Wow what a day the 19th April was. A beautiful sunny morning and indeed a sunny day throughout as we headed back to the Tongario National Park. Whakapapa village is our starting point which is where the skiers head for in the winter. A quick check at the info centre tells us that the chairlifts on Mount Ruapehu are open, so it’s a 6 km drive up the mountain.

The chairlift is two separate rides that takes you up to 2,020m and the highest retail cafe in New Zealand. So, after a couple of Flat Whites and a shared cookie, we start our hike which after an hour or so takes us up to 2,300m over the rocks, streams and boulders. Fantastic views from the top of Mount Ngauruhoe, Tongario and Lake Taupo. The final stages of the climb we scrambled up with a Dutch family, which was nice.

Descent was through the clouds which came in whilst we were at the top and the temperature dropped quite considerably. But coming down was quicker than going up and after a couple more chairlifts rides, it was hot soup back in the van. A brilliant experience!

We drove for a couple of hours back to Lake Taupo so as we could drive down the east side of the island tomorrow towards Wellington.

Wednesday dawns yet another beautiful day, blue sky and sunshine as we head out for a day of driving 331 kms to Masterton. The trip takes in even more fabulous Waterfalls, this time the dual waterfalls at Waipunga.

We stop off at Napier which is a lovely Art Deco inspired town. Rebuilt after the 1931 Earthquake it looks gorgeous in the autumn sunshine. The afternoon is spent driving without any really spectacular views and we get to Masterton for 5.30pm which is just right as it gets dark by 6.30pm

Wellington is our destination for Thursday. We have a spectacular drive across the 13.7km Rimutaka Hill Road which, climbs and descends the mountain between Featherstone and Wellington. We found a campsite in Lower Hutt which was a bus ride into the city, so we were on the city pavement just after 2pm.

The buzz is immediate in the bustle of the city streets. The first thing we do is head for Mount Victoria and a challenging walk up to the summit lookout. Being experienced mountaineers we rose to the challenge and were rewarded with the amazing 360 degree view of the city and harbour.

The summit of Mount Victoria is also an ace lookout spot to watch aircraft approaching and landing / taking off from Wellington Airport.

We got the bus down the mountain and once back in city headed for Te Papa the museum of New Zealand. A fabulous exhibition telling the story of Gallipoli. Put together with the help of the Weta Workshop (of LOTR fame) in creating models of eight New Zealanders who served in the campaign and whose stories the exhibition tells.

The exceptional element of these models is that they are 2.4 times human size and the the detail is immaculate in models. A tremendous example of keeping these important stories alive.

A walk along the harbour to the parliament building, around 5pm sees everyone coming out of their offices and heading home. Dinner in a pub was excellent and was reminiscent of London pub life after a day in the office! 

Unfortunately, not enough time for a second day in city and we set off bound for New Plymouth on Friday. This is going back up the Island on the west coast. The day is total driving with a couple of coffee shops. No decent views to gaze upon, just the road.

We camp the night in Stratford but the weather has closed in with heavy cloud and rain so no sign of Mount Taranaki.

Saturday morning, still cloudy so there will be now views of Mount Taranaki on this trip, even though by the time we get to New Plymouth, the sun is shining, the cloud stays stubbornly over the mountains.

New Plymouth is a small city and has a sleepy vibe about it this autumn Saturday morning, it’s all about reading the papers over a cup of coffee. The coastal pathway is lovely as is the Pukekura Park with it’s Waterfall. A gleaming city park.

It’s then a 190km drive to our overnight stop at Waitomo. A stop mid-way at the 3 Sisters beach which was our last taste of NZ summer. The sun was out, blue sky and the temperature reaching 30 degrees in the cove. So it is lunch sitting on the camping chairs in the sunshine!

Cloud cover came in for the latter stages of the journey and by the time we get to Waitomo the rain is starting to fall. After checking into the camp site, we head straight for the world famous caves just 4km up the road.

We take the Glow Worm tour underground which is just amazing, not only from the fact that you are in cave and seeing what is under the earth but the ceilings of these caves are layered with the bright glow of the glow worms. You pass under the lights in a boat, in silence. Awesome.

The campsite is the busiest we have seen on this trip, there is at least a dozen vans in attendance. Tonight on Anzac weekend there is a big rugby union ‘Super Rugby’ match; (Wellington) Hurricanes v The Chiefs (Waitomo/New Plymouth based) so we headed over the road to the bar and watched the match. 27-28 in favour of the Chiefs at full time, this was Kiwi classic clash.

Sunday is our last day in the van (yes, we are still talking to each other) and it’s another journey taking us back to Auckland. Before we left Waitomo we headed for our last bush walk at Ruakuri which although short, takes us through natural caves in the bush. It’s a wet day but, you stay pretty dry under the canopy of the forest. 

We hit the road for a visit to Cambridge, which is a leafy town and the centre of New Zealand Cycling. A coffee stop and look around. It’s still a soggy Sunday. 

Just thirty minutes down the road and we are in the big city of Hamilton. Nowhere opens up to park the van and the place looks pretty quiet so, we drive on to our final overnight stop in Ramarama just 30 minutes short of Aukland with time to sort out the van. 

ANZAC day and we are back in Auckland after our camper van adventures. Time for a sunshine afternoon in Aukland, which is a fairly quiet place today. So sad to bid farewell to New Zealand as we were Australia. This is a beautiful country, friendly people and two islands not dissimilar to the UK just, on the other side of the world.

Next we head for a rest week in Fiji 🙂 

Pete & Jules

Thursday is another day on the road and oh my word what a day! We started off around 09.45 after dump station duties are fulfilled.

First off it’s around Auckland’s motorway system. I thought Sydney was busy traffic wise and Auckland matches that mayhem together with the same aggressive driver mentality. 

The City itself gleams in the sunshine as we head over the harbour bridge. We are soon off Highway 1 and onto Highway 2 where the traffic eases as we head onto the Pacific Coast Highway. We hit a cool coffee shop in Pipiroa called “Bugger” so, we just have to stop! 

Refuel in Thames and then we head on a 40km cliff / coastline hugging road trip on the Pacific Coast Highway. A very tight road that is littered with very steep climbs, plummeting descents and hairpin bends. This should definitely be on any list of great road journeys. 

Once in Coromandel we then head on a equally gravity defying trip to our base for the night at Whitianga, going up one mountain I pull into a passing place to let faster traffic go by. The passing place has a lay-by so, we park and jump out to look at the view at the edge of the road….. Well, breathtaking is not the word, a valley of vibrant green with a bay at the bottom, the richness of the colour is spellbinding. We look on in awe.

A few Kms down the mountain and there is another view across the fields and out to sea. This really is New Zealand, just magnificent. 

It’s  a gloriously sunny day on Friday as we head Harbourside in Whitianga for a coffee. Then it’s back onto Route 25 as we head for Hot Water Beach via a stop on the way for some groceries. 

Hot water beach produces warm water if you dig down into the sand at low tide. The water, with a temperature as hot as 64°C, filters up from two underground fissures located close to each other to the surface where the beach meets the Pacific Ocean. 

We are there at high tide so the place is quiet and a guy who has already made a hole in the sand now has a torrent of water flowing through it and he has successfully cut the beach in half. Spectacular stuff!

We drive back to Ferry Landing which is the opposite side of the bay from Whitianga for a pre-arranged pick up for a powerboat trip around the Waikato coastline. A brilliant two hours around the caves and cliffs where we stopped plus added high speed interludes.

We then drove over a few mountains to reach Waihi Beach for our overnight stop. Again, the only campervan on the site.

Next morning comes the debate as to whether to do the Hobitton or not. Reviews are not great and at $79 each that matches the powerboat trip yesterday. Heck, we are only here once so, we head off to Matamata and Hobbition.

In 1998 the Alexander farm was discovered by Sir Peter Jackson’s team and it became the home of the Hobbits. If you go to the film set with the right frame of mind to enjoy it, the guides are knowledgeable and happy, you gain many interesting facts about the films and the shoots that took place at the farm. Three months of shooting for LOTR and just 12 days for the Hobbit triology. 

The story goes that after locals saw the LOTR movie they recognised the mountains behind the scenes of the shire. So they started knocking on doors to try and find the location. After a few people had knocked on the Alexander’s farm door, they had the idea of the movie set tour. When New Line Cinema came back to film the Hobbit movies, the farm owners gave them permission to use the farm as long as they left the set behind.

So there you have it, they expect the movie set to be here for sometime to come, so if you have read the book, seen the movies and you are in NZ. Do go along, it’s great.

Final note to those same looking at the neighsayers of TripAdvisor. someone commented “there are complementary drinks at the Green Dragon, but don’t get your hopes up.” Well unless they were expecting Moët, the selection was Amber Ale, Alcoholic Ginger Beer, stout (only available here) and soft drinks! The stout went down very well in front of the fire!

Back to the van for lunch (we did the shop beforehand), and headed for Rotorua or “rottenrua” as a Kiwi told us a few days before. The smell in the town otherwise known a ‘Sulphur City’ comes from the geothermal activity in the area. We will be exploring tomorrow.

Well if you suffer from flattulence then Rotorua Is the place to live, the air certainly does have a smell as we head off to the local Kuirau Park which is our first taste of the Geothermal pools, mud bubbling and steam soaring into the air. In fact, the whole town of Rotorua is literally bubbling!

Next we drive into the harbour and visit Ohinemutu a lakeside Maori village that you can just peacefully walk around. Sunday service is underway outside at the war memorial. The weather is grey, and it’s raining but the voices singing sound wonderful.

Coffee comes next, Kiwi’s do thankfully take their coffee seriously. Then we head to the Redwoods Whakarewarewa Forest where you can walk through this magical forest, home to 150 tree species planted from 1899. The California Redwoods are the stars tho. A lovely walk.

Next it’s Kerosene Creek a natural thermal pool where people go for a dip then, we stopped off on the road to Waiotapu to stop to have a look at the fantastic geothermal mud pool bubbling away. All this means it’s time for some thermal relaxation so we head for an overnight stay at the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools and take a dip!

Monday starts pretty much the same with a thermal dip at 07.30 before we head off to the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal field that is open to the public as ‘Thermal Wonderland’ and that is exactly what this is. It’s like walking around another planet. The Tapu volcanic zone is recognised as one of the most volcanic areas of the world. The landscape, colours and smells are amazing.

Next stop is the Huka Falls and again spectacular, the force of the water and it’s beautiful blue colour are amazing. We then drive down the east side of Lake Taupo and into Tongariro National Park home of the mountain ranges used as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. Glad to said that Mordor and it’s mountains were quiet and beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.

Into our last touring week of the trip now …… Time just flies, but we are heading back to the mountains tomorrow after an overnight stop in Ohakune.

Pete & Jules 

  

9th April and here we are in the North Island and a new adventure begins. Our shortest flight of the trip saw us take just 75 mins to get from Christchurch to Auckland, roughly the same time it took us to get from the Airport to our hotel.

A great bus service door to door and our first hotel for quite a few days. Freshen up and then we are out on the streets to explore another City. First impressions are that Auckland looks a very tired City. Fabulous old buildings still standing but now with tacky storefronts in many cases.

We headed for the harbour but even here things are not really buzzing. The cloud shape hospitality type building (constructed for the Rugby World Cup) is one side of the harbour whilst the other side is a Hotel built on a wharf in the style of a cruise ship.

This does look quite cool and is for when a cruise ship arrives and the passengers disembark along enclosed gangways from ship to hotel. Can they tell the difference I wonder?

All along the main street there are people down on their luck begging, not something (on this scale)that we have seen on this trip so far. 

Auckland is ace for shopping so we partake a bit then have a CountDown (supermarket) lasagne for tea with a bottle on NZ red whilst watching the rugby on TV back in our room.

Sunday we head for the harbour and onto the ferry for a nice harbour cruise which stops at Rangitoto Island. The youngest Volcanic island around this area just 600 million years old. 

Once back at the harbour we jump on another ferry to Devenport, a seaside town with a naval museum and lots of walks and country village style restaurants and shops. No fast food outlets allowed here (just like Frinton back home). The main problem is that it is pouring with rain so it’s hard to get anywhere, we settle for lunch and after Pete visits the local cycle store to buy a new jersey, we head back to Auckland.

Another first for the trip is that, we go to the cinema. The film is called ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ and features Sam Neal. It is absolutely hilarious and has great New Zealand scenery as well.

Monday 11th dawns and it’s time to hit the road again with a campervan. This time we get a Mercedes Sprinter conversation and it drives more ‘car like’ than the ‘van like’ VW. The van is also newer, very well equipped but, also slightly smaller and being crammed with extras, very cramped. ‘Excuse me’ echoes around the van constantly 🙂

The roads in the North Island are much busier, not much chance of relaxed driving here I doubt. We get in a solid drive Monday afternoon, north, to the Bay of Islands and stay at Paihia. The Scenery takes a bit of time to get going and we are quite a way into the trip before those famous rolling green hills roll into sight (again no Hobbits to be seen!)

A decent campsite and it’s a cosy meal in the van before we try and construct the cushions together for our bed. It’s a bit of of a German jigsaw puzzle!

Tuesday dawns sunny and after a chilled breakfast we head just up the road to Waitangi, treaty Island. This is the place where the Maori nation signed their treaty, (well 42 Chiefs signed the treaty) with her majesty’s Government. History tells the story and still today the treaty is the subject of debate.

An excellent guide showed us around and gave a good introduction to Maori culture. This was followed by a presentation of dance and song which ended with the Haka, always impressive!
We then had a wander around the place at our own pace to wind up a lovely morning.

Lunch by the seashore was followed by our first North Island Bush walk from Paihia up to a lookout of the bay.

Wednesday is a grey road day as we start the journey down the island with stops at the impressive Haruru Falls and later in the day the even more impressive Whangarei Falls. This was interspersed with a visit to the Kawakawa vintage railway station where, it was not a train day, but the station cafe has excellent coffee on the go so all’s well.

Highway 1 is the main road of the day but we slipped on and off of it through the countryside and via some coastline and saw some of the towns and villages off the beaten track. We arrived in Orewa around 5.30pm. This is quite a large seaside town but, we are in off season, all the campsites are fairly quiet just the travellers on the road.

Tonight we chatted to a lady on the last night of her travels after leaving her home town of Chicago seven months ago!

We head for Coromandel tomorrow.

So the start of another working week as we leave Te Anau and head back towards Wanaka with a final destination of Lake Hawea.

We are now getting used to the camping lifestyle and the van driving style. The latter is much easier for Pete when he is driving with his Baseball cap on.

It is actually amazing how you can travel the same road, in the opposite direction and see so many different things. It’s a full days driving so first coffee stop is a tiny place called Mossburn. 
Onwards to our next stop a couple of hours later, which is the new ski town of The Remarkables. Nestled under the mountain range of the same name, there is everything there from an Airport to a Supermarket. Quite surreal indeed.
We stopped for lunch beside Lake Wanaka before the final leg of the journey to the Campsite at Lake Hawea which was a real find. 

We parked very close to the lake, which was beautiful and peaceful in the late afternoon sunshine. The temperature has started to dip so a couple of extra layers were required to sit out on the bench to admire the view but, it was well worth it.
We got talking to a couple of North Islanders who were on holiday in the South so we gained some local knowledge and tips for our own trip to the North Island next week.

An older guy turned up in the meantime, took his dingy out of the car and down to the lake (a steep incline), came back up to the car and then took down his fishing rods and he cast off out into the middle of the vast lake.

An hour later I ended up talking to his guy’s wife who had come to see where he had got to. She explained that they were both well into their Seventies and that they lived on Marlborough Sound (they get their post once a week via the mail boat that we travelled on through Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton). Small world again.

As her husband came into shore, she ran down to the water edge to help him bring the boat ashore. Let’s hope we can all be that fit and active at that age! Home cooked dinner and we spend some quality time star gazing. The sky is just a blanket of stars and solar systems.

Up with the sunrise on the lake on Tuesday morning as we get an earlier than normal start for our drive to Fox Glacier. This is another solid day’s driving but there are plenty of lookouts to view the lakes and waterfalls on the early part of the trip.
I imagined the drive to Fox Glacier to be up a mountain but, far from it, there is a lot of green agricultural land and after the town of Haast, we hit the coastline for a short time and the blue of the Tasman Sea is blinding.

Again we have glorious autumn weather; bright sunshine with a crisp chill in the air. We arrive at Fox Glacier around 3.30pm and check into the campsite. We then head into town with the idea of finding a helicopter ride up to the Glacier. We are told that the weather may close in tomorrow so, today is our window. 

We are airborne within the hour and it’s a phenomenal ride up the mountain, through the clouds, then over the top of the mountain to the glacier where we land. Stepping out onto the ice is incredible. We are told not to stray far because crevasses open up all the time in the ice.

There is time for photos, before the return trip over the National Park. 30 minutes never to be forgotten.
First walk on Wednesday is to the Fox Glacier. You drive around 5km out of town to the start point for an hour walk to where you can see the ice. As you are on the drive it tells you that the glacier was here in 1870, 1930 etc etc …scary stuff. Global warming in front of your eyes!

So a good bit of exercise and still a stunning vast expanse of a landscape. Next stop is Lake Matherson or rather some really great coffee in the Lake Matherson coffee shop before we start walk no. 2 for the day. Mount Cook and Tasman are unfortunately obscured by clouds but it’s still a beautiful walk around this dark water lake which, is so peaceful and reflective in the sunshine. 

It’s then a drive to Franz Josef up and over a few mountains, the type of alpine driving we expected the day before that we encounter today. A sleek red Austin Healey would be ideal for this drive, rather than our van ….. But there go 🙂

We arrive in Hokitika in time for sunset on a beach strewn with driftwood that gets shaped by the locals into sculptures. A creative use of time indeed and all part of New Zealand outdoors culture.

Thursday is the start of our drive back to Christchurch for our flight to Auckland early on Saturday. First we head to Hokitika town for a look around before heading out to the very blue waters at the Hokitika Gorge. 

Lunch at Kaniere Lake and a early afternoon arrival at Jackson Retreat & Holiday Park which is in the mountains just before Arthur’s Pass.  

As we are getting set up, the Trans Alpine Train goes over the rail bridge below the site. Great to see the train we had travelled on only the week before. We also had time before the evening’s downpour to tackle part of a really untouched native rainforest bush walk and saw a Weka bird and her chick.

So now at 9pm we are here in the clouds, it’s pouring with rain and windy but we are cosy in the van and waiting to see how Friday dawns.

It’s Friday and the rain has stopped and the sun is out. Outstanding camp site confirmed with the early morning powered shower! 

We set off for Christchurch at 10am and arrive around 1.30pm after a steady, challenging and spectacular drive over Arthur’s Pass and subsequent mountains. Some lookouts deemed too steep for the van but still a great drive and another view of the morning Trans Alpine train on its way to Greymouth.

We returned the van in the afternoon and spent a lovely evening with new friends Leonie, Dennis and family, many thanks for their company and hospitality. 

Saturday 9th April (one month before we land in London) we travel to Auckland where our adventures in the North Island begins.

Pete & Jules

  

So this morning it’s a whole new holiday experience starting with a camper van. This all sounded a very good idea beforehand but when the day dawns you suddenly start to realise that, the nimbleness of the car is gone and those kingside hotel beds and TVs are a thing of the past.

It takes about an hour to get on the road after our run-through of how the van works, clean water here, dirty water there, dump stations for this and that ….. First rule of the camper van ….No showers and definitely no, no. 2s!!! 

We get as far as the Supermarket where we stock up for the week grab a quick coffee and we are ready to hit the road. Glad we had an early pick-up as the car park is now full of RVs.

Lumbering I suppose is the best way to describe this 7.3 metre long, 3 metre high vehicle and it will take a few days to get used to the driving style. Automatic transmission on the Volkswagen is quite slow to get started but once cruising, the van goes well. We actually have pretty much all the mod cons and I think after a few days we will be more at ease. 

We drove for around four hours to the magnificent Lake Tekapo and the campsite where we stayed was on the lakeshore with Mount Cook as the backdrop. A home cooked meal with a couple of beers and now we are planning tomorrow 🙂 

Friday 1st of April turned out to be pretty much a wet driving day in the van. Our first stop was just around the corner and a climb up the narrow road of Mt. John to the Observatory station. The guy at the bottom of the climb taking our $5 reassured Pete that our van was fine to make it to the top! Absolutely spectacular views yet again. It must be amazing to be there for a clear night’s star show.

Beautiful lakes all day long, Pukaki Lake was atmospherically still and awesome. Snow was also on the mountaintops today.

We arrived in Wanaka mid afternoon, passing the airstrip were Ellen had done her skydive on her travels a few years ago. Rain and low cloud today so, no repeat performance from a member of the Eley family this afternoon!

A campsite again on a lake but much quieter tonight, there are very few people around to spend the weekend by the lake the week after Easter it seems.

Saturday dawns a beautiful day. The sun is shining and the cloud has lifted. The Wanaka Lake, where we were camping looks serene. The water itself was chilly as was Julie’s shower mid-way through when the site had a power cut 🙂  
We were on the road by 10.15am having undertaken our dump station duties and we are at our first stop at Wanaka Airport by 11am. Their annual Warbirds airshow was held over Easter so, we were a week late for that but we, well Pete, had a look around the museum. 

After a coffee, the next stop was at Kawarau Gorge where there was a lookout over the Roaring Meg river. There is a hydro power station there as well using the current to produce electricity.

A fabulous story was told on the information board. The crossing of the river where we were standing was known as Roaring Meg, further downstream the crossing was known as Gentle Annie.

This is because in the days of the gold rush, the miners used to carry the ladies across the stream and, you guessed it, Meg always used to scream and holler whilst Annie, was as quiet as a mouse when being carried across.

Further down the road there is a bridge across the gorge that you can walk over and either take up the Gold Rush Tour and the Jet Boat trip on the river or, just walk back over the bridge and enjoy the views. We did the latter.

Arrowtown is the next stop and a quaint town it is as well. It’s a bit like Handdorf to Adelaide. Arrowtown retains it olde world charm from it’s Main Street buildings which date back to Gold Rush time in style. Tree lined streets, with the sun shining, it is very idyllic. Again a site for a few LOTR scenes on the local river.

We refuel the van and head off towards Te Anau which is around three hours away. En-route we are looking for somewhere to stop for a late lunch and see a sign for ‘Drift Bay picnic area,. We pull in and head for the parking area.

Now we have seen some majestic sights on this holiday but the view at this spot looking out onto Lake Wakatipu is just jaw dropping. With the Remarkables mountains along one side soaring over the crystal calm opaque blue of the expansive river, you really just have to breathe the view in. No camera can replicate fully what we are seeing with our eyes.

Many times on this trip, the camera can’t capture all that you see because it’s all so vast- Drift Bay was just like that, mind blowing so still – so quiet – just a vast and soaring landscape. Unforgettable.

A long haul down and then across to Te Anau. Pete is waving at the occasional fellow truckie on the road (without response) , we arrive at the campsite, we now get into the habit of comparing vans with other travellers! Just seen a Mercedes version of our Volkswagen and had a chat with the driver comparing notes 🙂 Let’s hope for a Merc version on the North Island.

Sunday and the clocks have gone back one hour, so it’s a campervan lie in before our 9.30am pick-up for our coach/cruise trip to Milford Sound.

The journey itself was quite spectacular. First stop was Te Anau Downs, just a wild vast expanse of a place. Mirror Lakes, did what it says on the tin and reflected the mountain in the water. Lake Gunn was used as the Misty Mountains in The Fellowship of the Rings film although we did not stop there, we did see them.

Monkey Creek had magnificent mountains, surely the home of the Dwarf gold? Then it was on into the Homer Tunnel through the mountains (the orcs must be used to the noise of the traffic by now). Work started on the Homer tunnel in 1935 and it was completed in 1954.

Once through the tunnel we pass the snow covered highest peak in the Fiordland National Park, Mt. Tutuko .
Our cruise is a two hour fish & chips enhanced trip around Milford Sound and under a couple of its waterfalls. Waterfalls are the name of the game in this area, there are many.

A fabulous day and it’s back to the van in time to shower, do the washing and have a home cooked tea. 

One more week in the South Island, we now head towards The Franz Josef Glaciers.

Pete & Jules