad to be out of there while there was still light left.

I had hardly seen anybody all day once I left Kaitaia. It was often 10-20 minutes before I passed the next car and even though I passed through a number of towns, nobody was outside. Usually it was only when I was stopped myself that I saw people. A lot of places I couldn’t even get a radio station.

It was another 50km to Dargaville so I put my foot down. At one stage another car came speeding up behind and looked like it was going to overtake before slowing down. Fortunately I worked out why. A flashing orange light ahead signalled a herd of cows were crossing the road. They were mostly black ones too.

It was dark by the time I arrived. I looked for an Internet café without success and in the end booked into an on site van I found in one of the accommodation guides. I then filled up the tank and had a roast dinner in a pub before heading back to the cabin for the night. This was half of a converted railway carriage – Adequate for one night but not for a longer stay. At least the bed was comfortable and the shower hot and lots of pressure.

The long and winding road

This morning I woke up with a sore back, the reslt of last nights unplanned nap. It eased off during the day but wasn’t the best way to start a day with a 4 hour drive in it.

I was ready for the pickup at 10 and got a message via reception to take a taxi and they would reimburse me. That ride cost $20, which was about the first day’s hire. Not sure how they make money if you have a short hire and they do that. The car is a Toyota Vitz. It looks a bit like an Echo but I’ve seen those around so not sure if it is a different model or just a name change. It’s 1.3l Auto and was fast enough for the trip, which doesn’t really allow you to do much over 100kph anyway.

It took me about 5 hours but I stopped at a shopping centre on the outskirts of Auckland and then for an hour in Wharangei. (The initial sound, surprisingly, is an “F”).

It was overcast most of the day and although I stopped a couple of times for photos, I was mostly shooting on the run, so focus and framing was a bit hit and miss. The journey included a lot of winding roads through quite hilly terrain. It seems as though these ranges just pop up from an otherwise flat landscape. The countryside is lush and green with hills covered with trees. Some are conifers, others are ferns and an occasional deciduous tree in its autumn colours is seen.

I wasn’t certain I’d taken the right road out of Wharangei, since it seemed to be inland but finally I saw a sign to Paihia, which is where I’m now staying, on the Bay of Islands. Even then you seem to transition from mountain road to coast road in a few hundred metres.

After settling in to my room, I wandered down to the wharf and the shops probably half a km away. While I was there I hear my name called and a couple of the 35s players were running up to me. They are here with family. I retuned to the hotel and booked 4 hour cruise for tomorrow.

I headed over to the RSL equivalent for dinner since Jen said they’d be eating there. I had a look in the restaurant are but didn’t see then so bought a drink and wandered over to the TV and started a conversation with a group there. Jen found me and said she’d been there and her son had notice ny tracksuit. I joined them for dinner and had a sea food platter for only $19. She was there with her friend, her sons, her mother and her friend’s parents so it was a reasonable group. When they headed off I rejoined the group who turned out to be motel owners on there night off - 5 guys and a woman. I had an interesting chat with them for a while before heading home. They seem to have a good life here and are having fun both with their businesses and with fishing etc on their days off.