Heading South

After leaving Cape Reinga, we turned our campervan south and set off. There isn't a huge amount of things to see as we started to head south, along the west coast road down to Auckland. There is a huge amount of farmland in this area and you can get all sorts of fruit and veg from the roadside stalls as you drive along. One of the main sights along this route is 90 Mile Beach which runs up the east coast at the tip of northland and as its name suggests, its basically a really long beach (although actually only a 67 mile beach) We drove down to the beach from the main road, and grabbed a quick look and a few photos to show that we were there. It's just like the beach at Fraser Island, although the weather was mile different as the skies were beginning to pour down on us. After getting back into the van, we were all set for a relentless day of driving and trying to get down south. There is some great scenery along this route, most notably the large Kauri forests which are so dominant in this area that it is known as the Kauri coast. The Kauri tree is a large pine-like tree that used to cover most of New Zealand; it can grow up to 60m tall and have a diameter of up to 5m. The Kauri tree used to be common throughout New Zealand, however it soon disappeared after NZ was settled as it was chopped down for timber and building as well as being cleared for farmland. We were going to drive through the Waipoua Kauri forest which is home to 3/4 of the Kauri trees remaining in New Zealand, including one believed to be about 2000 years old. However, not for the first time, we had underestimated our driving time and ended up at the forest as it was getting dark, which meant that we couldn't go into the forest. You still got a good idea of the size and scale of the trees as we crawled our way along the windy mountain road through the forest. We eventually stopped for the night in a small town called Dargaiville which is known as the Kumara (sweet potato) capital of NZ. We set off early that morning as we had gotten used to; we had learnt fairly quickly while driving around that you don't get a lot of time to do things as it gets dark so early. We had gotten into a good habit of starting early each morning and tried to be on the road by 9am at the latest so that we could squeeze in as much as we could whilst the day was still light. However as a result of the bad weather and the mountainous roads, most drives still took a long time even though the actual distance was reasonably short. We made good time that day and rolled into the outskirts of Auckland during early afternoon. We stopped at a large shopping mall and made the best purchase of our trip - a travel scrabble set. It's been getting plenty of use in the campervan to amuse ourselves at the side of the road.

After that brief stop, we were headed for The Coromandel Region. This is a large peninsula that juts out from the east coast of the north island just below Auckland and is a favourite holiday destination for kiwi's. It's generally a quiet place and there are a lot of small quaint little towns along the coast here. It is a great little drive along the coast and as there is a large mountain range running along the middle of it, you have to go pretty much all the way to the top in order to get to the other side. On the west coast were the main attractions that had drawn us to the Coromandel Region; Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. This night was one of my favourite stops while in the van. It was getting late as we were heading across the mountain and rather than push on to Whitianga, the main town in the region, we pulled in at the top of the mountain. After finding a lay by to stop in safely, I started dinner and we had a great Sunday meal of lamb chops, mashed potato and veg - who said a campervan was slumming it! We got up early the next morning and were greeted with great views of the valley below us and headed for Whitianga. The first stop we went to was Hot Water Beach near Hahei, although after going there we think it should be renamed "Just Slightly Warmer than the Sea Beach". The beach itself sits on top of a volcanic spring and there are patches of the beach just before and after low tide where you can dig a hole in the sand and it quickly fills with hot water. Although when we tried it, the hole simply filled with coldish water. It was definitely a bit warmer than the sea around us, but nothing to write home about. Having spoken to a few people it seems we were just unlucky and the temperature can vary quite a bit, but we still felt a bit cheated by it. (If anyone else has been let me know if it was hot for you). We then drove down the coast a bit further to Cathedral Cove which is a large limestone outcrop with a giant cathedral sized cave. To get there it's a fairly hard 45 minute walk which takes you along the coast and down to the beach. This was a gorgeous beach and the cathedral cove was very impressive. We were lucky that it was quite a sunny day and we relaxed for a little while before heading back. It would be fantastic during the summer to have a swim there, or a number of other little coves along the walk, however despite the sun we had, the water would be fairly chilly at this time of the year no matter how inviting it looked. We left Whitianga after lunch and drove down the west coast, heading for Mount Manganui and the Bay of Plenty.

Mount Manganui is a dormant volcano at the northern end of the Bay of Plenty. At the base of the mountain is the town of Tauranga which is a large trading port and one of the fastest growing cities in New Zealand as a result of a booming holiday home community. The Bay of Plenty was named by Capt Cook as a result of its balmy climate and long stretches of beach. It is another popular holiday destination for New Zealanders and having driven along the coast road, it also appears to be a very popular destination to retire to based on the number of old peoples homes that we saw. It's like a bungalow infested version of the Gold Coast in Oz. Our next main destination was Rotorua, just inland from the bay. Rotorua is one of the most popular tourist destinations in New Zealand as it is the site of the most thermal activity in New Zealand. This lakeside town is surrounded by remnants of volcanic activity; hot springs, mud pools and geysers. This large amount of activity has one large downfall, the huge amount of sulphur means that there is an eggy smell hanging over the city all the time. (Emma thought it was just me for a while, but eventually believed me that it was the town.)Its something that you get used to, but if you stay inside somewhere for a while, it hits you as soon as you step outside again. We had decided that we would stay at a campsite for our night in Rotorua and this became a regular pattern. I am still a bit vague as to the law about camping in New Zealand as I am sure that you can park up where you want and sleep as long as there are no signs indicating otherwise. The problems come in large touristy places such as Rotorua, where all the car parks and lay-bys ensure that they have "No Camping" signs put up. As a result in places like this we made sure we stopped in a proper camp. At an average of $25 per night, it was half the cost of hostelling and also meant that we could recharge everything, or go to the pub etc.

We had pretty much a full day in Rotorua to explore and first went to a site called Hells Gate, which as well as having a number of thermal pools, also has an onsite spa. The pools here are some of the most well known, both to the original Maori and to some of the first settlers. They all have imaginative names, and the name Hells Gates comes from the author George Bernard Shaw, who said that this is what the gates of hell must look like; although the origin of some of the other names, such as Sodom and Gomorrah aren't documented. I took a stroll around these pools and it's a very bizarre experience. They look really different to anything else and my only point of reference would be a moonscape. They are definitely other-worldly and sci-fi like as you walk along with bubbling mud pools and steam rising either side of you and the strong smell of Sulphur in the air. In some places, the ground underneath you is really warm as the water is so close to the surface. After having a walk around, we took advantage of the spa facility and took a dip in their mineral spa pool. This is a simple pool filled with the geo-thermal water straight from the ground at around 35-40 degrees and full of minerals. It was lovely to just sit there and relax for a while in the soothing waters. You can also get the full experience with facials etc using volcanic mud from the site, but we chose not to do that (although Emma did give some longing looks at the spa facilities after so long living out of our backpacks).

As well as its volcanic activity, Rotorua is also famous for the invention of the Zorb. If anyone doesn't know what a Zorb is, it's basically a giant hamster ball that you climb in and push yourself downhill. There are a few different ways of doing the Zorbing, but we decided we would initially have a go on our own, and then do one together. The Zorb is an 11ft high plastic ball with a small opening in the side that you dive through.( Or in my case, dive at; get stuck and then get pushed in by the guys running it - very undignified) They then throw a few litres of warm water in with you and you push yourself down the hill. It's a great experience, but a little strange as you go down the hill. We had opted to do the zig zag course so you get thrown around a bit more. You spend most of the time being thrown around the inside of the ball, sliding around on your back like you are stuck in a giant washing machine. Unlike some other "extreme" sports in NZ, there is no stress or fear with this, it's just a huge amount of fun and you definitely want to keep doing it. We also did the joint one which was a great laugh, Emma luckily managed to clamber out of that one without me clumsily sticking an arm or leg on the wrong direction which was a big worry at the start. There are a lot of other things to do in Rotorua, particularly if you are interested in Maori culture or geology, but as our time was quite limited, we decided we would move on after the 1 night. There was plenty more to come the next day, and we left Rotorua heading for Waitomo and some more extreme sports.

Waitomo, is a really small town that is surrounded by farmland and looks fairly unremarkable when you drive through it. However, the real action in Waitomo is underground and well out of sight. The town has a huge cave network running underground and is home to huge colonies of glow-worms. As a result, there are a large amount of companies in the area who will take you on a huge variety of tours to see the caves and glow-worms. These vary in length and complexity and start with walks that keep you dry and slowly walk you down into a large open cave with no glow worms, to long 8 hour excursions involving abseiling into caves, rock climbing and swimming through the caves deep underground. We had chosen to pick one in the middle called Hagga's Honking Holes as it seemed to give us the best of both worlds, but also because it was currently 2 for 1 winter special. This was an absolute blast for me, its real Boys Own adventure stuff. You start by getting kitted out in a wetsuit, wellies and a headlamp so that you look like a gay miner. Then once you get to the caves, you start by clambering down a ladder and then abseiling 30metres down a shaft into the cave network. There are 3 abseils in total including one that you abseil down the face of a waterfall which was quite tricky. You also get dropped by your guide into a large pool at the base of another waterfall before finally you get to a large cave full of glow-worms. These are an amazing sight, which is only slightly diminished when the reason for the glowing is explained as being basically glow in the dark poo! There is a lot of clambering around in the caves, over rocks and under tunnels as well as a large rock climb on the way out. I absolutely loved it, it was quite hard work at times and for the larger man (i.e Me) some of the crawls are a tight fit; but apart from that it's a huge amount of fun. After we finished the caving, we enjoyed a warm cup of soup in the van before hitting the road again.